A school, like any other (almost)
In so many ways BTLC (Behaviour Therapy and Learning Centre) is just like any other preschool. The kids arrive at the start of their day and they take off their boots and coats and hang them up. They say hi to each other and to the staff and they go over to sit on the carpet to get ready for the program to start. They sing songs, and play games, and they do a lot of work to begin their journey towards learning to read and write and to fit into society.
It sounds a lot like the preschool program that my daughter Melanie went to. Or the daycare that my son Andrew went to. Or even the kindergarten class that they both attended at our local public school. But the students at BTLC have a much more personalized learning program than students at most schools get and that takes a lot of resources. The school does receive public funding, but only just enough to get by. They need our help to raise the extra funds that they really need to make their school program shine.
Oddly enough, that is not so different from our public schools either. We do a lot of fundraising at our local public school as well. But one major difference is that BTLC has a much smaller school population to draw from, and it is much harder for them to collect donations and to draw volunteer time from the families at the school, so they need our help even more than many other Calgary schools do…
Support the BTLC Pledge-a-Thon
Behaviour Therapy Learning Centre (BTLC) dedicates itself to providing exceptional education for preschool and kindergarten students with autism and other developmental disabilities using the principals of ABA. We provide the intensity, individualization, and a focus on functional skills needed for our students to achieve the greatest degree of independence possible and develop the capacity to participate in inclusive environments.
The staff, students, and volunteers at BTLC are on a mission to raise $32,000 with this year’s Pledge-A-Thon. The money will be used towards the instructional support and services, programming materials, and administration needed for the students to achieve their personalized goals.
The support they have already received is nothing short of amazing and they have already raised more than $23,000. But there are only a couple of weeks left in the campaign and they are still a wee bit short of their goal. Please consider pitching in to help them reach the $32,000 target!
Behind the Scenes Images
I recently spent two days at the school to create images of the students and staff for use on the website and any other marketing materials they might need for the pledge-a-thon. In a previous post I showed off some of the headshots that I created for the students for the pledge-a-thon site, but I also took the time to observe the children as they went about their day to day business and I created a whole series of behind the scenes images that show how they interact with each other and with the staff.
Here are a few more of those images that capture the day to day activities of the school:
