Kokomo Area Career Center & Bona Vista Host Sock Hop & Roll

Attendees danced and had fun at the Sock Hop and Roll.On Dec. 14, 2018, Bona Vista and Kokomo Area Career Center, in Kokomo, Indiana, hosted the Sock Hop & Roll. The event was designed by Keegan Paul, a career center student and Bona Vista intern, to offer “adults with disabilities a fun night of dancing, snacking and socializing.” The event was a success! Success that is due, at least in part, to collaboration among career and technical educators — and with business and community partners.

Shelley Rust gets a big hug.“My Kokomo Area Career Center students learn to work together with people from all walks of life. These experiences will serve our culinary arts students well in any situation,” said Shelley Rust, culinary arts instructor and past president of Indiana ACTE. “Watching my students interact with the Bona Vista students fills my heart with joy.”

Culinary arts students prepare food for the event.The event offered a unique opportunity for career and technical education students to gain real-world experience and have some fun, too. Culinary arts students developed recipes and conducted tastings with Bona Vista Bistro clients to create the menu. Students in the Kokomo Area Career Center’s cosmetology program styled hair and makeup for the guests, while media marketing students played paparazzi. Those enrolled in the certified nursing assistant program volunteered to provide aid to attendees as needed.

For Keegan Paul, the Sock Hop & Roll was especially memorable. He told the Kokomo Perspective what it meant to him: “He said he’s never forgotten how much fun he had at [a sock hop], and by planning one, he hoped to create lasting memories for others.”

This story originally appeared in the Kokomo Perspective in December 2018.

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