Individuals at the Marshall County Exceptional Center are preparing to put on their best duds and strut their stuff.
The center will host its eighth annual Summer Gala – once known as the prom – from 6-8 p.m. Friday in the gymnasium at MCEC on 198 Old Symsonia Road in Benton. This year’s event is a Kentucky Derby theme, and will feature music, light refreshments and the opportunity for visitors to dance until they drop.
“It’s a fantastic, fantastic time,” she said. “… It’s really something. There’s going to be light refreshments served, and it’s really – it’s fun.”
Attire for the evening is formal or Sunday clothing. Organizers and center individuals alike had worked to prepare for the party.
“The individuals have worked hard on the decorations,” Chambers said. “They’ve made the (garland of roses) that they put around the horse’s neck … it’s up on the wall, and they’ve got a backdrop and they’ve got all kinds of stuff back there. They’re putting it together Friday during the day. It’s one of those I hope that the community can come out and just see, get to mingle with the individuals, you know, see the facility itself.”
Chambers said the event is free and open to the public, and this year the center had extended the invitation to agencies that provide similar services in surrounding counties. It’s an event that she said provides residents the opportunity to meet MCEC staff and individuals the center serves and celebrate the differences that make everyone uniquely themselves. It’s a family, she said, and individuals at the center look forward to spending time with community members, she said.
“If you want a dance partner, I can guarantee you will find a dance partner down here,” Chambers said. “… It’s a fun time. … It’s a happy place. We all have learning disabilities of some sort or another. Some of us have blocks, some of us have different things. Some people here have autism. Some people here might be mildly deficient in being able to remember some things. Then we’ve got some that are nonverbal. … I would like for the people in the community to come in and see that it’s not a sad place, it is a happy place.”
MCEC is a nonprofit organization that serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For more information, visit http://www.m-c-e-c.org/ or to RSVP to Friday’s gala, call 270-527-1327.