The Villager Newspaper Online Your Community News – Cleveland's Westshore
Students from Avon High School will be represented this weekend when Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield takes the field in Tennessee on Sunday against the Titans. Mayfield is part of the NFL’s ‘My Cause My Cleats’ program where players have the opportunity to pick a cause that is important to them and represent their chosen organization on custom designed cleats. Baker has been a strong supporter of Special Olympics Ohio.
Avon High School’s Unified Club recently took part in the ‘Art of Inclusion’ campaign through Special Olympics Ohio. Students with and without intellectual disabilities came together and painted a piece of art that represents the culture at Avon High School, INCLUSION!
Avon High School has been a recognized Unified Champion School for three years and participates in unified flag football, unified basketball, and unified track and field. For the last three years, Avon High School has become a leader for the Revolution of Inclusion and with their dedication, Avon is a champion for acceptance.
In this piece of art (image below), students with and without intellectual disabilities painted a puzzle piece representing how individually each student is different, but together they can create a masterpiece. The quote, “Diversity is a fact, Inclusion is an Act!”, truly represents the unified movement. The lines in the background were made by students in wheelchairs, featuring their abilities without a paintbrush.
Avon High School Athletic Director, Erich Frombach; and Avon High School guidance counselor Brianne Reinhard, brought the opportunity to participate in the art inclusion project to Avon High School art teacher, Maria Petrulis, for her Art Explorations class. The class includes about nine students who spend the majority of their days in the Multiply Handicapped (MH) room at the school. Petrulis also invited four regular education students to join the project and assist the special education students who are enrolled in Art Explorations.
The artwork caught the attention of Mayfield and he will be wearing cleats inspired and created from the project completed by the Avon High School students through the Unified Sports Special Olympics Art Inclusion Program (if you look closely at the shoe images attached you can see the wheelchair markings inspired from the artwork).
Here is a twitter link from the Browns: https://twitter.com/Browns/
Follow Baker Mayfield on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
Special Olympics Ohio would like to thank the students and staff at Avon High School for their dedication to Inclusion Revolution!
https://www.nfl.com/causes/my-
