High Point joins event for disabled students

In what they hope will become an annual event, the program brings area students together, By Stacy Maldonado Newton — The purpose was for developmentally disabled students to meet others from neighboring schools with similar needs, in a fun, hands-on, environment. On Friday, April 23, Kittatinny Regional High School hosted the first SWAP (Sussex-Warren Activity Program) for an extraordinary group of high school students who having varying disabilities, including Down Syndrome and autism. The goal was to create new friendships in hopes that the families of each student will then help them cultivate these relationships. The day began at 9 a.m. with registration and a bagel breakfast in the cafeteria. The first activity was run by Maura Rullis, Kittatinny Speech Therapist. Called Getting to Know You, this set the tone for the day and enabled the 110 participants to meet their peers from the 10 neighboring schools in a friendly way. “It got them out of their comfort zone,” said SWAP Coordinator Patti Nugent, “and a chance to practice their social skills.” Nugent is a Kittatinny Special Education teacher and Life Skills Instructor. She said these students usually do not graduate at the traditional age of 18, but remain in school until 21 learning essential life-long skills. Besides Kittatinny, high schools from Hackettstown, Hopatcong, Newton and Sparta along with High Point, Lenape Valley, North Warren, and Warren Hills, and the Warren County Special Services School District all participated. Nugent hand-picked about 20 student ambassadors from Kittatinny to act as hosts for the day’s events. All of them have worked or are now working as a student aide in the high school’s special education classes. Each ambassador was responsible to lead their group to each activity station and stay on schedule. The participants were thrilled to use their ingenuity at the arts and craft stations. Lenape Valley Special Education teacher Joan Glusiec lead the students in pastel painting and making bookmarks, colleague Pat Howarth guided them in creating flowers from tissue paper. To get their bodies moving and grooving, Dave GaNung and Scott Van Osten, Kittatinny Special Education paraprofessionals, gave everyone interested the chance to do an obstacle course in the gym. There was also a Dance-Dance Revolution on the PS2 and Wii Bowling. Sparta Special Education teacher, Courtney Hyland, brought the well-known Speed Stackers. Kittatinny seniors Amy Stewart and Dana Cali are students of the Cooperative Industrial Education work study program under the instruction of Andy Meyers, Kittatinny Special Education/CIE teacher. The duo volunteered to make hula hoops for each participant. Each SWAP student got to decorate their own, and then use it to hula the rest of the day away. Nugent said, “This is only the beginning.” She wants this to be an annual event and hopes the other participating Warren and Sussex County schools will take their turn hosting in future years. It would also be ideal if the families help their child maintain the SWAP friendships. “This is hard for the students to do themselves once school ends,“ said Nugent, “especially when transportation is limited ... a majority don’t drive.” She recommends they meet in a “community-based setting like a bowling alley, movie theater, or miniature golf, followed by eating lunch together.”