Schools
Casino Night Fundraiser to Expand School
Patch.com spoke to Executive Director Miriam Cotto and Clinical Director Dr. Paul Argott about Educational Partnership for Instructing Children's (EPIC) Casino Night Fundraiser for Dec. 4.
The Educational Partnership for Instructing Children (EPIC) will be hosting Casino Night at the Montclair Art Museum on Saturday, Dec. 4. EPIC is a nonprofit school specializing in individualized education of students with autism from ages 3 to 21.
Casino Night is a fundraiser to help support EPIC's first school building expansion. The expansion will include a multi-purpose room and an educational exercise area.
The event features a live auction hosted by NBC journalist Brian Thompson, a silent auction, video screening of students at the school, food and alcoholic beverages. Ticket price is $100 plus an additional buy-in for the Texas Hold 'Em Tournament.
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Executive Director Miriam Cotto expects to raise $60,000 to $100,000 at Casino Night.
"We are trying to close the gap between our current funding and what it costs to expand the building," she said.
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Additional money raised will be used to improve the current rooms in the building.
"We're doing everything we can to stay ahead of the game," Cotto said. "We like to be cutting-edge and have the best equipment for our students."
EPIC touts its individualized education plan.
"Our one-to-one skills make a big difference in education," Clinical Director Dr. Paul Argott said. "Our teachers are committed to all our programs. We individualize our programs and recently had them rewritten for even more individuality to meet specific needs."
"We are constantly looking for the most recent teaching techniques," Argott said.
According to Argott, the staff attends conferences and learns new techniques from scientific journals and the Internet.
EPIC was founded in 1997 by parents who felt the education their autistic children could receive from public schools was inadequate. Most school districts pay the annual tuition for EPIC students, but families of EPIC must fundraise year-round to cover additional costs.
According to Cotto, parents are extremely involved in EPIC and are heavily involved in fundraising for the school.
"We've really lived up to our name," Cotto said.
