On June 28th, Cole's school had their "Celebration Day" where we came together as a community to celebrate all that had happened this year at CAOS (Carle Auditory Oral School) :) We've grown to love this community of families and staff and though we know God has good plans for us as we move, it was hard to say goodbye to so many amazing people who have walked with us through this journey for the past 3 years.
Dr. Novak :)
The doctor who implanted Cole with the miraculous technology that allows him to hear today! He is also the one who had the vision for ECHO and CAOS in the first place and was instrumental in getting them under one roof! So thankful for his role in our life!
Many of Cole's teachers and therapists over the past 3 years...oh, how we love them. I am so glad we were able to host a "Thank-you luncheon" at our house for them before we left. How amazing it was to have them all under one roof as we ate, saw pictures and watched videos of how far Cole had come under their watch these past 3 years. Such a precious team.
And friends Cole has come to know and love like his buddy Issac :) We were so glad to be able and spend one more evening with his family before we left, eating ice cream and talking about how thankful we are for their friendship this past year!
It's hard to put into words what our experience at this place with this team of teachers, therapists and families has meant to us. Since I was the PTO president this year, I had the opportunity to share with those gathered during celebration day. I'm including the thoughts I shared that day, since it sums it all up well. To our CAOS family...we're sad to say goodbye already, but since you've impacted our son in such a life changing way, you will always have a special place in our hearts! God has used you in such GOOD ways!!! We love you and thank you for the bottom of our hearts.
Here's my speech from Celebration Day...
(minus some names, just in case they'd rather not be mentioned!)
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PTO End-of-Year Report
We’ve just completed our 2nd year as a PTO and it really was an incredible year!
This year, the Parent/Teacher Organization had the joy of sponsoring…
· 2 Family Gatherings on our CAOS playground, the Pumpkin Party in the Fall and the Spring Fling held just a few weeks ago. Over 20 families attended this year! We host these gatherings to give families a chance to connect with one another outside of the school day. If you peeked in on one of these gatherings this year, you may have seen us wearing costumes, playing games, running relays, wrapping parents up in toilet paper (it was a game), planting flowers, or making a mural. Not only have they been fun, but as a parent of a child with hearing loss, I know it’s been a blessing for me to have a place to connect with other families who are walking a similar journey. I’ve also loved having a place to meet the hearing peers my son comes home talking so much about, and connecting their families as well! The family gatherings really have brought our CAOS community closer together this year! Thank you to all who have attended.
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· 2 Staff Appreciation Lunches where we hope our staff members at CAOS and ECHO felt as loved and appreciated as they truly are by those they serve. In almost every conversation I am involved in with another family here at CAOS, the topic of how grateful we are to have such an incredible staff working with our kids almost certainly comes up. I cannot emphasize it enough. Our children love going to school because they know that their teachers, assistant teachers, speech therapists, Myra and Danielle truly care about them. They do not see each of our children as just another student…At CAOS, our children are seen as an individuals, with unique needs that the staff does everything they can to care for well. We couldn’t be more thankful for them!
· We also held 2 Fundraisers this year, raising $1,075. Some of those funds have already gone toward purchasing Storytelling kits, books and Lakeshore Learning Backpacks to hold the storybook and manipulatives that accompany each story. These Storytelling Kits help Classic stories such “Corduroy” and “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly” come alive for our children as they recreate them in their classrooms.
· We also held a 1 fundraiser this past winter that was specifically intented to raise the funds needed for musical instruments for our children to use on a weekly basis! Through the generous donations and incredible efforts of so many of our own CAOS families as well as Itoa Sigma Chapter, National Student Speech language Hearing Association and Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity, we have raised $1500 in order to provide instruments for our children! Some of those instruments include rhythm kits, resonator bells, xylophones and boomwhackers which Miss Kari’s class will use later this morning! I’d like to specifically thank the W*** family for their efforts in contacting various music organizations sharing with them about our school and our need which prompted them to give.
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Now, I’d like to pass the baton to our new PTO Board! It is with great confidence that I hand our PTO over to such an incredibly passionate group of parents who enthusiastically volunteered to serve the CAOS community as your Board next year.
And I close on a personal note. In 8 days our family will be moving from Illinois back to our home state of California where my husband was recently hired to be on the music faculty at Cal Poly Pomona University. In the 3 years we’ve lived here, my son has been diagnosed with profound hearing loss by compassionate audiologists, received bilateral cochlear implants through the skilled hands of Dr, Novak, and received almost 400 hours of individual therapy with incredibly passionate and patient Speech Therapists all under the guiding hand of Danielle. This has all taken place here at ECHO and CAOS. Because of the vision of Dr. Novak, and the passionate commitment of everyone who has worked with my son and our family, we can have the most awesome conversations with our boy. To see his face light up when he has something to say and to know he now has the tools to convey his thoughts in words, is priceless. From this mother’s heart, please hear me when I say that there aren’t words I can use that would adequately thank all who we’ve grown to know, love and appreciate here at ECHO and CAOS. You’ve given my son the chance to talk with his brother and sisters…the chance to grab the phone and say hi to Gramma and Grampa in another state...the chance to run up to another kid on the playground and say, “Wanna play with me?”…You’ve given him the chance to be a part of a community that at one time, many thought was impossible. We may be driving out of Illinois next week, but what we take with us will connect us to ECHO and CAOS forever. I think I speak for every parent of a child with hearing loss that has ever passed through the doors of your building, old or new…Thank, from the bottom of our hearts, for helping our kids learn to listen and speak and for opening the doors to their hearing peers too…many of whom will certainly be lifelong friends.
