Harvest Ball a hit with Center for Enriched Living participants
Teacher, academic and humorist Leo Calvin Rosten once wrote that the purpose of life is not to be happy, but rather to matter, to be productive, to be useful and 'to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.'
The Center for Enriched Living, a Riverwoods-based facility dedicated to helping people with developmental disabilities, has been doing just that for the past 40 years.
On Oct. 27, the organization held its annual Harvest Ball. Some 200 of the center's participants, age 21 and older, came to the Halloween-themed costume party for a night of fun, food, dance and costume contests.
The event has been going on for 15 years and is one of the social events of the season for participants. "They hook up with old friends that they haven't seen in a while and just party, party, party. It's just a blast," said Juarez-Ehlers.
Center member, James Lamberts, 43, of Libertyville, came dressed as the Mike Myers' character Austin Powers. "Yea baby it's groovy baby as long as everybody all behaves," he joked. And June Schreiber Neumann Harding, 66, came to the Center from Chicago and won the award for "Cutest Costume."
The participants' disabilities range from autism, cerebral palsy to Down syndrome and others that fall under the developmental disabilities umbrella. The center's staff believes mental retardation, developmental disabilities and special needs are not deterrents to living a well-rounded life.
As such, the organizers assist people to live more independent and fulfilling lives through their programs. Operating seven days a week, the center maintains activities for youths, teens, adults and seniors that encompass after school clubs and camps, social events, alternative day programs and mini integration.
"We strive to create an atmosphere of normality," said Melissa Juarez-Ehlers, director of program services, who believes programs which teach skills from social interaction to continuing education greatly enrich the lives of people with developmental disabilities of any age.
Unlike a residential facility or a park district, the center doesn't have any geographic boundaries, a plus for the numerous participants whose home situations vary from residential facilities, to living with families and for some even living on their own which may not always allow them a lot of mobility.
As a result, the center takes pride in its satellite programs which bring Center activities to individuals who cannot always get out to them.
"If you can't come here, we will bring the program to you," said Juarez-Ehlers noting that current curriculum includes programs for students of Niles North, and partnership programs with Little City in Palatine and Clearbrook in Arlington Heights.
The programs offered are varied and created to be therapeutic as well as educational, and always fun and engaging. They have social programs with horseback riding for kids and even an integrated theater program created in partnership with the Lookingglass Theater of Chicago where kids with disabilities work side-by-side with those without disabilities to learn improv skills.
"They meet friends here, exchange phone numbers, wait for other members as they get off the busses and wonder about them if they're not here. Maybe to someone else it wouldn't seem like such a big step but for these teens it is something that has taken them years to work up to," said Mary Ellen Holt, program manager in charge of youth and teen programs for the past 20 years.
The Center is not funded by state or federal dollars but relies on fundraisers and corporate sponsors like CDW, Discover and Baxter to help defray costs and provide scholarship for those members who can't afford it.