By Renee Larr
The Dyslexia Institute of Indiana recently raised $50,000 during the Indianapolis Monthly Dream Home tour. The tours ran from May 9 to May 24. The cost to attend was $25 per person. There were also two VIP events before the home opened.
For over 20 years the DII has been the beneficiary of the Indianapolis Monthly Dream Home. IM is a part of Emmis Communications.
“Emmis Communications is extremely charitable and from what I’ve seen every chance they have to tie in a charity or not-for-profit partner they do a great job,” said Kaitlin Ferries, director of communications for DII.
The funding raised from the 16 day tour largely goes to providing DII’s clients with an opportunity to attend summer camp.
“The dream home fundraising will go to our summer enrichment program. Right now Camp Delafield is going on and it’s an amazing camp. Over the course of the summer we have two sessions and 60 students go through the camp. It’s academically focused in the morning and then in the afternoon they go swimming, learn to juggle and listen to guest speakers. Just fun things that kids like doing. The summer enrichment program requires quite a bit of scholarship and support to pull off for our students,” said Ferries.
Students go through an intensive training to help fulfill their potential.
“We use a therapy called Orton Gillingham approach. This helps individuals with dyslexia bring their coding skills up to match their intelligence. Our mission is that we believe entitled to fulfill their potential through the therapy approach. We help people with dyslexia fulfill their potential,” said Ferries.
After attending Camp Delafield students how show an increase in their core language skills.
“We moved kids an average of 1.4 grade levels over four weeks. It really makes a difference in these individual’s lives,” said Ferries.
For more information on DII visit diin.org.
