In our last blog post we shared thoughts on how it can be difficult to be grateful and how gratitude can emerge from difficulties. Today, on Thanksgiving Day, we offer a tangible example.
Each year Special Care, Inc., a school in Oklahoma City that “serves children, with and without special needs, through year-round, high-quality early childhood education, specialized care and on-site therapeutic services,” adapts a picture book into a play to be performed by its students. Special Care’s mission is “to nurture all children with and without special needs in safe, inclusive and supportive environments through education, therapeutic intervention and community acceptance."
Penny Candy Books has worked with Special Care in the past. In April of 2019 Molly Felder called in from Alabama via Skype to discuss Henry the Boy with the student population. They appreciated hearing from an author with cerebal palsy about her book about a boy who walks with crutches. But we were stunned and excited when we heard that Special Care planned to adapt one of our picture books—Thank You, Crow by Michael Minkovitz and Jose D. Medina—for their summer 2019 play.
I personally have seen the wonders that Special Care is capable of. My nephew was a student there for years and has greatly benefited from the love, care, and wisdom he’s received from the teachers, students, and administrators. Here’s but one example. Several years ago when Chock, who is mostly non-verbal, was learning sign language, his teacher came over to my parents’ house to give all of us lessons so that we could communicate more effectively with him. Chock has struggled with being unable to make himself perfectly understood, so it was a big deal to him that we were now trying to speak his language. It meant a lot to my sister, too. Being a parent of a child with a disability, she has also struggled to feel understood about big and little things. Communication is tricky; how you say something is of vital importance. She doesn’t have a “disabled son”; she has a “son with a disability.” Chock is a person first and foremost.
Director Matt Barger and set designer Troy Scott worked closely with the students at Special Care to create a magical interpretation of Thank You, Crow. We hired The Visual Brain to document this special occasion.
The following video shows the wonderful impact this book and the experience of adapting it for and performing it on the stage had on the student-actors at Special Care, who range in age from 5 to 18 years. We are so grateful to Matt and Troy for their loving, inspiring, and important take of this beautiful picture book about the importance of kindness, gratitude, friendship, imagination, and play. We are also grateful to (and deeply impressed by) the actors at Special Care who brought Sebastian and Crow to life. We are grateful to Clark and Hillary Underwood at The Visual Brain for their thoughtful documentary. We are grateful to Xavier Menosky for gracing our lives in his too-brief time with us. And of course we are grateful to Special Care for providing such quality educational experiences for ALL members of our community.
—Chad