Covenant’s Dream Center

Our Dream Centers spent the entire month of October celebrating the beginning of the holiday season-everything PUMPKIN all month long! However, our most favorite activities this past month has to be our trips to the pumpkin patch and our HUGE Halloween BASH when both centers join together for a spooky good time! Check out our costume contest winners! 🥰

We are geared up and ready to take on the rest of the upcoming holiday season! 🦃 🎄

🎶 It’s the most wonderful time of the year….🎶

ATTENTION 🚨

TONIGHT at HWY 55 in Albemarle-Growing Minds is holding a fundraiser for their after school mentoring program. YOU can assist and support this program by choosing to eat dinner there tonight! How awesome is that? THANK YOU in advance for supporting this program that is truly making a difference in Stanly County!

We have so many Halloween pictures to share of our festivities, but first-THIS deserves its own post.

Randy is a wheelchair user and is completely dependent on others for support. While at the pumpkin patch this past week, they had a corn pit that members and staff utilized for sensory play, laying down, sitting, and some throwing at each other 😂

Our amazing support staff didn’t want Randy to be left out-so two of our male staff assisted with transporting Randy out of his wheelchair and into the corn pit.

LOOK AT THAT HUGE SMILE!😄

This is why we do what we do-everyday-for all of the Randy’s.

Live without boundaries. Without walls. We can all accomplish SO much when we extend kindness, grace, and a little muscle to each other. 🫶

If you or your organization/business is looking for a way to give back…

It's that time of year again.... Donations of individually wrapped candy needed for our Halloween Festivities. Please drop off by October 25th. Thank You🎃🎃🎃😄😄😄❤❤❤

Our Albemarle Dream Center members baked banana bread, packaged it individually, and some of them delivered the bread to the fire fighters at Albemarle Fire St. 1! We recognize the importance of having them in our community, and we are always looking for ways to show small gestures of appreciation! They welcomed us with open arms! 🤗

PART TWO!
Our Matthews location has been GROWING and welcoming so many NEW FRIENDS! We have had an AWESOME month!!

🫶One of the highlights of September was our trip to Big Air Trampoline Park - Charlotte! They were gracious enough to host our group with a free private jump time! Our members (and staff!) had a blast jumping, playing games, and even riding the mechanical bull! Definitely an outing that everyone will remember!
🫶Visits to multiple museums in the Charlotte area
🫶 Trip to Quest Science center
🫶Friendship breakfast at Flying Biscuit Cafe
🫶 Mustang Museum trip
🫶 swimming
🫶 Bowling
🫶 Music therapy
🫶 Sensory projects making bath bombs and cloud dough.
🫶 YMCA dance abilities class
🫶 basketball
🫶 volunteering with Elevation Church - Matthews
🫶 library
🫶 Pickle-ball
🫶 End of summer party with staff and members! 😋
…and more! We love this life we are creating! Our Matthews center is still taking referrals! Contact us today to set up your tour! 🙂

WELLLLL HELLLLLOOOOO 🫶

My goodness, September just ran past us and next thing we knew, It’s October and we are SO behind! Although, our social media posts have stopped-our day program has NOT! We are just as active, busy, and adventurous as ever before! Here is a snapshot of our September at the Albemarle Dream Center 📸

🫶 Volunteering with Christian Ministries at the clothing closet.
🫶 Swimming
🫶 Presentation group projects
🫶 SPIRIT WEEK! Wacky Tacky Day, PJ day, Twin day, and more!
🫶 Discovery Place
🫶Learning how to ride the light rail in Charlotte
🫶Bowling
🫶YMCA exercise and weight lifting
🫶 Our own mini TALENT SHOW
🫶 Some of our members completed a reading program through Stanly County Library
🫶Sensory activities
🫶 Trip to the slot car track! (SO awesome!)
🫶 Day at the lake thanks to our awesome friend, Randy!
🫶 Art class at The Marketplace
🫶Volunteering at the local animal shelter-we are in charge of the kitten room. 🥰
🫶 Monthly friends lunch out to eat!
🫶 Josh participating in a cooking class
🫶Logan working on his novel that he’s writing
🫶 Weeklf music therapy class
🫶Researching, learning, and presenting our animal projects.
…and so much more that we don’t have room to post! We are so thankful for the members and our AMAZING DSP staff who make the Dream Centers a safe haven and a place of peace for everyone who attends! We are eternally grateful for the families of the people we support-THANK YOU for trusting us daily with your most precious cargo! We don’t take the responsibility lightly! 🥰

Stay tuned for PART TWO-MATTHEWS!

𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚕𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞. 🌱

Matthews Dream Center
August Photo dump 📸
🩷 Math skills and Writing class
💙Swimming
🩵volunteering at Elevation Church - Matthews
🩷Shopping and working on independence skills
❤️Create your own pizza 🍕
🧡Trip to Jeremiah's Italian Ice
💜Make Sensory bins
❤️ Dance class
❤️YMCA
💚Air hockey
💛Life size checkers
🩷Library
💙park days ☀️
💙Arcade
🧡Bowling
🩷Crafts
💜 Fast food restaurant to practice ordering ourselves.
💚Shopping for the center
🧡Museum
🩵Music Therapy
🧡Basketball
💜Movies
❤️Karaoke

Our Matthews center is growing and they are doing SO much!🥳 We love to see the happy faces!

Albemarle Dream Center
August Photo Dump 📸

🧡 Volunteering at the Stanly County Community Table in Norwood
💙Life Size Jenga
💚During “Under the Sea” week each group chose a sea animal of their choice-they spent the week researching the animal and working on a poster board to present to the group on Friday! 🦈
🩵Volunteering at the Stanly County Clothing Closet
💜Swimming and Water aerobics
💚Morning daily journal entries
💜 Crafts
💛Bowling
💚Library
❤️Monthly friends lunch outing at El Ranchito Restaurante
🩵 Safety drills-tornado 🌀
❤️Art classes at The Marketplace
🧡Park days ☀️
🩷Volunteering at Stanly County Animal Protective Services we are in charge of the 🐱 kitten room
🧡During “Around the World” week each group chose a location/country of their choice-they spent the week researching the place, learning all about it, and working on a poster board to present to the group on Friday! 🇫🇷
💙Basketball
💜Bowling
💛 Music therapy with Allegro Music Therapy & Education Services is always a fan favorite!

….All of this in just a couple of weeks. 🤭😵‍💫 We sure love this little piece of Heaven that we come to everyday! 🩷🩷🩷🩷

HUGE THANK YOU to Frankie’s Fun Park, Huntersville, NC for hosting some of our Dream Center friends and staff! They opened the doors for just our group, during normal closed business hours and treated us like royalty! Thank you for giving our friends an experience they will never forget! What an awesome day this was! 😎🥰

We have SO much to catch you up on, but let’s start with our 2023 2nd Annual WATER DAY! It was a BLAST! We love when our two centers can come together for a fun day of laughter, fun, and fellowship! This is everyone’s most favorite day of the year! 💦 ☀️ ☔️

REMINDER DREAM CENTER MEMBERS AND FAMILIES!!!! Tomorrow is our 2nd annual WATER DAY and we are SO excited!!! We have a huge water slide, water balloons, water games, blow up pools, grilling a huge lunch, and so much more!!!! We can’t wait to have both centers together tomorrow for a FUN FILLED day to round out our summer!!! Parents and families, feel free to stop by!☀️ 💦☀️❤️💦

PLEASE REMEMBER-Swim suites, towels, folding chair (optional), sandals/shoes that can get wet, and sunscreen! We have plenty of water and will be applying sunscreen throughout the day! 😎

WE ARE IN NEED AND YOU CAN HELP!

We are gearing up for our 2nd annual water day next week and we are in need of a few things to make the day the best it can be! Both Dream Centers are coming together for this fun filled day!

We need small blow up pools and as many hose pipes as we can get! If you are willing to donate either of these items, please let me know or you can drop off at the center 2000 west main st Albemarle. Thank you!!

PLEASE SHARE!!!!!

I won’t leaf you•
I’m rooting for you•
I just wet my plants•
Aloe you very much•
🪴 🌱 🌳 🌵🌿🍃
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😂 In all seriousness, our Albemarle center has a garden overflowing in abundance! So proud of our members and staff for seeing this project through to fruition and now everyone is reaping the benefits! 😊

Matthews Dream Center
Photo Dump 📸

Let’s catch you up! 😎

Summer lovin’ is in full speed over here!

-We enjoyed a water day with water games, a group game of kickball, and water guns (which I think might of been the fan favorite-look at those smiles! 😂)
-Trips to the splash pad
-Swimming and huge water slides!
-Bowling
-Dance class at the YMCA
-Cooking Class: Banana boat s’mores 😋
-Science Experiment: Making cloud dough
-Painting 🎨
-Movies
-Arcade Games
-Subway trip
-Skating Rink
-Sweet Frogs 🍦
-Life size Jenga Game!
-Museum Trip
-Crumble Cookies

ALBEMARLE DREAM CENTER
Photo Dump 📸

We have been LOVING our summer and the last two weeks have been a BLAST! 🤠 🏕️

Week 2 of July was our camping week.
-The group was tasked with making one big indoor campfire for the center. It was a challange, but they persevered and made a pretty awesome fire!
-Math & Spelling quizzes-We have a competitive group! 😂
-We cooked s’mores and told ghost stories around the campfire.
-Yoga/Balance class
-Swimming
-Volunteering
-Celebrated National Jello Day by “Guessing That Flavor” blind folded.
-We also went fishing in the pond behind our center and we caught so many fish 🐟

Week 3 was our Wild, Wild West Theme
-We had so much fun with this, members came in dressed up on various days, it’s always interesting to see 🤪
-Started a new volunteer site with the clothing closet
-Learned all about banjos, cowboys, the wild west, lassos, and more!
-We went swimming and participated in yoga, dancing, and trips to the park.
-Bowling
-We ended the week with a trip to Dan Nicholas Park to mine for gems and this was the highlight of our week! ⭐️

We also welcomed a new friend to the group this week! We are excited for growth & excited for all of the things to come for our program. 😄

Stay tuned for an update from our Matthews Program! 😃

This week has been FASCINATING, FRESH, and FREE!

Our Albemarle Program had a themed week titled “Home of the Brave” all week. Each morning they are greeted with a writing prompt-everyone has their own journals and they write or draw based on the daily prompt. Some of our favorite activities this week was our Graham Cracker Trivia competition in observance of National Graham Cracker Day, picking the vegetables from our OVERFLOWING garden, learning about friendship (How to be a friend, qualities we like in our friends, and have to navigate those relationships), We celebrated National Mac & Cheese Day with a DELICIOUS homemade mac and cheese prepared by one of our amazing staff, and we ended the week with Red/White/ and blue VOLCANOS! (Be on the look out for the videos of them erupting! 😅)

Our Matthews Program participated in so many fun activities-Bowling, Music therapy, Limbo, and a dance class at the YMCA, but we rounded the week off with a water day at Matthews Sportsplex with a water gun fight, game of kickball, and a variety of water games! Such a fun way to cool off on a HOT DAY!

❞𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐢𝐬, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝❞
-𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝐎𝐛𝐚𝐦𝐚

Both of our centers celebrated Independence Day with scavenger hunts, red, white, and blue tie dye t-shirts, and a Star Spangled PARTTTYYY! We sure know how to do holidays! ❤️🤍💙

The Albemarle and Matthews Dream Center will be closed (Tomorrow) July 4th in observance of the holiday. We hope the staff and families enjoy the day celebrating our country and our many freedoms. 🇺🇸

ALBEMARLE AND MATTHEWS Dream Center Families! Please see below!
💙❤️🤍💙❤️🤍💙❤️🤍💙❤️🤍

Member and Staff Highlight 💛
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The CDC is a melting pot of unique personalities, abilities, needs, and preferences. We try our best to figure out what each person needs to enhance their quality of life, feel included, and support them in whatever they are passionate about.

LOGAN IS A ROCKSTAR and we love him so much! Logan has abilities and passions that we are so excited to pour into.

⭐️ Logan will begin writing his own journal article in the CCMS newsletter every month. He has the freedom to write about ANYTHING that he wants and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with!

⭐️ Pictured below is Logan completing his history and biology work through Khan Academy.

⭐️ Logan also has been given the opportunity by the CCMS Executives to read through our Member and Family Handbook. Logan will make notes and give ideas for changes to be made (Are pictures needed, is it hard for members to understand, what would make it easier to read?) We are excited to implement Logan’s feedback.

⭐️ Logan will also be starting an internship at the local radio station where he will help make commercials.

⭐️We have been afforded an opportunity to work with a local theatre company to begin acting classes, and Logan will be front and CENTER!

None of this would be possible without the guidance and support of Logan’s DSP, Tonya-who has been the force behind all of this. Tonya and Logan have such a great relationship and we are grateful to her dedication in making his life the best it can be. 🙂

We are so proud of Effie! Effie signed up for the Adult Summer Reading Program through the Stanly County Library-Effie was the first adult to complete the challenge and received her pin today as a recognition of her completion. Great job, Effie!

Thank you, to Effie’s DSP, Hayley, for signing her up and helping her succeed! You rock!

Covenant’s Dream Center in Albemarle WALK IN INTERVIEWS tomorrow 9am to 1pm. On the spot interviews and hiring! PLEASE SHARE! 😊

The past two days, both of our centers have spent time with Wake the World and their team! Just like last year, this was a one of a kind-amazing experience. The WTW team and volunteers are incredible and we so appreciate them hosting this event! What a unique and exhilarating experience for our folks. More photos to come!

PHOTO DUMP PART TWO 📸
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Albemarle Dream Center is a PARTY all of the time!

🌺 Special thanks to Sunny Oaks Farm for inviting us to spend the afternoon and gifting lots of flowers to our center/members.
🪴 Gardening-We are successfully growing veggies right now-We have banana peppers and cantaloupes sprouting as we speak!
🏊‍♂️ Swimming
🍿 Movies to see the new Spider-man
🍕 lunch dates
🏀 Basketball
☀️BINGO
✅ Spelling tests (Go, Logan!)
🧠 Brain Teasers
🏑 Mini Golf

Our Albemarle center is located in Stanly County and we are currently accepting referrals. Message us to set up a tour!

PART ONE Photo Dump 📸
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Our Matthews center sure has been enjoying this summer sunshine ☀️

🐠 Fishing (Such a cool activity look at those smiles!)
🐍 Nature Musuem
🏔️ Hiking
🎨 Bubble Paint
🎳 Bowling
🍿 Movies to see the new Spider-man
🧩 Games/Puzzles
🌟 Sensory activities
📕 Library trips
🏀 Basketball
🏊 Swimming
🛼 Roller Skating
🕺 YMCA dance class
☀️ and LIFE SIZE LEGO GAME?! How awesome is THIS?!

Our Matthews Location is currently accepting referrals. Message us today to set up a tour! 😁

TOMORROW is the day and CCMS is excited to unveil our newest adventure! Our Supported Employment department has created a Vocational training site in Stanly County. Join us tomorrow find out details. This will be a major movement for our folks!

Both of our centers will be CLOSED on Monday in observance of Memorial Day. We hope you have a safe and happy weekend!

The Jolly jalopy Ice-cream truck came out and served a sweet treat to all of our members and staff today! Smiles all around!🍦

Kareoke Friday!

Matthews Dream Center Photo Dump 📸

They have been busy bees 🐝 and exploring all over! We are LOVING this weather!
🌟 Special thank you to Matthews Fire & EMS for the awesome tour and field trip! Our folks loved getting inside of the fire truck and trying on the gear!
🌟 Gardening
🌟 Swimming
🌟 Roller skating
🌟 Cooking class
🌟 Strawberry patch 🍓 (Thank you to Hall Family Farm)
🌟 Nature Museum
🌟 Petting Zoo
🌟 Games
🌟 Nature trail walks
🌟 Scavenger Hunts
🌟 Dance classes at the YMCA

and more!!! 😄

WELCOME BACK TO PART TWO!

Let’s continue to recap Albemarle!!

🌟 Our trip to Lazy 5 Ranch was definitely one for the BOOKS! A day everyone will remember!
🌟 Planting/decorating flowers for all of the mothers in our lives, what a special treat. 🌸

Whew! 😮‍💨 We are so behind in posting all of our FUN! We have been going a million miles a minute and LOVING it!

This photo dump will have to be TWO Parts!

Albemarle Dream Center has been learning and having a BLAST!

🌟 They attended to Stanly County Museum in honor of National Museum Day. They loved hearing about the history & touching all of the antique items.
🌟 Created their own personalized pizzas for National Pizza Day (Of course, we couldn’t skip this celebration!)
🌟 Magnet making
🌟 They worked hard on an endangered species project and then presented their projects to the group.
🌟 YOGA
🌟 Basketball
🌟 Sensory play
🌟 Worked in our garden (We have our first hot pepper growing!)

CHECK OUT PART TWO for more adventures!😁

Good Morning! Happy Monday! Our Matthews program is gearing up for an adventure this morning! It’s going to be a GREAT WEEK! ☀️

THIS is the heart of the Dream Center. We give shoutouts to our staff and love on them as much as we can, but we truly have some of the BEST DSP’s around.

Tanner and Isaiah have taken the initiative to start their own (optional) Bible study class for the members every Tuesday after lunch. We are SO proud of them!

Yesterday, everyone pitched in as they got the garden ready for plants. It was hot and dirty, and we are so thankful for staff who pour into our program to make it the best it can be!

Thank you Bethany United Methodist Church of Albemarle for having the Dream Center at your women’s meeting tonight. We enjoyed sharing with you everything that we do. Thank you so much for the generous donations to our center and your willingness to become a partner with us. The world needs more of you guys in it! Thank you!

THANK YOU! ❤️

We posted on social media that we had a need of someone with a tiller to help us with tilling a garden. Less than 24hrs later, Terry Wilkinson responded to the need and we now have a place for a garden! Terry volunteered several hours of his time and his equipment to make this happen for our folks and we are beyond thankful for his generosity.

Also, a HUGE THANK YOU to West Stanly ag/FFA for the donation of plants, vegetables, and flowers! We SO appreciate you!

Let’s get GROWING 🪴

The CDC is excited to have a Recreational Therapist live in person at both of our centers today for a very special Expressive Arts Therapy class! Feel free to join us in person and watch the class in action-as well as a Q & A with our Rec. Therapist!

We will also be available on Zoom! 10am at our Albemarle location and 1:30p at Matthews! See you soon!

Albemarle 10am: Join Zoom Meeting�https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88085553520?pwd=Q0tWbkhoZi9Jdi9EQThEQzFKcDRDQT09 (https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fus05web.zoom.us%2Fj%2F88085553520%3Fpwd%3DQ0tWbkhoZi9Jdi9EQThEQzFKcDRDQT09&sa=D&ust=1683716340000000&usg=AOvVaw2WvXjqGTyk-Z18xFN_RxGH)
Meeting ID: 880 8
555 3520�Passcode: hK2SZC

Matthews 1:30pm: Join Zoom Meeting�
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/81208081859?pwd=cFp3Sk9ZY0V0dTdmYVhPOW0xQm45QT09 (https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fus05web.zoom.us%2Fj%2F81208081859%3Fpwd%3DcFp3Sk9ZY0V0dTdmYVhPOW0xQm45QT09&sa=D&ust=1683716400000000&usg=AOvVaw2wWPKVdDqmYOrk2JRa746u)
Meeting ID: 812 0808 1859�Passcode: zCWff2

Please help me wish this Wonder Woman-Noreen Turk a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Noreen is the reason our Matthews Day program is SO successful! She is energetic, passionate, and eager to create a safe and fun place for our individuals. Noreen-We love you and can’t imagine the Dream Center without you! Thank you for pouring all of yourself into our folks and into the program every single day. You deserve to have the best day!