The Exceptional Way

We enjoyed our weekly outing to Poplar Creek Senior Living - LaGrange this morning. We enjoyed the variety of activities and enjoyed helping and being helped by the residents there. The friendships being formed are so encouraging for ALL involved. We love our community!

We appreciate so much some of our parents who came prepared this morning to help us with a stubborn portion of our parking lot that needed some attention. We’re grateful for the assistance we receive from so many supporters, donors, families, and friends. Support comes in all shapes and sizes, and we’re grateful for it all! Happy Monday, friends!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM WEEK!

This week is already off to a fun start. Monday’s outing group took some time before leaving the building to do some calculations and then went to purchase needed ingredients so we could enjoy some homemade ice cream! We had to put some work in before we could enjoy it, because we prepared our own individual portions and then had to SHAKE it to make it freeze! We all loved the outcome even if some of us didn’t totally appreciate the work it took to get there. 😉 Stay tuned, as we have more fun in store for the rest of the week!

We spent the morning with our friends at Poplar Creek, taking our newest fun game Keepy Uppey with us! Little did we know, they are PROFESSIONALS, and then they let us use their fly swatters to play, too! We had a fun morning with our friends and are already looking forward to our next visit!

We are excited to enter a new season with Mr. Orry as he comes a few times a month to offer some wellness opportunities for us. He has quite a bit of experience and has connections to our building, so we’re looking forward to a lot of fun together!

We wanted to kick off summer with a shoutout to this year's 2026 Exceptional Jockey, Ms. Ashley Morgan Mayfield!!!!!

She set the bar extremely high with record breaking fundraising and with that fundraising she brought more awareness to our community about our amazing organization and what we are all about! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Now, a message from our Exceptional Jockey Ashley --

"Thank you all so much for your support and generosity of my jockey campaign! As a mother of a child with special needs, I see firsthand how important an organization like The Exceptional Way is. They provide hope, community, and real opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I’m truly honored to support a mission that means so much to my family and so many others. We are incredibly lucky to have this wonderful organization right here in our community!"

Be sure to mark your calendars for May 1, 2027 for next year’s The Exceptional Derby!!!

photos by Lizzie McIntosh Simpson

Congratulations to Liza, Cody, and Demarcus for flying their planes the farthest in our Paper Airplane contest!

It’s warm outside, but we’re staying cool inside in our game room with our cards!