ACC to Host Public Christmas Program

The Anne Carlsen Center (ACC) will deck the halls later this month, celebrating the holiday season with its annual Christmas program.

The public is invited to this production, beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, in the ACC auditorium.

The title of this year’s program is Celebrating Christmas. It is an adaptation from the story by Kimberly Roark, describing the fun of decorating with festive holiday adornments and the traditional meaning of these decorations.

“We have always had a Christmas program and have always invited people from the community,” explained ACC Assistive Technology Coordinator Theresa Hanson, who has helped put the program together. “Recently, we have tried to do more showcasing of the students’ abilities with things like assistive technology.”

Every student at the Center will play a role in the performance. Some students will act or narrate in the production, others will greet the public and hand out programs, while another student will run the PowerPoint presentation that will accompany the performance.

“It has always been a nice program to celebrate Christmas,” said Troy Duven, the Center’s physical education teacher who is in charge of the overall presentation. “Everyone does their part.”

“I find it very entertaining and pretty amazing, really,” said Hanson of the Christmas program. “When you see all the work that goes into it and all the smiling faces – there are a lot of proud smiles from the kids and their parents.”

One highlight of the performance will be one student’s original song, titled Nuttin’ for Christmas. The song was created through assistive technology software called GarageBand. This software can compile sound clips with a library of sound options and create entire songs.

The Anne Carlsen Center provides assistance and empowerment for children and young adults with a wide variety of disabilities, including autism and medical fragility. Through our care and expertise, we nurture abilities and change lives.