An evening of awareness

Event aims to teach community about disabilities

By Jennifer Kopsch
C & G Staff Writer

ROYAL OAK — Each year, Northwood Elementary School uses a variety of hands-on activities to teach students about disabilities, and now a similar opportunity will be offered to kids and parents throughout the city.

The Royal Oak PTA Council, Wright & Filippis and the Royal Oak school district will hold a Disability Awareness Open House at 7 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Churchill Community Education Center, 707 Girard. The event will include several stations that will provide visitors with information about topics such as vision and hearing impairment, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, learning disabilities and physical disabilities.

“It promotes awareness across the board,” said PTA Council member Allison Sykes, who is coordinating the event.

According to Northwood PTA member Ann Filippis, who is associated with Wright & Filippis, past disability awareness training has had a positive impact on kids. In addition to in-school events, students have taken field trips to Wright & Filippis locations, where they’ve learned about prosthetics.

“The kids were very responsive,” said Filippis. “Their eyes just light up.”

Filippis added that the term for people with physical disabilities has morphed over the years. “Handicapped” eventually became “disabled,” and now the preferred term is “physically challenged.” At the open house, visitors will see people who are physically challenged in a new light during an exhibition basketball game at 7:45 p.m., which features the AmpuTeam Spartans taking on members of the Royal Oak school district faculty. The AmpuTeam Spartans are a team that includes Wright & Filippis amputee patients. The goal of the game is to show spectators that physical disabilities don’t necessarily stop people from being active. 

“They can still play basketball, they ski, they motor cross, they do a lot of things,” said Filippis.

According to Northwood PTA member Kathy Williams, children are sometimes frightened by people who are different, but a little bit of knowledge can go a long way.  Williams’ daughter has autism, which led her to ask the school to include the disability in Northwood’s training.

“Once my daughter was diagnosed, it kind of went through my mind that so many people don’t know what something is,” she said. “Kids are much more helpful if they know.”

Open house organizers are hoping to reach as many students as possible, and they sent notices about the event to every school in Royal Oak, including parochial schools.

“We all have disabilities, some more obvious than others,” said Superintendent Tom Moline. “I appreciate the PTA leadership in our school system bringing together individuals that have met some of life’s greatest challenges and have moved on to live happy and productive lives.  Hope and encouragement should be a direct benefit for those who attend the PTA event on Jan. 31.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jennifer Kopsch at jkopsch@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1052.