The Garcia Family's Story with the Schwartz School [RADIOTHON]

This Friday, January 28, we’re teaming up with Sunrise Bakery and Coffee Shops for our annual Radiothon. All you have to do is buy food from Sunrise Bakery on Dartmouth Street by 10 a.m. on Friday, and half of the proceeds will go to the Schwartz Center Meeting Street in Dartmouth. The Schwartz Center works with kids with disabilities and does a fantastic job helping the kids. Don’t believe us? Hear it firsthand from the Garcia family.

The Garcia Family consists of Ben, Navisha, and Brayden. Brayden has been going to the Schwartz Center since he was very little, and he’s done nothing but excel and improve.

“As of right now, he is doing remote learning with the school, of course, because of the times of COVID, but he is excelling and the teachers are doing great with him, and you know, he’s walking now, as you know, he’s talking now, he’s starting to say words, he’s using technology that they taught him to use at the Schwartz Center they were able to get him.” --Benjamin Garcia,

Brayden started out in the Early Intervention program. As he aged out of that, he transitioned into the Schwartz Center’s programs for school-aged children. Brayden said that he loves seeing his teachers and friends on Zoom; it’s his favorite part of going to school at the Schwartz Center.

He’s not only able to say a few words, but he can even communicate with an iPad. When we first met Brayden at the Radiothon a few years ago, he couldn’t walk or speak, but the next year he came into Sunrise Bakery walking and dancing along to the music. Between the Schwartz School in Dartmouth and Meeting Street in Rhode Island, there are around 7,000 local children that are being helped by the center.

The Schwartz School has received generous help from the community. Bryce Clancy, a fifth-grader from Dartmouth, has raised $1,825 for the Schwartz Center just this month. That doesn’t include any money that his family has raised before in years past, which is surely in the thousands as well. Bryce said that his goal is to raise $2,000, so he’s already pretty close.

We asked Brayden about Bryce, and he said, “I like how Bryce is very cool and nice,” all from his iPad. When talking about why he wants to help the Center, Bryce said, “But the reason I wanted to help out these kids is because I love seeing their smiles, and I think that it’s so great that every year, all of this money goes to their equipment to help them grow and learn and it definitely helps them to be more independent, and I think that it’s really important for them to get the best learning experience.”

With help from both Bryce and you, we’re sure that the kids at the Schwartz Center will get the best educational experience possible.

Special thanks to Manny and Inez from Sunrise Bakery and Coffee Shops for their generosity every single year. Listen to their appearance on Michael and Maddie this morning.