"I’m ugly. I HATE school!"

The news was bittersweet for Phyllis.* She was surprised, thrilled and excited that her daughter, Penny*, who six years earlier was struggling with educational success, had earned enough credits to graduate high school. But at the same time, this meant Penny would no longer be enrolled at CIRCLE Academy in Urbana.

Jonathon* and his mom watched from the front door as the car from Cunningham’s CIRCLE Academy-Vermilion (CAV) program pulled up in front of their house.

The boost in Mari’s* confidence was evident after she was awarded “Best in Show” for her painting in the Arts and Crafts display at the Illinois Inter-Agency Athletic Association’s (IIAA) annual Balls, Bats, & Brains Training Conference.

Thanks to a grant we received for our educational programs to purchase additional Chromebooks, the learning possibilities for our students in the Noel Education Center were endless during the fall semester.

Above Mrs. Overman’s desk in her classroom at CIRCLE Academy hangs a picture of dandelions painted by her mother.

"When my siblings and I were younger, we would always bring dandelions to my mother," she explained. "While dandelions are actually weeds, we saw them as flowers."

In early December, youth from CIRCLE Academy-Vermilion (CAV) went on a special school trip - to see Wonder. A movie based on the New York Times bestseller, Wonder tells the incredibly inspiring and heartwarming story of August Pullman, a boy with facial differences who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

At Cunningham Children's Home, everybody knows the Chicken Lady. Yes, you read it right, the Chicken Lady. Since 2009, Naneen (Nani) Baker has lived in a home that backs up to Cunningham's property and she has chickens in her backyard ... lots of them. How many you ask?