Lowe’s Heroes

Each year, as part of the Lowe’s Heroes program, employees from the Lowe’s home improvement chain volunteer thousands of hours of their time to help out with projects that benefit communities.

Lowe’s Heroes, from left: Ronald Gagliociello of Andover Twp.; Brandon Neuman, Long Valley; Anthony Defrancesco, Budd Lake; Sean Temple, Mount Arlington; Jordan Holman, Budd Lake; and Colin Depuy, Hackettstown.

At Matheny, we have our own Lowe’s heroes – volunteers from the Flanders, NJ, store, who have weeded our vegetable garden and constructed cedar planters. They’re also planning to do some heavier work in other garden areas at Matheny – removing overgrown bushes and pruning the trees

This past April, a group of about 20 employees from the Home Depot stores in Bridgewater, NJ, visited Matheny to create planting gardens for a Matheny School science project and to do major makeovers for the nature trail and ball field. In addition to completing all this work, the Home Depot team toured Matheny, enthusiastically embracing our mission and showing genuine concern about the well-being of Matheny’s students and patients. Plans are in the works for more projects in the fall.

From left, Sandy Josephson, Matheny director of public relations and development; Home Depot employees from the Bridgewater Promenade store, Morris Archer, Russ Bloss, John Pingitore (store manager), and Rich Aaron; Matheny trustee Larry Thornton.

Home Depot employees from the Bridgewater Town Centre store, from left, Lorin Suplee, Tyana Bell, Jeff Pemberton (store manager), John Wells and John McCall.

In appreciation of Home Depot’s efforts, Matheny staff members and a member of the Board of Trustees visited both Bridgewater stores recently and presented special plaques thanking the Home Depot employees for their “dedication and commitment to our children and adults with special needs.”

Congressman Leonard Lance, who represents New Jersey’s Seventh Congressional District, is also co-chair of the Congressional Arts Caucus. On July 20, he visited Matheny and met some of the artists in Matheny’s Arts Access Program.

Arts Access empowers individuals with disabilities to create art without boundaries. Assisted by professional artist-facilitators, participants can take part in the visual, performing, and literary arts. This past April, Arts Access received a $10,000 grant for Arts Engagement in American Communities from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant will support Full Circle 2015 Perspectives, the annual celebration of Arts Access to be held Saturday, November 7, in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center on the Matheny campus.

Arts Access artist T.J. Christian explained the art facilitation process to Congressman Lance during his visit to the studio in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center.

Congressman Lance has been a strong supporter of Arts Access and served as Honorary Chair of Full Circle 2013 Reflections, the 20^th anniversary celebration of the program. In his role as co-chair of the Congressional Arts Caucus, he presided over the Artistic Discovery Contest, a nation-wide high school arts competition, sponsored every spring by members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Eileen Murray, director of Arts Access, was one of the judges in that competition. Congressman Lance has also served as a member of the New Jersey Council on the Humanities, and, prior to his election to Congress in 2008, was a trustee of the Newark Museum and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton

Shortly after Joshua Rincon of Hillsborough, NJ, was born, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and his father Jairo recalls that, “We were told he would always need extra help.”

When Joshua arrived at The Matheny School in August 2013, it was clear to his teacher, Dawn Williams, that, “he wanted to communicate and had been frustrated by his limited ability to do so.” The key to unlocking his communication skills, according to Williams, has been, “encouraging him to use a variety of positive forms of communication including PECS (Picture Exchange Communication Systems), real pictures and objects, voice output switches and, perhaps most successful of all, using his pointer finger to make choices.

Nearly two years later, his father Jairo says Joshua, “can now let us know his needs and preferences. He has learned how to use his utensils, he is also able to play and entertain himself, and his behavior has improved.” Matheny, his father believes, is the correct environment for Joshua, because of the level of attention and interaction that is required.

Joshua works on improving his communications skills with speech-language pathologist Emily Teed, right, in collaboration with his teacher, Dawn Williams.

The teachers and therapists, he adds, are “excellent. Their level of expertise is very high. They are always bringing new ideas about Joshua’s education and his physical progress.” The Matheny School serves students with a diverse range of medically complex developmental disabilities. Through its fully integrated program of special education combined with therapeutic, social, and health services, the school is dedicated to ensuring that each child reaches the maximum potential for learning and independence.