UIS graduate students raise funds to help veterans

Graduate students at the University of Illinois Springfield are fulfilling their semester assignment of engaging with the community in part by organizing a fundraising campaign to help veterans.

Students in the Social Justice and Advocacy class in the Human Development Counseling graduate program at UIS were given an assignment this semester to engage in the community.

One group of students in the class is raising money to donate to Joe Blankenship of Springfield, who is a certified dog trainer who trains service dogs for veterans for free.

 “Students within the class, I leave it very open for them, for the most part, to identify an issue that they’re interested in and to create and carry through an advocacy project,” said Holly Thompson, associate professor of human development counseling, who specializes in and co-coordinates the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Area.

“One group of students in my class this semester have identified, of course, the issue of serving veterans, especially with support and service animals as their topic of interest. In the organizing of this, they’ve done a wonderful job.”

The student group raising money for Blankenship had planned a Counselors with Tails 5k fun color run for Saturday, May 4, but had to cancel the event due to lack of registrants.

As of Friday morning, seven tickets were sold for the 5K, said Megan Finch, a member of the student group organizing the event. “We just haven’t had enough ticket sales in order to continue. We were trying to get 150, and we weren’t able to reach that goal,” said Finch, 29, who is in her last year of graduate studies and is currently interning with Helping Hands of Springfield, which serves the homeless.

“We’re already raising some funds on Facebook, and we’re accepting donations from people who have expressed interest in what we’re doing, so we’re still going to be making a donation to him. It just won’t be through the fundraising event. It’ll just be whatever we can raise on our own for him.”

The deadline for donating to benefit Blankenship is Saturday, May 4.

This story was published in The State Journal-Register on April 19, 2019.

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Art Express gives people with dementia creative outlet

An art expression class for people with dementia and their care partners learned of a new way of creating art that even one who balks at creativity may like.

University of Illinois Springfield graduate student Cheyenne Snodgrass told people gathered Wednesday afternoon for the Art Express class at Hope Presbyterian Church how they would work on abstract painting using acrylic paints and palette knives that day.

Established in 2012, the Art Express class is co-hosted by Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Neuroscience Center and the University of Illinois Springfield Human Development Counseling Program.

Art Express gives people with dementia an outlet to creatively express themselves without needing memory, management or verbal communications skills. It promotes creativity, self-expression, social engagement and autonomy in a supportive environment. Its goal isn’t to produce beautiful artwork, but that can be a by-product.

Meeting weekly for a 2-hour session on a semester basis, the class is led by Karen Lee, UIS clinical instructor of Human Development Counseling, and Maggie Schaver of the Neuroscience Institute, SIU School of Medicine.

Graduate students from the UIS Human Development Counseling Program, community and church volunteers also assist with the class, partnering with individual participants.

“I was out at UIS, and I had this idea that it would be fun to bring some of my graduate students with me so that they could get experience in art therapy and working with this population,” said Lee, a trained art therapist.

UIS graduate student Rachel Stewart was helping a woman Wednesday with the painting project, first asking her if she wanted to paint on a big piece of paper or a smaller one. “You get to pick,” Stewart said. “What colors are your favorite colors?”

 Stewart is in her second semester helping with Art Express. “I just really like working with people with dementia. I think they’re super honest, and they’re just genuine, and I like interacting with them and helping them to feel normal, even if it’s just for the two hours that we’re here,” Stewart said.

This story appeared in The State Journal-Register on February 16, 2019.

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