Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month 2024

Each year in the month of March we celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month!


For 2024, we have been honored to host our annual DD Awareness Month Luncheon where we had about 175 guests join us as we took a journey through life and shared different ways our program has impacted peoples lives from birth through the rest of their lifetime. The presenters that shared their incredible stories were Ashley Rogers, Cody Croy, Lacey Richreek and Todd Gatewood. We were also honored to give out awards to seven different deserving people/groups.

We would like to thank the elementary school students of Coshocton County for helping us celebrate.  There were one thousand and twenty-two students who participated in our annual coloring (K-2nd grades) and essay (3rd-6th grades) contest with seventy-two different classrooms participating county-wide, representing all of the public elementary schools as well as two private elementary schools in Coshocton County.

We are proud to announce the winners of this year’s coloring contest (K-2nd grades): Alivia Guilliams (Sacred Heart), Avery Simmons (Coshocton City), Paislee Morris (Coshocton City), Harper Seibert (Coshocton Christian), Adalynn Gerthing (Ridgewood), Rayanne Bradford (Ridgewood), Harper Smith (Riverview), Kobie McKee (Riverview).  The winners of this year’s essay contest (3rd-6th grades): Esme Dawson (Riverview), Bo Olinger (Riverview), Auybree Hittle (Coshocton City), Warren Hartmeyer (Coshocton City), Mason Addy (Ridgewood), Elijah Smoulder (Ridgewood), Ivy Moore (Sacred Heart).  Also congratulations to Katina Wilson from Riverview Elementary for winning the teacher classroom prize this year.

We’ll share the group photo in April!

During the month of March, we were also able to host our second annual Celebrity Basketball game and our annual Track and Field Days for adults and students in our County. Thank you to all the volunteers that helped make those events so successful!

The final fun event we hosted was a field trip where we invited all third graders in our County to join us at the Community Room for Cody Clark Magic! Cody is an Autistic Magician who shares how his disability affects his life as well as helping his audience embrace their differences! “Your Differences Make You Magical!”

Brittany Coon