Welcome to WVDSA!

Welcome to the Willamette Valley Down Syndrome Association. Our goal is to provide support for families in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and surrounding areas, who find themselves in the delightful position of raising a child with Down syndrome. Initially, there are so many questions and concerns you may have when you become parents of a child with Down syndrome - the kind of questions that can only be answered by other parents who have “been there, done that!” – but we also hope to provide information in many other areas. If we can’t answer your questions, hopefully we can point you in the right direction to find those answers!

Dance Session at KROC center - Salem, Oregon
Eileen O'Connor will teach dance part time at the new KROC center in Salem, Oregon. She is planning to conduct a 10 week session starting in March 2010 entitled "You Are Special" for children with special needs ages 5 - 9 years of ages, primarily wanting to extend this class to those families with children with Down syndrome. The KROC offers scholarships for interested families who need financial assistance.

YOU ARE SPECIAL

A 10 week dance course for children ages 5 - 9 years of age. The class will explore movement, expression and joy of dance!

March 30th - June 1st (Tuesdays) : 4:00 - 4:45 p.m.

Price: $25.00 (10 sessions)

Eileen O'Connor
503 779 9955

Registration at the KROC Center: 1865 Bill Frey Dr. NE, Salem, OR 97301
www.salemkroc.org
503 566-KROC

**Student must be able to participate independently. If need assistance then parent or caregiver will be required to attend as well.

2010 CHALLENGER BASEBALL REGISTRATION IS HERE!
Please fill out Registration and Medical Form and mail to:

Oregon D7 LLBB Challengers
c/o Wendy Knodel
1815 20th Street NE
Salem, OR 97301

Contact Wendy at (503) 302-5349 with any questions.

Deadline to receive forms is February 28th so uniforms can be ordered.

We need volunteers! If you know of anyone that would like to coach or help out in other ways, please have them fill out the volunteer form and contact us ASAP.

Wanna be kept in the loop with current WVDSA information? 
Please send a email to WVDSA at info@wvdsa.org so we can add your information to our current email address database. 

Oregon State University's IMPACT program now offers Online Registration.  So if you haven't signed up for IMPACT yet, there is now an easy way to do it.  Visit www.hhs.oregonstate.edu/IMPACT

The Willamette ESD hosts a Friday evening get together for parents and their young children once a month in Salem, Oregon at various locations for children under 5 years old.  Please contact your EI Service coordinator to find out the exact date and time. 

America the Beautiful - There are now FREE lifetime passes available to people with disabilities to access the National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands.  Oregon has several local Federal Recreation Lands, such as the Trails at Opal Creek in the North Santiam area and the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport, and of course Crater Lake.  You need to show proof of the disability, but they can be pretty flexible as they want to issue the pass. If you have the person with a disability with you at the time, they will usually just issue a pass.  You can call ahead for specific requirements at your local BLM office found at www.blm.gov/or

Check out the ORPTI meetings scheduled for your area by looking at their website. www.orpti.org