Members of the Junior Auxiliary (JA) of Laurel’s 2011-2012 Provisional Class are helping to bring joy and better communication skills to the young people of the area. The local group recently dedicated three remodeled rooms and donated toys and other items for use by South Central Regional Medical Center’s Outpatient Therapy Center.

“This particular project focused on the many children who come through South Central’s Outpatient Therapy Center, whether it be for speech or occupational therapy or rehabilitation,” Heather Norwood said. “Our ultimate goal was to foster the children’s interest in their therapy, thereby increasing its effectiveness and, in the long run, their quality of life.”

As a part of the project, each of the center’s three treatment rooms took on themes. One room is called “Around the House,” another “Around Town,” and a third room is “Outside Barnyard.”

Participants said each room contains murals and pictures of items found in those locations, which will assist therapist in teaching children about those items.

Alex O’Neal, coordinator of speech therapy at South Central, said the improvements are great.

“It’s been a wonderful experience working with JA. This has been a great project,” she said. “We do outpatient rehabilitation services for the pediatric patients, and the murals on the walls of the rooms help the young people with their vocabularies and language concepts. The special mats also help with counting, directions and activities.”

O’Neal said the center serves hundreds of children.

“This will touch the lives of many young people,” she said. “We service about 200 pediatric patients here and most of them come twice a week.”

Participants said the project came together with the collaborative efforts of many people. The Provisional Class thanked several people for the generous assistance. Mandy Buchanan was recognized for working hard in painting the treatment rooms, Josh and Kayla Nichols for the corkboard tree and Dr. Jamie Sisk and Dr. Rusty Stevens for the treasure chest goodies.

South Central would like to extend a tremendous thank you to the Junior Auxiliary, Mandy Buchanan, Josh and Kayla Nichols, Dr. Jamie Sisk and Dr. Rusty Stevens.

Author:Becky Collins

Category:News