Andrew freshman unified sports basketball and track athlete Jace Hettinger listed some of the issues he’s been dealing with over the years.
“I have a little bit of autism, I’m bipolar and have ADHD…I have a lot of stuff,” he said.
He was one of dozens of students at the school taking part in a collective project between woodworking students, students from culinary arts classes and students from the Ultima program, which caters to special needs students.
Since January, the three factions have worked together on making 40 cutting boards and recently have prepared food for a sale on Feb. 27 at the Tinley Park school.
While Hettinger is not with the Ultima program, he is friends with many students in that group.
And, given his own hurdles that life has thrown at him, he is thankful for the opportunity to participate in a program where students of various backgrounds interact.
“It’s great for people with special needs like me to be able to make stuff like this,” he said.
“There is so much help from the school system to help them have fun and make some cookies and boards and play sports.”
This initiative has been going on for four years. In the past, the students made puzzles, pickleball paddles and bean bag games, which were raffled off.
This year, it’s the cutting boards and baked goods, which were sold to students and staff.
“This is the culmination of building this program,” woodworking teacher Jeff Cassidy said. “It’s seeing the relationships that we want to be building in this school. I love it.”
“Some of the wood students who haven’t taken culinary classes and are learning,” woodworking teacher Adam Weis said. “We try to put one really good culinary kid in each group.”
Senior Jenna Moore is good at both woodworking and culinary arts and enjoys sharing her knowledge with the Ultima students.
“They are doing things that some people have told them they aren’t able to do,” she said of the special needs students. “We get to show them how to use our machinery and they get to be independent in some of the things they do. It’s cool to prove those people wrong.”
Senior Nathan Wilkens agrees and said that learning woodworking can benefit all students in the long run.
“It will be a hobby for the rest of my life,” he said. “I made a bench for home. You can sit on it and it doesn’t collapse or anything. It took a whole semester to do.
“We all use it when we put our shoes on in the morning.”
Jan Adams, a paraprofessional for Ultima for 17 years, enjoys watching the various students mingle and work with each other.
“The value is to teach our students to work with the regular ed students,” she said. “Everyone really works well with our special ed students. The kids get along great.”
