Thanks to a generous allocation from the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest Mental Health Grant, JEC kicked off the two-part Inclusion and Diversity series with fourth and fifth grade students. Today students heard from Mrs. Rachel Beer about the work that she does in her school to help kids all the way through young adulthood who have disabilities. She gave an overview of some well known and some more unknown disabilities Autism Spectrum, Down Syndrome, Angelman Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy. She then ran an activity to give some understanding to our students of how it may feel to have either a communication or visual disability by asking them to request a cookie with different toppings while only using certain words, gestures or while being blindfolded. She then had a chance to debrief with students to discuss some of the normal questions one may have about people with special needs and to encourage them to be curious, kind and ask questions. Thank you Rachel and thank you Dr. Dobin for organizing and facilitating! Everyone is looking forward to the visit from a Yachad representative in part two of the series in just a couple of weeks.