By Amanda Marvel
Project Forward instructor Maura Hempstead, Jerry Miller, Kylee Palovich, Dylan Rodgers, Katelyn Mahannah, and Ryan Ni. (Amanda Marvel)
Students from Project forward were getting into the holiday spirit with their pop-up holiday market. The market, which featured baked goods, handmade crafts as well as handmade body-care products, helped to raise funds for the Project forwards scholarship fund.
Project Forward is a highly respected program designed to equip students with intellectual disabilities with vocational skills, independence tools, and paths to social success. Participants receive practical training in various fields such as agriculture, facilities, hospitality, culinary arts, mass communications, childcare, healthcare, and retail operations management. The program is committed to enabling these individuals to thrive in all aspects of their daily lives.
Dylan Rogers, a student in the Project forward Retail Concentration class, said “Project forward is about giving people with different disabilities a lot of opportunities to develop different job skills and to get ready for the outside world and get ready for a job.”
About the market he said, “We’re selling holiday items and most of the items are made by our Project forward students.’ He noted that “the snacks here today are made by our culinary class which is a concentration class, and they make some of the foods that are sold at the Seashore Cafe.”
Maura Hempstead, a Project Forward Instructor, pointed out that students who could not make it to the market but who would like to support Project Forward to the Seashore Cafe. “The cafe is run by the Project Forward interns and it’s all for the Project Forward Program.”
The Cafe sells handmade photo cards as well as snacks baked by the culinary class. The Seashore Cafe can be located in the Maureen Wilkens Hall.
