Ceramics in Traverse City

                                                                      Written by Bret K.

          The Ceramics Studio at Special Tree’s Day Treatment Services program was on the move in early November.  They received an invitation to attend a ceramics show in Traverse City to attempt to sell their goods.  The staff was extremely delighted to attend the show, and began prepping immediately.

          Every person involved in the Ceramic Studio worked hard every day to create the best pieces they could for the show.  They spent time pouring molds, cleaning the pieces, firing them, painting the pieces, firing them again, and packaging them up for the trip. And let’s not forget the pricing part of the job.  Sure it was a little stressful, but they all pulled together as a team and had the van loaded and ready to go on November 5, a day ahead of schedule.

Four clients along with two staff were able to travel to Traverse City for the weekend business trip. They drove the four hours and were able to bunk up for the night after setting up their tables and ceramic pieces.  The next morning would be the beginning their chance to show off their work to the public, and boy were they excited!

The morning of the first day of the ceramic show, the group was slightly nervous to see if the public would like and purchase their goods.  Needless to say, they had nothing to fear.  They were able to sell over $500 worth of goods throughout the two day event. 

The trip wasn’t all work and no play for the group of attendees.  They were able to spend an evening out on the town.  Starting with dinner at a restaurant and continuing through the night. They were full of fun and laughter, delighted that their hard work was paying off.

Upon returning home from the show, all attendees were anxious to share their good news with everyone at DTS.  People liked their goods and purchased over half of the supplies they took with them.  Everyone was able to enjoy themselves as well as get the job done while selling some ceramics!

All in all, this was a good trip for the group.  They were able to sell some of their ceramics, as well as having a little bit of bonding time within the group.  On top of it all, everyone enjoyed themselves!  

Floats, Football, and Food

Written by Steph H.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and with that comes older floats that are always a  hit, new floats, including one designed by local eighth grader Robin Ryce, and of course, Santa Clause. Among the parade will be clowns, horses, the "big-heads", and local marching bands. Ashanti will make an appearance in the parade along with several actors and athletes, including Olympic soccer gold medalist Alex Morgan. There will be the turkey trot as there has been for the last 30 years.

The Thanksgiving day parade in Detroit is in its 86th year of making Thanksgiving morning fun, however we all know the highlights of the day are always the food and the football! This year the Lions will be playing the Houston Texans; this will be Houston's first Thanksgiving Day football game. Thanksgiving football has also been a tradition in Detroit since 1934. Dallas is another city where thanksgiving football games are a tradition; Dallas will be playing Washington in Dallas. Growing up I remember going to the Thanksgiving day games when the Lions played at the Silverdome in Pontiac.

After all is said and done, all the football is over, and all the food is gone, we can still look around and see all we should be thankful for. Our mother, our father, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and our grandparents. We should be thankful for our health and for even waking up this morning. We should be thankful for our lives just the way they are; remember, someone always has it worse. We need to be thankful for those men and women who are sacrificing their lives to fight for our freedom.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.   

The Inner Workings...

Written by Steph H.

First day at a new "job"; writing is something I enjoy doing so one would think that it wouldn't be to hard to describe myself, yet I'm already at a wall.

December fourth of 1985 I graced my family with my stunning personality, weird, yet witty, sense of humor and sparkling blue eyes. I came into this world in only 45 minutes giving the doctors no time to give my mother an epidural or any pain medications thru her IV. Coming out as fast as I did caused one problem, but don't worry, I am not affected by the problem anymore. When one sees my baby picture that they take in the hospital I have a big head, no hair, and oh yeah, that broken collar bone from shooting out of my mother too fast. I am the middle child in my family between my older brother Jonathon and younger Benjamin.

On January 25, 2004 a drunk driver changed my life forever. A friend and I were walking home on the sidewalk area and from behind we were hit by a drunk driver who then fled the scene of the accident. My friend that I was with died instantly. I have no memory of the accident up until about Valentine's day when they told me I had to lose my leg because of infection. I remember waking up to my mom sitting next to me every day for about the first two months. After that she would come up and sit with me after work daily. Along with becoming an amputee I lost a kidney and the other one was very badly damaged. I have a T-12 level spinal cord injury, a mild TBI, was in surgery inititally for 18 hours just to get me semi-stable. The drunk driver eventually turned himself in only because the friend whose snow truck it was saw it on TV and noticed front end damage. My mother went to every day of his trial and he never looked at her or my friend's mother. At sentencing when he was given the opportunity to apologize, he just sat there with his head down. David Rumph was sentenced to 15 - 22.5 years in jail. His earliest parole date is in January of 2019.

In the more than eight years since my accident I've gone through ups and downs just like any other individual my age. I was too old to go back to high school to finish my last semester of high school in order to graduate so I took my GED and passed on the first try. From there I began Oakland Community College majoring in Biology and minoring in Italian. The hour or longer drive, depending on traffic, wasn't working out for me so I transferred to Henry Ford Community College. It may have taken longer than two years but I recently received my Associates in General Studies with honors. In January I will begin to work on my bachelors of Chemistry focusing on Pharmacy. It's a lot of schooling, but I will not give up my dream to become a doctor just because of this accident.

I've had a few relationships but my current relationship has lasted over four years. I can honestly say I was shocked when she looked at me and didn't see the wheelchair.

November 4th 2011 I got the call from the University of Michigan Hospital telling me to get there as soon as possible; they had a kidney for me!!! I was scared and ecstatic at the same time. I'm still having difficulties with it but it's working and that makes me happy.

Over the summer of 2012 I had open heart surgery to fix my mitral valve regurgitation. I kept getting pneumonia after the kidney transplant and they couldn't figure it out so they checked my heart and found it. One more surgery under my belt, one new scar to call my own. After a recent echo of the heart my cardiologist said it looks and sounds beautifully.

A week from today I am having another big surgery. I have to go in two days early and stay for at least a week after. I'm looking forward to the results but as soon as I get there I just know I'm going to be getting nervous just like I do with every procedure.

The worst thing that came from all of this is that I now watch my son grow up with my mom instead of me. I took care of Zacky until my accident. We always talk right after school and right before bed but I wish I was there so I could give him kisses and hugs all day long.

That snowy day in January changed my life and there are parts of it that I will never get back. They say that forgiving and forgetting is going to help me heal but I'm not ready to do either.