Patients in Special Tree’s Vocational program went all in to honor Veterans as part of the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall which stopped in Hamburg, MI over the Labor Day weekend.  Patients showed their patriotism by crafting a 4 ft. x 6 ft. American flag made entirely of plastic army men which was displayed with other local memorials at the Moving Wall, a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which has traveled the U.S. for the past 25 years.

The idea for the flag came up when Steve Kozmor, the Woodshop Coordinator at Special Tree’s Industrial Operations Center (IOC) in Wayne, MI, attended a local VFW event and met a woman who suggested constructing a memorial for the Moving Wall’s visit to Hamburg.  Steve became involved with the VFW a few years ago through his friend Bob who served...

Under the Big Top
Week 3 of Discover! Summer took our students on a trip to the circus! The week started with circus-themed movement games and therapeutic activities including everything from parachute games and a ring toss to building your own stilts and circus yoga. 

Highlights for the week included learning to juggle and a visit from the Detroit Circus Show. Even though juggling was a hard task to learn, the kids had a blast – and all the hand and eye coordination involved in this therapeutic activity was great for their motor skills.  During the interactive Detroit Circus Show, the kids had a chance to help the magicians with some of their magic tricks which required a lot of focus to understand how tricks were done. 

Marvel Madness
Captain America, Iron Man,...

Although Special Tree client DeAndre just graduated from high school, he has done light assembly work, worked as a peer mentor in Special Tree’s Discover Summer program, and held community-based jobs at Hollywood Market and Buffalo Wild Wings.  How did he build up such an impressive work history by the age of 18? 

At Special Tree, younger clients like DeAndre first begin developing their employability skills through the Discover Summer Youth Work Program.  Every day throughout out the 10-week pediatric therapy program, teens ages 14 and up participate in various pre-vocational job training experiences.  “We encourage our teen clients to work during the summer,” said Tara Forster, Special Tree Vocational Counselor.  “It helps them to start building a creditable work history as well as transferable skills which puts...

Better Hearing and Speech Month is a great time to recognize Speech and Language Pathologists like Beth Brookens who make a big difference in the lives of our patients recovering from brain and spinal cord injury.  Here's what one former patient had to say about how Beth changed her life.

" I suffered a mild brain injury in an automobile accident. My vision, speech, and memory were affected. My physician recommended speech and vision therapy, I put it off as long as possible. I had done a pretty good job hiding my deficits for almost a year. Going to therapy to me was admitting I still had issues. It sounds silly now, but I had a difficult time accepting that I had a brain injury. Before my accident, I worked a professional job as a nurse manager, managed my family, maintained a home, and was very invol...