Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Preschool students, Penelope and Jonah, playing on WVCA’s playground.
Gathering with WVCA students are (from left to right): Centennial Campaign Co-Chairs Scott and Libby Lynett, WVCA Executive Director Nina DeiTos Zanon and Centennial Campaign Co-Chairs Dawn and Jim Gaudino.
WVCA 2024-2025 Kindergarten students.
The Wyoming Valley Children’s Association (WVCA) has been a pillar in our community, serving young children and their families, since 1924.
One hundred years ago, WVCA was founded through the creative vision of community leaders from the Rotary Club of Wilkes-Barre and the Community Welfare Federation, now the United Way of Wyoming Valley. These early pioneers wanted to help local children with physical disabilities and established WVCA as an orthopedic clinic, helping children with conditions that were prevalent at the time including polio and rickets. Throughout the decades, WVCA has expanded and evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of our community.
Today, WVCA has built a reputation of excellence and serves children with developmental delays, as well as typically developing children. Their school campus in Forty Fort provides Preschool and Kindergarten education in addition to Infant/Toddler classrooms. For children in need, they provide in-house physical, occupational and speech therapy services. Other programs include a partnership with Luzerne County Mental Health and Developmental Services that offers home-based therapy and education services for children from birth to three years of age. In addition, WVCA hosts the CATCH (Childhood Autism Team Check) Clinic which diagnoses autism and related conditions, as appropriate. By serving all children, WVCA creates an inclusive environment for children to discover, learn and thrive. Their goal is to help children develop to the fullest of their ability in preparation for grade school and beyond.
WVCA has provided our community with a century of service, 100 years of dedication serving more than 6,000 children and their families who needed them the most. As they mark this important milestone, WVCA’s leadership team has developed a plan to steer the organization into an even brighter future. In their 100th year, WVCA recently announced the public phase of a $4 million Centennial Campaign. They are asking community supporters and mission advocates – like you – to consider becoming part of their campus improvement and program expansion projects including: the creation of a new playground, educational and therapeutic program expansions, improvements to their current building and property, and more.
With your support, WVCA will continue to provide life-changing services to thousands of children in our local community. To learn more about WVCA’s programs visit their website at www.wvcakids.org. For more information or to donate to WVCA’s Centennial Campaign, please reach out to WVCA’s Executive Director, Nina Deitos Zanon, at 570-714-1246 or nzanon@wvcakids.org.
Working together makes our community stronger. If you have a cause near to your heart and want to make a difference here in Northeastern Pennsylvania and beyond, please call us at the Luzerne Foundation or visit www.luzfdn.org for more information.
Do you want to make our community better? So do we. Let’s do it together.