Life, Work Skills a Focus of Grosse Pointe Community Campus

Among the holiday goods that will be sold at are some products that have a potentially life-changing purpose behind them.

The purposeful items--T-shirt scarves, necklaces and felt-covered compresses made by students from Community Campus Program--are providing learning and experiences to local students in their late teens to early 20s living with autism or a cognitive impairment that can get in the way of moving on from high school and on to jobs and independence.

The scarves are made of donated T-shirts that the students custom design and assemble. The students spend part of their day going to school and the other part working in the community, including at the  shop in . The school, the work and special projects like the t-shirt scarves lead to many lessons.

There is the use of fine motor skills and hand eye coordination to cut and sew. There's tapping into their creative and imaginative sides by choosing the scarf design, and then translating that to a computer. There's the ultimate lesson in entrepreneurism, which comes Saturday when the students take their creations to the at Parcells Middle School.

Their table of wares, many of them made with the help of teachers, therapists and volunteers, will be in the nonprofit section of the bazaar. Several nonprofits will have tables there, and they're invited to participate at no cost. It's the students second year at the bazaar, which goes from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. 

"It's just awesome that we don't have to pay," said Kathy Dykstra, the director of the community campus. "And it's just such a valuable experience for the kids."

Dykstra and a handful of other employees and several volunteers teach the students from renovated classrooms inside the a little gray church, , on Kercheval in Grosse Pointe Park. The students, so many of them blissful, curious, friendly and eager, others less outgoing, even withdrawn and with minimal communication, go between the rented space at the church and the Full Circle resale shop and other jobs.

Lindsey Rusch, 23, helps in the office at . Another student works at . Others work at and at the .

"I work really hard. They are very busy there," she said.

For many students their main employment is at Full Circle, the resale shop on Kercheval in the Park. Proceeds from sales fund the school and the work of sorting, selling, displaying and such teaches much-needed skills for the work world.

Trombly staffers were so grateful for Lindsey they made a donation to the community school, which has been a godsend for Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods families whose children could only get an extra education by going out of the county. 

Besides teaching reading, hosting a book club, computer, math and exposing the students to work, they and their teachers also spend time doing daily living lessons such as grocery shopping.

"They love buying things on their own, wrapping it on their own. Usually their parents have to drive them.

Soon the teachers and students will take a Christmas shopping outing. They are planning it now, making gift lists, setting budgets and mapping out the stores they will shop at when they go to Macomb Mall.

"We want them to do things that adults do," Dykstra said.

Without the Grosse Pointe Public Schools Community School, these students would spend their time on buses, working with teachers and therapists farther from home. Dykstra's own daughter was among them so Dykstra said it's especially gratifying to ease the burden for the students and their parents. 

About two weeks ago Dykstra and the students held an appreciation party for their teachers from Grosse Pointe and .

To prepare they decorated a Christmas tree and built a gumdrop tree. They worked hard. They talked about Santa and what they wanted to receive and give for Christmas. 

Laura Casey, 23, talked about moving out on her own. She is one of three Community Schoolers who are living independently.

"This is my first Christmas on my own," she said, smiling big. "I've learned a lot, and I was so ready." She is living with two roommates in the Park and is a leader among her peers at the school.

Earlier in the day and for abot the last month the students had worked on the T-shirt scarves, pulling from a massive pile of hundreds of donated T's.

Lindsey, who goes by Lins, focused intently earlier on filling the bags for compresses with corn kernels, measuring carefully, before filling the plastic bags that would go into the felt. 

She also helped tie up the scarves that will be sold Saturday. They come wrapped in a ribbon and tag printed with the name of the student artist and a thank-you for the purchase.

"I really hope people like what I made," Lindsey said, showing it off. "Isn't it nice?"