Remember how excited and full of anticipation you were when as a child, you waited for Santa Claus? Then came the Easter Bunny and the wonderment of surprise in finding the bunny eggs. Everything was new and full of wonder.

Fast forward to life’s reality and the shine and glitter have dulled, replaced by the responsibility of being “grown up.”

I am lucky in the fact of being in the midst of childhood life awakening experiences on a daily basis.

To observe the glow of sheer joy and pleasure of each new day with its gift of awareness and venture is a blessing to me. To watch the trembling expectation and trepidation with each new and special experience awakens the child in me.

For the special needs students of Pleasant Acre Day School, each day holds the mystery of life unfolding with each life-skill learned or each life-enrichment performed. The newness of life is there to be embraced and absorbed.

The word excitement is paled in comparison to the actual condition of each student when extra special events are celebrated, although each day brings newness to see, taste, touch, hear and live.

Pleasant Acre Day School is full of energy with sounds of laughter bringing music to the soul, while the students are learning to interact with each other, family and community at their home away from home.

Life is busy for the special needs students at Pleasant Acre Day School. Their very own “cottage industry,” Beads Galore Shop, is a steady process of sorting, matching and packaging recycled Mardi Gras beads. The happy sounds of the clinking of beads, chatter and giggles bring smiles of accomplishment and pride for a job well-done.

Sorting and stacking their Some-n-Special Shop along with greeting customers and assisting with a carry out service brings another element of a self-help skill acquired. Along with activities of self awareness and self-care the students are thus enabled to create a feeling of self worth.

The students of Pleasant Acre Day School have the exposure to the arts as they learn words, music and skits to perform at the annual Christmas celebration provided by the Natchez Moose Club. After many months of practice, perfecting their artistic skills, they are ready to share the performance with members of the Moose Club, family and friends.

The students enjoy their own interpretation of the White House Easter Egg Roll at Jefferson Military College. For many years they have been entertained by the Easter bunny, hunted for eggs and treated to a picnic on the grounds of this historic place.

Physical activity comes in the form of the annual Natchez Junior Auxiliary’s Camp Sunshine summer program. Swimming, water games, dancing and exercise enable the students to have an opportunity to excel on yet another level of life’s gift.

Rounding out the school year and finalizing a year of challenges met and conquered is the long-awaited and anticipated, well-deserved, rightly earned vacation to Biloxi for “fun in the sun.” Trips to Ship Island, sea breezes, toes in the sand, pool swimming, pool-side alfresco, seafood dinners, motel life and this year petting a dolphin brings out the child-like exuberance in each of my Pleasant Acre kids.

We ask for your blessings on a safe “fun in the sun” trip. I have heard once you leave childhood you can never return. So we invite you to come along vicariously with us and like peter Pan, never grow up.

Contributions can be mailed to P.O. Box 1362, Natchez, MS 39121. More information is available by calling 601-442-2264.

Mary Ann Foggo-Eidt is director of Pleasant Acre Day School in Natchez.