Hidden Angel Foundation Completes Multi Sensory Environment at Lake Asbury Junior High School, Green Cove Spring, FL

Pembroke Pines, FL, August 22, 2006 – The first day of school can be full of surprises, but when back-to-school time rolled around again this year, some students at Lake Asbury Junior High School, Green Cove Spring-Middleburg, Florida were in for a multi sensory surprise that could help them get more from life. The Hidden Angel Foundation has completed the design and construction of a Multi Sensory Environment (MSE) just in time for the new school year. A MSE room is a dedicated facility designed to heighten awareness, promote intellectual activity, and encourage relaxation. A myriad of light effects, shapes, textures, aromas, soft music and colors are strategically place in a room to stimulate the six senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, smell and kinetics (movement). The controlled sensory input heightens drive and motivation, and promotes self-choice, well-being, social interaction, and learning.

“This room will be used to serve students with learning disabilities of all areas, affording them the opportunity to learn, develop new skills and become more involved with their environment; we expect fantastic results,” said Ed Paulk, Principal of Lake Asbury Junior High. “We feel fortunate that our school will play an important part in improving the health and quality of life of our students.”

The custom-built facility will be opened in a special dedication ceremony September 5, 2006. MSE facilities have been found to aide in neurotransmission, maximizing a person’s potential to focus and learn. MSE also instills calmness in agitated individuals or those with self-injurious behaviors. Most importantly, it’s enjoyable. Imagine being in a darkened room relaxing on a foam mat, waterbed, or a vibroacoustic chair absorbing a sea of color and lights rotating across the walls. As soothing music plays you are attracted by the various pieces of multi sensory equipment that are lit up inviting you to touch and interact with them. Giant glowing bubble tubes in one corner change colors with the tap of a button. A moving kaleidoscope of images is projected around the room. A mirror ball hangs overhead and redirects a beam of alternating colored lights. A fan light in another corner pulses with color to the beat of music or a child’s voice. Draped over the waterbed and vibroacoustic chair are thousands of twinkling fiber optic strands of multiple colors to be touched, handled and consumed by the eyes. The effect is both relaxing and stimulating at the same time.

Both children and adults with the severe cognitive impairment appear happier while in a sensory room; they tend to vocalize more, stay on task, and stress levels drop dramatically. These individuals rarely, if ever, experience the world as the majority of us do. Limitations of movement, vision, hearing, cognitive ability, constrained space, behavioral difficulties, perception issues, pain, and other problems create obstacles to their enjoyment of life. MSE opens a new world for individuals with cognitive, emotional and/or physical impairments providing new ways of encouraging learning, motor, neurological and cognitive development, language, and social interaction skills, moving each person toward the highest functional level.

After several years of research, interest, and activities in the area of multi sensory environments, the Hidden Angel Foundation (HAF) was established in honor of Christopher Fornes, who had Sanfilippo Syndrome causing progressive neurological regression. “We experienced first hand how multi sensory stimulation enriched and extended his life,” said W.B. (Bud) Kirchner, Foundation co-founder. “Christopher was a very special and courageous individual who taught us all the true meaning of life and love. This is why we always thought of Chris, and children like him, as Hidden Angels”.

“We continue to develop and promote MSE across the country for use in schools, adult day care facilities, rehabilitation centers, parks, and other places important to individuals with special needs,” said Sandra Fornes, co-founder and Executive Director of the Foundation. “While just about every school in Europe supports a MSE (known as Snoezelen in Europe) there are less than 200 facilities in the United States. Our Foundation is working diligently to increase these numbers.”

The Hidden Angel Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation whose mission is to enrich the lives, health, and social well-being of individuals with cognitive, emotional, and/or physical impairments through the design, development and support of programs centered on multi sensory environments (MSE). Theories in MSE demonstrate new approaches to advance education, therapy, recreation and inclusion of special needs populations. HAF makes an immediate, positive impact on the lives of individuals with disabilities through its community partners that, in conjunction with HAF, are creating MSE in communities across the United States and Canada. HAF has awarded grants and MSE services to programs for individuals with disabilities throughout the United States and Canada.

For further information on the Hidden Angel Foundation and MSE contact:

Sandra Fornes
P.O. Box 822886
Pembroke Pines, FL 33082
phone: 305-458-9335
email: sfornes@cdhaf.org
website: www.cdhaf.org