Glen Allen Project Hosts Special Needs Mixer Party in Pocatello
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) – As one attendee said Wednesday morning, “there’s disabled people everywhere,” and in Pocatello, the Glen Allen Project is bringing together the special needs community every week. Aside from hosting weekly art classes, Wednesday’s party was filled with face painting, free food, clay making and live music.
Organizer Stephanie Carr said the event was a party for disabled adults, focused on giving them an opportunity to meet new friends. Attendees were even given a notepad to write down each other’s phone numbers and make future plans.
Attendees showed up for a variety of reasons, many of them saying they were excited to meet other people.
Wheelchair car wash at the Glen Allen Project Special Needs Mixer, August 26
“I’m just hoping to meet some new people and make some new friends and hopefully find somebody I have something in common with and share interest with,” said Stacy Johnson, the mastermind behind the event.
Sunny Sage Bybee is the co-founder of the Glen Allen Project and said the organization is thrilled to help the special needs community in any way.
“We have a really good time here at Lookout Point Park, and we hope we enrich the lives for the downtown neighborhood,” Bybee said.
Johnson has dreamt of being many things in his life, including an artist, musician and scientist. At GAP, those dreams can become a reality.
“He wanted to help the community and thinks it’s important so this mixer was his idea,” Carr said.
People could get their face painted or make a clay sculpture inside the building. Outside was free food and a wheelchair car wash. While live music played the song “Car Wash,” attendees in wheelchairs were pushed through the turf and swarmed with bubbles.
“We just put a lot of effort into making it a fun and engaging experience where people can mingle and get to know each other,” Bybee explained. “And every Friday we have a special needs art class where they can also come to meet people. We’ve done polymer clay and it’s always just something different.”
Johnson said he was eternally grateful to be a part of the project and was thrilled with today’s turn out. Families in the community brought their kids for the music, free food and face painting.
Another attendee, Richard Meisner, also known as “Bubba” said he was invited by a friend during a Cars and Coffee meet up a few weeks back.
“It sounded fun to come make new friends,” he said. “And you should come out because we rock.”
A child gets her face painted, August 26
Cassie Correl is a weekly artist at the GAP and said she came to help spread the word about the special needs community in Pocatello. She said the weekly classes are easy and fun, with beaded necklaces being her favorite kind of art.
“Today I’m coloring and doing art, I’m getting my hair glittered and face paint. We’re doing dancing and there’s just a lot of fun energetic stuff for us to do,” she said. “People can also learn information about the community that they don’t know, not everyone knows there’s disabled people in Pocatello.”
Correl said there are disabled people everywhere and that everyone should help them because they’re just people.
“We’re just normal people,” she said. “We might be a little weird, but we’re just normal people.”
To learn more about the Glen Allen Project, visit https://glenallenarts.org/
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