ST. CLAIRSVILLE ­– The Arc of Ohio is hosting a tea party for anybody that was involved with Everyone’s Got Talent 2024 from 12:30-2:30 p.m. Sunday at Waterfront Hall in Wheeling.

Kara Erwin, regional director of the Arc of Ohio, said the tea party is​ an opportunity to reunite everyone who had a hand in making the talent show a success.

“We’re inviting all the contestants, anybody that volunteered in any of the stations, whether that was on stage, backstage, working the art table, setting up or tearing down,” Erwin said.

She added that she has also invited the “hometown heroes,” which include anybody who is daily in the field to work with and come alongside people with disabilities.

“Restaurant owners, superintendents of schools, boards of Developmental Disabilities, principles of public schools, our social services, doctors, attorneys, politicians, everybody in our community comes alongside people with DD every day. They just do it in such a seamless way, so we want to highlight them as hometown heroes,” she said. “There’s like 25 hometown heroes we invite to come back to highlight them. We want to highlight any social services that specifically offer services to people with DD.”

She added that during Everyone’s Got Talent, the Arc of Ohio brings in all of the service providers that can improve disabled people’s quality of life, so she wants to invite them to come to the tea party to network, socialize and have an opportunity to see people with disabilities in a positive light.

“Whether it be dance or education, mental health or day care, everybody comes alongside people every day with autism, Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, and they provide a community and they provide support services. We want to highlight them,” Erwin said. “It’s a free event for everybody, but it really is just for everybody that was already involved with the Everyone’s Got Talent event last summer. And then we’re hoping that obviously it will bring some light to the community for anybody that is interested, whether they want to be on the stage and highlight their talent, both typical acts or special needs acts, and then also anybody that would be interested in being involved in the community, whether social service or a hometown hero or volunteering.”

She added that she wants to make sure that the community is aware that the Arc of Ohio hosts both the tea party and Everybody’s Got Talent every year.

She said she chose to host the event at this time of year because she wants the tea party to have a festive backdrop with flowers blooming.

“We want to bring people together to social network and have these social conversations. You never know, maybe there’ll be a love story that blossoms from this whole thing. That would be wonderful. And then of course, for Everyone’s Got Talent, it’s just an opportunity for our community, whether they’re special needs or typical, to come together and say everybody really does have talent and let’s all celebrate it,” Erwin said.