GRADS Meeting Minutes
GRADS Meeting June 8, 2021
Middlebrook Community Room 6:30 p.m.
Seven people attended the Grant Roberts Area Disability Supports meeting. Attention: Our meeting minutes, events, and much more will be on the website, www.gradisabilitysupports.org.
ADA/ Americans with Disabilities Act Celebration
The ADA celebration will be at the picnic shelter (by the bathrooms) at Farley Park on Monday, July 26, 2021. Individually wrapped sandwiches from Subway, chips, Little Debbie snacks, and bottled water will be served starting at 6:00 p.m. Charlotte Athey will purchase the food, a case of water, and hand sanitizer and bring ice in a cooler. Rachael Johnson will also bring water.
Advertising will include ads in Tidbits, The Valley Shopper, The Grant County Review and possibly the Sisseton Courier. Rachael will submit ads prior to July 16. Laura Maag will post the event on the weekly LifeQuest calendar and Cheryl Pocklington will put it on the website. Sean Athey and Cheryl will make a poster to be displayed at Runnings, the library, the grocery stores, the banks, the mall, Hardee’s, Casey’s, Pizza Hut, Triple Dip Lodge, Unity Square, and Middlebrook Community Room. Rachael will place some posters in Sisseton. Katrina Koeppe will send out letters and make phone calls.
Char Athey and Laura Maag will bring some outdoor games: washer toss, ladder ball, bean bags, and lawn dice. Laura will do a fish craft. She will get the supplies for it. We will need to bring some scissors. Other ideas are to have sidewalk chalk for hop scotch and have a spoon relay.
MaryLou Bullert has items for door prizes. Rachael Johnson has the guestbook.
A short program will follow the meal before the games begin. Katrina Koeppe will give a short presentation on ADA. Janet Guest will briefly share about Independent Living Choices. Char Athey will speak about GRADS. If other agency representatives are present, they will be introduced and can tell about their programs.
NDEAM Event
Rachael Johnson gave an update on the National Disability Employment Awareness Month dinner event in Sisseton. It will be on Thursday, October 7, 2021 at the Family Life Center, 404 West Hickory Street with a box dinner served at 6:00 p.m. The guest speaker, Marcelle Ciampi M Ed., will speak at approx. 6:45. A recognition of local employers/employees will end the evening.
Projects
Laura Maag will submit pictures of LifeQuest activities to be used on the website quarterly.
Making blankets will be a fall project.
Website
There was a question on blog vs. email communication. There was also a concern about accessing calendar information. Cheryl Pocklington addressed those issues.
Next Meeting
The next GRADS meeting will be on September 14, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. at the Middlebrook Community Room, 902 Milbank Aveuue, Milbank.
Respectfully submitted,
Rachael Johnson, Secretary