Connie Pavur, a teacher with the Southwest Cook County Cooperative Association for Special Education, recently was amazed at the generosity of the Oak Lawn Harley Davidson dealership. She could not contain her appreciation for a recent donation of approximately $3,000 earmarked for the Discovering Every Skill That Is Now Yours educational program.

Kathy Miller, DESTINY program supervisor said, “Right now, we have about 100 students between our elementary and high school programs and about 55 staff members, most of whom work with the children.”

Delighted to be selected for the donation, Miller said the Oak Lawn Harley Davidson has different philanthropic projects through the year. A neighbor who works there told her they wanted to adopt an elementary classroom.

“Since my classrooms have so few students, (Harley Davidson representatives) thought they would help the elementary program at first and then expanded it to the whole program,” Miller said. “It was very generous of them to think of our students. We hope this will be a connection that we will be able to continue.”

Currently teaching eight students in a DESTINY classroom for middle-school aged children housed in Old Quarry Middle School in Lemont, Pavur has seen many of her students go from grade school through high school without some of the anticipated mementos of the journey like class ring keepsakes.

Noting that due to expenses, many families cannot provide some of the important extras, Pavur said, “This has been a phenomenal donation for us. It will help us do things for the children that we couldn’t do because maybe their parents can’t afford the fees.”

“At the elementary school level, each of the teachers was given a monetary amount that they can spend for adaptive school supplies,” she added. “Among them, some have ordered wheeled backpacks for children who can’t carry them and a few extra markers and scissors adapted for children who can’t hold or manipulate the regular ones.”

Since the program meets multiple needs that could be anything from cognitive to health and orthopedic to emotional, and the focus often is on adaptive materials, teachers are looking forward to a few extras for their students, Miller said.

“Our organization is very generous and provides for my program, but this donation allows us to add to it and enhance it in several ways,” she added.

The money will help provide DESTINY high school seniors with class rings this year and cover printing costs for a DESTINY yearbook.

Although the program often receives grants for part of the students’ educational needs, many student desires are left unfulfilled, Pavur said. So the donation is a real boon because even the purchase of regular classroom supplies becomes a financial burden for many families.

According to Miller, part of the fun in receiving the donation was in watching the donations grow between July and September as people put cash into an acrylic box at the dealership. Noting a couple of the staff members went out of their way to promote donations, she said there were also raffles and special event to add to the cash collected.

As wishes continue to come in, DESTINY underclassmen will receive benefits from the donation too, Miller said.

“About the time field trip funds usually run out at the end of the year, we can use some of the money to rent buses to take all of our elementary students to the Norm Meyer Day for children with disabilities at the Orland Days Carnival,” she added.

The funds also will help with other extra special events. One, which put students in the Harley Davidson Oak Lawn show room to actually see, touch and even sit on some of the motorcycles, has already enthusiastically come and gone.

The other?

“We will be inviting some of the (dealership) staff to our Thanksgiving feast this year because that’s when we will give our students their class rings,” Miller said.