{"id":55992,"date":"2025-11-30T02:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55992\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T02:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:01:06","slug":"santa-songs-and-a-sign-language-twist-make-grace-foundations-staten-island-tree-lighting-magical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/55992\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa, songs, and a sign language twist make GRACE Foundation\u2019s Staten Island tree lighting magical"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 It was a day of smiles and fun as friends and families of participants gathered for the GRACE Foundation\u2019s<\/a> tree lighting event on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The foundation\u2019s headquarters at 460 Brielle Ave. in Sea View was transformed into a place where children and adults could enjoy sweet treats, hot chocolate, photos with Santa Claus, caroling, and more.<\/p>\n

Food was readily available from the foundation\u2019s food truck, staffed by foundation members, which has become a familiar sight at Staten Island events.<\/p>\n

The foundation has been serving children, teens, young adults and families impacted by autism spectrum disorder for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

Board member Diane Peruggia, one of the founding members, said, \u201cOur campus at the GRACE Foundation is lit up like a winter wonderland. It doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019s a facility. It is beautiful, and it\u2019s very inviting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peruggia added, \u201cOur kids helped set everything up. They love it and are so excited. GRACE really does go above and beyond and thinks out of the box on the things that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd cheered when Santa arrived in an FDNY mini ambulance and made his way to the Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

With everyone gathered around the tree, the participants sang traditional carols including \u201cLet it Snow\u201d and \u201cWinter Wonderland\u201d with a special twist.<\/p>\n

Kerry Ryan, who teaches sign language at the GRACE Foundation, taught them how to sign the words as they sang.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really took to sign language really well, and they really, really love it. I break it down and make it fun, and they pick it up quickly,\u201d said Ryan.<\/p>\n

Councilmember David Carr led the crowd in counting down from 10 to light the tree. He said, \u201cThe GRACE foundation does phenomenal work with the IDD [intellectual and developmental disabilities] community, not just those that need their support as individuals, but their families, too. I\u2019m always going to have their backs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The foundation\u2019s executive director, Cathy Del Priore, shared that the foundation has ambitious plans for the future, including opening a caf\u00e9 and expanding its facilities to further its mission of inclusion and awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s essential because we\u2019re supposed to empower all those with autism… so you put them out there, and you just let them shine, which is really important,\u201d Del Priore explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 It was a day of smiles and fun as friends and families of participants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-55992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}