Adam Toobin with Irene Shinn, Dalia Palchik, Walter Alcorn, John Foust and Karen Keys-Gammarra
SPARC, a non-profit that provides day programs in Northern Virginia for adults with disabilities, hosted its 3rd Annual Pancake Breakfast on June 15 at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Vienna with a silent auction, talent show, games, and food.
During the event, Fairfax County Supervisor Dalia Palchik was bestowed with SPARC’s Hero Award — including a superhero cape — for her significant and ongoing support of SPARC and the people it serves. In addition, Supervisor John Foust received a distinguished service award for his many years of service to Fairfax County. Several SPARC participants were also recognized for their advocacy efforts in support of their peers.
Nearly 200 people attended the family-friendly event that raised funds to support SPARC’s cost-effective, unique program serving young adults who have aged out of the special education support provided by the K-12 system and are not eligible for other community-based programs that serve individuals with severe disabilities. SPARC hosts centers that operate five days a week at various locations in Fairfax and Arlington with staff-led programming based on a curriculum rooted in therapeutic recreation principles that consist of continued education/leisure learning, skill building, exercise, excursions, cooking, music, art, lectures, discussion groups, and more.
SPARC’s clients require support with daily living activities and without SPARC they are often neglected and forgotten. SPARC’s annual cost per participant is $9,000. If the SPARC participant instead attended a Medicaid provider, the taxpayer cost would average $39,000 per year. The June 15 fundraiser helped defray the costs of running these centers and raised awareness about SPARC’s services.
Event sponsors included Exterior Medics, The Washington Group, SNELL, JDM Cleaners, Dave & JoAnne Adams Realty, Jim & Ellen Dyke, SpeedPro Northern Virginia, McCabe’s Printing, Silver Beacon Marketing, Giant Foods, The Goldbranson Family, Casey Margenau Fine Homes, The Alexander Family, NOVEC, Artisan Plumbing, Aglow Dental, ARC Northern Virginia, Ed and Molly Herbst, Sugar Magnolia Trust, Inclusion Consultants, John Foust, Jane Karpik, and Law Office of Michael Toobin.