Pockets Full of Sunshine creates a more fulfilling life for adults with disabilities by developing and enhancing inclusive social, vocational and community based opportunities.
Adults with disabilities age out of public school at the age of 21 and as such are suddenly faced with fewer opportunities and engagements. We are forever evolving and committed to building our programming for the adults. We address their unmet needs and desires of whom we call, our “Rays” (our name for our adults with disabilities since they are Rays of Sunshine). We do not receive any State or Federal funding which allows us to be more flexible and unique. We are financially supported through donations, grants, fund-raising events and proceeds from our screen printing and crafting activities.
Our weekly programming includes a day of socialization and crafting, vocational training (our screen printing micro business), recreation (we provide Island Rec Center memberships), life skills, and countless other opportunities for our Rays to participate and connect with the community as they arise. Two such examples from this year include our partnership with the Island Recreation Center to help facilitate their annual Easter Egg Hunt (Our Rays stuffed 20,000 eggs for the IRC, volunteered at the event and collected the eggs afterwards to be recycled) and our participation in the Heritage Classic Foundation Cookie Contest. In April, our Rays entered a cookie into the inaugural contest. We thought it would be a project they would find both fun and applicable to the real world. About 15 of our bakers assembled and had a blast making peanut butter cookies. They were thrilled to find out they had made it to the semi finals and to then go on to win the contest during a live bake off at USCB! The Rays then spent the next week baking and packaging 1600 cookies for the tournament alongside USCB students, doing meaningful, inclusive work while building relationships. The PGA TOUR recently honored Pockets Full of Sunshine as Charity of the Year finalist for their efforts. These are just a few examples of the many events and projects our Rays are involved n, which embody our mission and go on to become so much more than we could have hoped.
Our social programming is one of the cornerstones of Pockets Full of Sunshine. We believe strongly that being part of a community doesn’t just mean participation, but also, giving back. It is important for us to provide opportunities for our “Rays” to contribute to their community as well. We do this in many ways throughout the year including beach clean ups, participating in fundraisers and events for other organizations such as the HHI Prep Festival ofTrees, the Hospice of the Low Country Thrift Store Flip event, filling shoeboxes with toys for children overseas at First Presbyterian Church and through our yearly “ Fun in the Sun for Everyone” community wide beach event, which was attended by over 250 people last year.
We are available and open to anyone and everyone to participate in any capacity they’d like! We urge you to visit our website, www.pocketsfullofsun.org to find out how you can spread the sunshine and help make a difference in the lives of our adults with special needs.
