Adar I/Adar II 5779 • March 2019
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Gliding Stars take the ice and the spotlight for Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month
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Cafe night
By Emily Gordon
JDAIM curriculum culminates with the
Stars’ annual performance March 17 at
2:30 p.m. at Sylvania Tam-O-Shanter. Students and their families have been invited to volunteer on or off the ice during the year or for just the performance, as well as to attend the show to cheer on the Stars. Gliding Stars is near and dear to the Himmels’ hearts. Their late daughter Lily had special needs and did not walk, but she loved being on the ice, Bill Himmel said. As a hockey player and hockey coach and officiator, Bill and his family are always at the ice-skating rink. Lily’s therapist recommended the family visit the Findlay chapter of Gliding Stars, as she needed special skates to fit over her braces and there was no such program in Toledo, Himmel remembered. “They fitted her in skates, put her on the ice, and I just bawled. What a great program,” he said. “She loved the speed.” In 2008, four other families from the Findlay chapter helped the Himmels bring a Gliding Stars chapter to Toledo. It is now one of seven national chapters, joining Cleveland as the second and third in Ohio. Eleven years later, there are 35 Stars ranging in age from two to 34 in the Toledo chapter, and the Himmels couldn’t be more proud of them. “A lot of kids with special needs
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Birthday Box Bonanza
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For Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, many communities host educational programs annually in February to advocate for Jewish children and adults with special needs. Jewish Toledo has offered JDAIM programs in February since 2010. Now, raising disability awareness and maximizing inclusivity is a year-round value, said Wendy Payne of Temple Shomer Emunim. This year, activities related to JDAIM have been woven into the curriculum at the religious schools since
August, with a focus on the adaptive ice-skating program Gliding Stars, Payne said. “JDAIM might be something that is observed in communities once a year, but here, we think it’s important to be inclusive all year, every day, all the time. Inclusion is something everybody can learn about and practice,” she said. “Gliding Stars is a great organization to feature to educate the kids about Jewish disability awareness.” Several volunteers and skaters in the program, its Stars, are members of the Jewish community. Several of them, as well as Bill and Terri Himmel, who brought the program to Toledo, have spoken during religious school sessions about the impact it has had on their lives. “We began the school year with Bill talking to all religious school kids and parents about the Gliding stars program. We did a follow up session later in the fall with a student about her experience as a Star with the program. She shared with her peers how incredible the program is for her,” said Kim Brody of Congregation B’nai Israel. Gliding Stars skate from mid-September to mid-March with an annual choreographed show at the end of the year. This year’s religious schools’