The People With Intellectual Disabilities Program What It's All About

People With Intellectual Disabilities Program (PWIDP)

One of the primary fund raising drives of our Council is for the People With Intellectual Disabilities Program, formerly known as "MRP". PWIDP is conducted over a couple of weekends where our brother Knights along with individuals from our Scout troop and the St. Elizabeth's Church Teen Group don their aprons filled with Tootsie Rolls pick up a cylindrical container and stand outside certain stores in Milpitas to accept the donations of the passersby.

The Tootsie Rolls are despensed generousily with no donation required.  The opportunity for our youth's participation in this event is not only for the reward of obtaining their service hours at school but also to give them a first hand up front experience of what goes into to organize and carry out campaigns of this kind.
 
 
 

The funds that are raised for this event go to the Special Education Class at Milpitas High School.  St. Elizabeth's own Brenda Wong is the teacher faced with the most daunting of challenges in shaping the minds, attitudes, hopes, and aspirations of her students all of whom are either mildly or severly mentally challenged.

Toward the end of the school year, the St. Elizabeth Council holds a social in which the students from Brenda Wong's class prepare either a dinner or a dessert for all of the assembled.  This Social is the students' way of thanking the Knights of Columbus for the funds that were raised to assist them in their academic and personal development.  The students really put their hearts into what they prepare.  You can view this social by clicking here.

The highlight of the evening is when the students get up and read the assemblied group their thank you letters.  When you consider the situation each of these students is going through it is a touching moment that all experience and you leave the event impressed and inspired for what these young people have accomplished.