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Brandon Service League Holds Special Arts Festival

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By LAURA FRAZIER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 25, 2008

Updated: 02/24/2008 10:44 pm

BRANDON - Adults led groups of children from table to table to try their tiny hands at a variety of paper crafts. They glued cotton balls to bunnies' backs, dipped butterflies on Popsicle sticks into pans of glitter and pasted petals onto smiley-faced flowers.

The projects at the Brandon Service League's Very Special Arts Festival were designed for preschool and kindergarten students enrolled in the Hillsborough County's early exceptional learning program, which serves students with physical, mental, hearing and speech disabilities, and those who do not speak English.

The service league, a member of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs, held its 17th annual festival recently at First Baptist Church of Brandon. Teachers and aides from Colson, FishHawk Creek, Kingswood, Lopez, Mango, Seffner, Valrico and Yates elementary schools accompanied close to 200 children to the event.

Amy Burgett, who teaches autistic children at Seffner Elementary, said it was a rare opportunity for special-needs children to practice the skills and behaviors that they are learning in the classroom without feeling judged or incapable.

"When they are here, everyone has special needs, and they see that they can do what everyone else is doing," Burgett said.

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