TRIBE CONTINUES TO GIVE! The Tribe are nonspeaking young adults who meet weekly at Growing Kids Therapy Center and who use spelling as a form of communication and are all highly fluent in their ability to communicate. Growing Kids Therapy Center is dedicated to teaching non-speaking, minimally speaking and unreliably speaking individuals how to Spell to Communicate (S2C). The staff at GKTC is a multidisciplinary team who meet the needs of our clients with motor and sensory differences. We believe that communication and motor control leads to autonomy, independence and inclusion.
Over the recent holidays, Tribe expressed an interest in doing a philanthropic project, and they made and sold holiday cards, as well as organized a toy drive. They partnered locally with The Barbera Foundation, whose mission is to promote positive change by inspiring others to engage in the community and help those less fortunate, and became one of their top donors by donating the majority of the money raised to their Bikes for Tykes program. In addition, they also donated toys to Cornerstones in Reston, and made a cash donation to a local family who lost everything in a house fire. These are individuals who desire greatly to make a positive impact in our community, and this drive was only the beginning!
Tribe is currently partnering with the Barbera Foundation for the 10,000 Valentine’s: Independent Initiative. The goal is to deliver 10,000 Valentine’s Day cards to disabled vets, active duty military stationed overseas, children who are currently hospitalized, and homeless people living in DC.
Tribe has been working for the past two weeks to design and prepare to make six different cards with members of the community (spellers and their communication partners, community members, friends and family!), who were invited to the GKTC office this Monday between 1:30pm and 4:00pm to assist them in this endeavor. Each member of the Tribe picked a design for a Valentine and made a prototype. The room was divided into four stations, and members of the Tribe worked with our visitors to make the cards, come up with the greetings, and write them inside the cards. We had a wonderful turnout, and far exceeded our goal of making 50 cards. Visitors included parents, siblings, friends of the community, and a representative of the Herndon Town Council. At last count over 120 cards had been made. These cards have been designated to be delivered to veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Tribe, Janine, Meghann, Kelly and Elizabeth
Spreading the love 
Friends and family help out 
Tribe at work 
Finished cards to be delivered to Walter Reed
