Special needs students working in the community

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. (CBS 12) — Friday, students at the Wabasso School in Indian River County hosted an Italian Feast.

The Wabasso School is a special education center for students with varying disabilities from kindergarten age to 22 years old.

“We focus on daily living skills, independent functioning and employability skills,” said Kathy Pirandodzi, the Wabasso School principal.

She added that in the last four years at Wabasso they focus on transitioning their students to contributing to the community.

They spend time on teaching them everyday activities.

“I've been learning how to mop the floors. I’ve been learning how to make my own bed. I’ve been learning how to vacuum up the floor and the carpet and learn how to clean the bathroom,” said Joe Quick, a high functioning student at Wabasso. He continued, “when I'm living on my own, I can do that from experience.”

In addition to everyday activities, they focus on the employability aspect.

The two major ways they do that is through the Phoenix Print Shop, which services the community and the entire school district.

“They take orders, develop the posters, they sometime create and modify the posters for them and they go ahead and send them,” said Pirandodzi.

The other element is the Phoenix Café.

“We've all been cooking baked ziti and cannoli’s and salad,” said Quick.

Quick was one of the helpers in the kitchen Friday. Students cook for staff on a regular basis. They do much more than just cook the meals.

“They not only plan for the lunch, they take orders. They determine what they need to purchase at the store and they create an entire lunch,” said Pirandodzi.

Friday, the baked ziti with a salad was $5 and each cannoli was $1. A great deal for a delicious meal!

Quick’s hard work at school has been paying off. He works for a restaurant nearby.

“Sometimes I crack 25 dozen eggs and right now they're teaching me how to clean plates, pots and pans,” said Quick.

Pirandodzi said that’s what it’s all about.

“We want them to be able to engage in leisure. We want them to be able to communicate and most of all we want them to be able to be employed if possible so they can actually earn and be independent in their own community and in their own world,” said Pirandodzi.

Their next endeavor is puppy pastries where they are going to make organic dog treats to sell throughout the community.

“It's awesome they are able to develop those skills but we want to make sure they're able to utilize those skills and generalize those in the community and this is the first hands on location to be able to do that,” said Pirandodzi.