There are many ways you can support SOAR. Whether it supporting our Annual Giving campaign or spreading the word about your positive SOAR experience. We are honored to be a part of your lives. We consider it a great privilege to influence youth and families by instilling confidence and resilience to meet life’s challenges. We celebrate with you as you watch new strategies being used to solve old problems. We are encouraged to continue our great work by feedback from parents and students- both past and present. Even as we celebrate the gifts of each summer, we are continually looking ahead to the next. Our goals and expectations remain high as we journey in the pursuit of excellence.
We are continually improving our facilities and programs, and finding new ways to serve youth in need. As we plan for the upcoming summer, we remain mindful of those youth who are in need of, but cannot afford SOAR services.
We ask you, as a friend of SOAR and a benefactor of youth, to assist us in furthering the goals and dreams of the youth we serve. Gifts from people like you allowed SOAR to grant scholarships in the amount of $45,200 during the summer of 2010. SOAR’s 2011 scholarship goal is $50,000. The Bell Family foundation has generously given a donation of $10,000 to serve as the cornerstone to our 2011 annual giving campaign. I ask you to join them. Youth will benefit from your generosity. As in all things, it is our collective gifts that ensure continued success.
Your support truly matters. Read one family’s story here to see what a difference a SOAR program can make in the life of a child with learning disabilities and/or ADD/ADHD.
Other Ways You Can Help
While we are sincerely moved by the generosity bestowed to us through our Annual giving campaign, we recognize that financial support is just one way you can give back to SOAR. Parents and professionals are often excited and open to programs and opportunities they have learned about from other parents. Therefore, a wonderful way you can help is to spread the word about your positive SOAR experience. Whether it is by letters or online blog posts - we ask that you share your experience with others you may feel will benefit from a SOAR program, or with professionals who serve LD and ADHD youth. Contact us or click here for more ideas on how your support can really help.
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Philosophy: SOAR believes all individuals identified with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) possess inherent talents and gifts. These abilities can mean incredible success in adulthood once these students negotiate the challenging obstacles of childhood, adolescence, and a traditional education system, usually unable to respond to individual learning styles.
Therefore, the SOAR model is based on two fundamental principles. First, youth with LD and AD/HD flourish when they are encouraged to focus on their strengths in an experiential setting. The second principle acknowledges that success can be generalized by encouraging our students to develop and utilize strategies, enabling them to compensate for those challenging characteristics of LD and AD/HD. To this end, SOAR staff strive to ensure success for each student across a wide range of experiences. Such success, in turn, builds essential self-esteem and self-confidence.
Based on these two foundations, SOAR participants develop problem solving skills, effective communication strategies, increased self-awareness, and social skills. Program activities include a broad base of wilderness adventure experiences that empower students to make healthy choices, learn more about themselves, overcome challenges, and establish relevance from these experiences to other aspects of their life.
SOAR's Specialty Courses are open to SOAR alumni and students with the maturity and experience level to be successful on the course. Acceptance is conditional on the approval of the course director. Most specialty courses are led by one of SOAR's year-round staff including Richard Peters, John Willson and Joe Geier.
SOAR’s programs are designed to allow students the opportunity to increase their independence while away from home. Independence is gained through self-motivation and life skills instruction. With this in mind, we involve our students in many decision making processes, such as setting individual goals, developing group guidelines, as well as trip and meal planning. This also comes into consideration when developing SOAR’s communication policy, detailed in our Parent Handbook.
SOAR is dedicated to serving the needs of individuals with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) and is proud to be the finest: