Message From The Superintendent - July 2022

Greetings! 

We hope everyone is doing well! Here are the updates.   

We had just two people test positive for the virus in June, and both are doing well.   

We continue to partner with Franklin Township to restore Brady Lake Park. We now have the Softball field ready for the season, which starts in July. Our 1st home game will be on July 28th at 5:30. Please stop by and watch the game! Thank you, Islerscaping, for doing such a fantastic renovation of Brady Lake Park! 

 We are thrilled to announce that the two athletes, Aaron Dallner (Powerlifting) and Brendan Casey (Swimming), won medals at the Special Olympics USA Games in Orlando, Florida. We are proud of Aaron, Brendan, and Colleen Brown, the Special Olympics coordinator, and swim coach! Aaron won a bronze medal, and Brendan brought home the gold! We also had numerous athletes participate in the Special Olympics state tournament at the end of June. We are proud of the athletes who competed and won multiple medals in those events. Go Portage!  

Portage DD’s summer camp with Akron Rotary camp running the program has hit the halfway point. The camp is off for the 4th of July week and has three more weeks to go. Thank you to the Akron Rotary camp and its staff!  

We are working on our Strategic Plan for Portage DD for 2023-2025. We are working with the Impact Group to ensure our goals and objectives align with our stakeholders. They will also audit our communication and make sure that we are spreading the message about the great things that the people we serve, providers, and Portage DD staff are doing to assist people with better lives. We strive to communicate effectively, and this will ensure we are doing it the right way.  

We are excited that the youth respite program officially starts on July 1st! Creating and developing the youth respite has been a long process with some bumps in the road, but we are grateful to partner with Buckeye Residential Services to make this happen. Thank you, Buckeye and the Portage DD SSA department, for making this happen! The families and the kids that this will help will soon see the benefit that this will have, giving the kids some respite as well as the families.   

We wanted to thank Family and Community Services for being such a great partner. They run our social youth recreation program for kids 12 to 17 and our adult recreation program, and they are the service Coordinators for the Early Intervention program that works side by side with us to assist kids from 0 to 36 months to reach their goals. They also recently gave a generous donation to support us hiring some new people in our Early Intervention program. Thank you, Family and Community Services, for being such a great partner! Thank you also to our excellent Early Intervention team!  

We also wanted to continue to thank the providers, families, Portage DD staff, and community members who help make lives better for the people we serve. Thank you!  

Thank you again for your continued support. We are incredibly grateful for all the families, providers, staff, community, and people we serve! Portage DD will continue to strive to meet and exceed your expectations.  

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU.

Sincerely,

John Vennetti