This past Wednesday S.P.A.R.K.S. had a meeting, but it was no ordinary gathering.  It entailed a training, as well as preparation for the upcoming S.P.A.R.K.S. events.

“This meeting was called to train people on how to be a buddy for weekend baseball games,” S.P.A.R.K.S.  President Jacqueline LaPerna said.

The speaker was Kendra Williams who is in charge of Miracle League (Sports for kids with disabilities) at the local YMCA; and in the S.P.A.R.K.S. Program that name carries a lot of respect amongst the students.

“I love her… she truly has really good advice for the kids and relates to them very well,” LaPerna said.

The training allowed for students to help kids with disabilities to play sports on the weekends.

“I think it’s really helpful… this just shows how big a program we have here, that we are able to make these connections with the YMCA,” LaPerna said.

In addition to the training, announcements and preparations were made for upcoming events such as the filming of the video of S.P.A.R.K.S. “R-Word” campaign.

“We are working with Lobo Media to create a video for our future ‘R-word’ campaign… where we ask students to take the word retarded out of their vocabulary, and we are making a video to advertise that, hopefully it will be played for the whole school,” LaPerna said.

Overall, S.P.A.R.K.S. is reaching out to other groups to help achieve their goals

“S.P.A.R.K.S. is doing pretty good,” LaPerna said, “we’ve focused this year on working other organizations and you’ll see more of that in the future.”