Our Partners
F.L.O.W. is happy to announce our partnership with Turnstone. We look forward to this friendship growing and creating opportunities for the IDD population in the future.
Turnstone is Northeast Indiana's only free-standing not-for-profit organization providing a comprehensive continuum of supportive services addressing the unique needs of people with disabilities and their families.
In 2018, Turnstone became one of the eleven designated sites throughout the country that supports the training and development of aspiring and elite athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic family. Turnstone’s facilities, staff, and resources provide an elite athlete training environment for current and aspiring Paralympic athletes, with a specialty in the sport of goalball, as well as developmental opportunities for athletes in other Paralympic sports.
F.L.O.W. is happy to announce our partnership with GiGi’s Playhouse. We look forward to this continued collaboration.
GiGi’s Playhouse is a one-of-a-kind achievement center for individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and the community. GiGi’s Playhouse offers more than 25 therapeutic and educational programs that advance literacy, math skills, motor skills and more; all of which are free of charge.
Programs are created by professional therapists and teachers who generously donate their time and expertise. All programs are based on best practices for Down syndrome learning styles, and customized to ensure individual success. GiGi’s Playhouse actually serves infants through adults.
GiGi’s Playhouse is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, IL; with over 30 locations throughout the United States and Mexico, with more opening soon. GiGi’s Playhouse makes a difference every day. Our unique points of difference empower individuals and their parents to achieve their greatest potential with confidence, independence, and joy.
We have a “place” we will never let location be a barrier to success. We have “programs” we will never let curriculum be a boundary to achievement. Most importantly, programs are free. We will never let cost deter our families from participation or impede the achievement of our children and adults.
F.L.O.W. is happy to announce our partnership with Fort Wayne Curling Club. We look forward to sharing this learning opportunity.
Curling is a game that looks deceptively simple but is, in fact, quite complex. It takes an hour to learn but a lifetime to master. On the surface, Curling seems as simple as a shuffleboard on ice.
A granite rock, a sheet of ice, a target 120 feet away. Finish with your rocks closer to the target than your opponents’, and your team of four wins a game in which keen competition mixes with a wonderful social atmosphere. But there is much more to it...the stones are deceptively easy to slide down the ice requiring a high amount of finesse and fine motor control to deliver the stones with the appropriate weight.
The stones curl as they decelerate thanks to a “pebble” of frozen water on the surface of the ice. This pebble combined with the rotation placed on the stones by the players causes the stones to curl in the direction of the rotation. Players must predict the amount of curl that the stone will take based on the ice conditions (which may change over the course of the game) and the weight (strength of delivery).
Sweeping allows players to impact the length and direction (somewhat) of the stone’s delivery by making the stone go further and straighter. Sweeping, when done properly, is incredibly intense (think of wind sprints), raising the sweeper’s heart rate above 160 beats per minute. Players must often quickly drop their heart rate down to their resting heart rate in order to make their next shot.
Like chess, you need to be thinking several moves ahead, employing complex strategies, to outsmart your opponent. Like billiards, stones can be bounced off one another to meet your goals. Understanding the physics of angles and the transfer of momentum are keys to the advanced game. Curling is a game of finesse, strategy, physics and can be intensely physical.....there’s a lot more to the game than shuffleboard on ice.
F.L.O.W. is happy to announce our partnership with Special Olympics: Indiana. We look forward to sharing in this training and team-building program.
Special Olympics Allen County is for anyone with an intellectual disability. To be eligible to compete in. For Special Olympics, an individual must be 8 years of age or older AND have been identified by an agency or professional as having an intellectual disability OR closely related developmental disability. More than 11,000 children and adults in Indiana train and compete through County Programs. Allen County offers year-round sports programming in 5 sports.
All athletes must have a current medical form signed by a physician on file with their county program. The form is valid for 3 years. An application for participation form must be completed before an athlete participates in any Special Olympics training or competition.
Our athletes have the chance to become useful and productive citizens who are accepted and respected in their communities. Special Olympics Allen County receives no federal or state-appropriated funds, is not a United Way Agency, and relies entirely on corporate, civic, and individual donations.
