15th annual Special Needs Day at Hopi

<i>Tyler Tawahongva/NHO</i><br>
A hopeful student tries her luck at the fish tank.

<i>Tyler Tawahongva/NHO</i><br> A hopeful student tries her luck at the fish tank.

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. - On Sept. 13, the Hopi Office Special Needs held it's Fifteenth annual Special Needs Day at the Hopi Veterans Memorial Center. According to representatives for the OSN it was the biggest yet.

The event is held each year to bring awareness to the community about disabilities and is a source for information on how to get services. Numerous tables are set up to provide information on services available throughout the state. In addition the event gives people with disabilities the opportunity to get out amongst the community to engage in activities by playing games for prizes and dancing to the music provided by the Desert Country band headed by Mark Tawahongva.

Participants were also treated to a magic show as well as lunch that was provided by seniors from the Hopi Reservation.

According to Carrie Whatamogie, emcee for the event and Bureau of Indian Education employee, she has been involved as a participant; however, this is her first time as an emcee. She normally oversees eight schools on the Hopi Reservation and was a special education teacher for over 20 years for pretty much all age groups up to secondary education.

The event is to bring awareness to people with disabilities and not to hesitate in getting reffered for specialized help. She would like to see more schools participate in the event and says it could be considered a school day to participate and not affect the 95 percent attendance requirements. She says different events such as Red Ribbon month also are important because they stress prevention and schools should participate in events that will help students with awareness.

Co-emcee Darold Joseph, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona, worked at Hopi High School and Second Mesa School before going back to school. He is was happy to come back home and to reconnect to the community.

He also states that the event promotes awareness but it brings people together in a healthy setting. He stressed that the event makes people aware of the severity of impairments from childhood to elderly and unfortunately sometimes are isolated.

Joseph added that everything could be considered an impairment. Something that do not have control over is a disability such as wearing glasses could be considered an impairment. He says that many times people have to live off the reservation to get services and we need create infrastructure on the reservation to provide services for the disabled.

Eva Sejayumptewa, program director for OSM, was proud that the event has been occurring for 15 years. She says the name of the event is actually Special Needs Activity Day and the purpose is to bring awareness and educate the community to integrate disabled persons in the community. The first event was held in 1995. According to Sekayumptewa, it was started by parents to get children active in the community.

The first event had 15-30 people and each year brings more and more. This years event easily topped 1,000 from observation. Sekayumptewa said she, too, would like to see more schools participate and promote awareness and sometimes students are not treated fairly. This is the first year a couple schools participated in the event.

She went on to say that the OSN helps ages 0-5 as well as employment needs and training for ages 16-64. They also advocate on behalf of students that may have IEPs to make sure the schools are adhering to the law. She says she tries to be referral source for parent's at state levels as well as community levels.

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