February 2, 2010 Dates to Note Friday & Saturday, February 5 & 6 Special Olympics Winter Games - Bowling No training sessions on Friday Tuesday, February 16 Monthly Village Birthday Party at the Community Center 7pm February 26 & 27 Regional Special Olympics Basketball Tournament San Marcos You can now find the current month's calendar of events at http://www.marbridge.org/calendar/ Our faith communities Marbridge and Dell Jewish Family Services team up to enrich residents' lives  From left:  John Goodman, Lisa Quay, with Dell Jewish Family Services, Greg Bernfeld and Margie Jacobsen at a recent event at the Dell Jewish Community Center.    In November, Marbridge social worker Alicia Taylor reached out to the Dell Jewish Family Services to connect our Jewish residents to their community. To her delight, her overture was warmly received. "We have taken residents to their Thanksgiving luncheon and to the Hanukkah luncheon, and the caseworker there will begin bringing Jewish programs to the Villa this year," said Taylor.  We appreciate your financial support! Make a donation online! Marbridge depends on donations to close the gap between the services we provide and the revenues we receive. Your support helps ensure we can continue our mission to provide A Whole New Life to adults with intellectual disabilities. Marbridge goes green with recycling !   From left, Kevin Vogt, Bill Carney and Derek Spiegelhauer load recyclables into the mini-bus for transport to a processing facility. Below is instructor Kristen Boswell, who oversees the campus recycling program.   Residents enjoy participating in the program "We're saving the planet!"   Instructor Kristen Boswell initiated Marbridge's recycling efforts in June, 2007, and created a training session to support it. Now residents in two training sessions make collection runs to the Marbridge communities every Thursday and Friday. Then they load one of the Marbridge mini-buses with bags of recyclable items for a trip to the nearby recycling center once a week. In September, 2009, large new recycling containers from Balcones Resources were added beside the row of dumpsters that collect waste from all campus operations. On January 22, another recycling container was added to accommodate the overflow of cardboard and paper collected. In one month alone, the program generated nearly one ton of paper and cardboard. In addition to paper, residents in the Recycling class collect aluminum cans, glass bottles and plastic containers. "The residents are enthusiastic about recycling," says Boswell. "They enjoy the work and the trip to the recycling center." Boswell says recycling is a form of "whole game training." "It puts into play the skills taught in the Skills for Life and Job Skills classes. They work as a team and take pride in doing a good job, and they know that it's the right thing to do to keep these products out of the landfill. At the rate we're recycling, by the end of the year we will have saved 1,020 cubic feet of landfill space--about the size of one of our gazebos!"    Parents and Family Members: Join for 2010 and get connected with other Marbridge family members! The Marbridge Parents & Families Association serves as a support group for the residents and staff at Marbridge. We are involved in campus life in many different ways. The MPFA also serves as a vehicle for parents to connect with one another. We hope you will join us during our 2010 Membership Drive that is going on now! The association provides a membership directory to each member in May, and we have periodic meetings throughout the year, usually coinciding with holidays and other events that bring parents to the Marbridge campus. To download an application, go to the Documents section on the Sycamore Education Web site. For more information, contact Peter Hubbell, MPFA president.   LIFE Lines is published for family, friends, volunteers and staff members of Marbridge, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that provides training and residential care for adults with intellectual disabilities.