ST. CLAIRSVILLE — With sugar and spice and everything nice, Arc of Ohio hosted a Cake Boss event Monday evening.

“The Arc of Ohio is the voice of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families, friends of people with disabilities and those who work with them,” according to Arc of Ohio’s website.

The event kicked off with a pizza party at 5:30 p.m. and led into Arc of Ohio Regional Director and Advocate Kara Erwin informing the attendees of the rules for the cake decorating event.

She said the purpose of the activity was to get Belmont County families who have members with disabilities together.

“We want families to feel educated and equipped in all areas of raising somebody with a developmental disability,” Erwin said.

She added that in her work, she saw a lot of families who have children with developmental disabilities in their 20s still living at home, which she believes makes it difficult for the parents to go to educational and informational meetings. So she created a social group for young adults to come and interact with one another while Erwin and her staff and volunteers provide information to the parents.

“We created a young adults meetup, kind of just a social opportunity for young adults to come and meet new friends, network, socialize. And today we set up an actual activity called Cake Boss,” Erwin said.

The attendees were able to decorate a cake and/or cupcakes either by themselves or with a friend or a volunteer. It allowed the participants to have all of the fun that comes with decorating a cake without the burden of purchasing all of the materials.

“People like doing things like decorating cakes, but it does cost money,” she said. “So we remove that barrier by providing all of the materials for them.”

She added that Arc of Ohio meets on the fourth Monday of each month at Thoburn United Methodist Church, located at 209 E. Main St. in St. Clairsville.

Erwin said the meetings are open to the public and are mainly for those 18 years or older. If a parent or aide is needed, they are more than welcome to come.

Erwin’s daughter Sarah Yeager is a direct support professional and advocate for Arc of Ohio. She said her favorite part of working for Arc is interacting with the individuals it serves and seeing them reach goals.

Yeager said she’s been working for Arc for the past five years but has been working with people with developmental disabilities for as long as she can remember.

“I’ve been involved with helping people with special needs and intellectual developmental disabilities since I was a child,” Yeager said. “I volunteered, and now I work with them professionally. And in the winter season it’s just so important to get everybody together because this time can really be hard on people.”

She added that she believes the Cake Boss event brings joy to the people in attendance because it’s a social and creative activity.

The youngest Arc of Ohio volunteer is 10-year-old Vivian Barricklow. She has been volunteering for the past six years.

Barricklow said her favorite part of lending a hand is making new friends and getting to be a mentor to the people who attend the social gatherings at Arc of Ohio.

Barricklow became involved with her father Ed Barricklow, who met Erwin and learned that she works for Arc of Ohio. She explained to him what it does for the community, and he immediately decided to get involved.

“She does an excellent job, she helps a lot of people,” he said. “Truthfully I don’t know how she does it all. She helps kids who wouldn’t be able to get helped anywhere else because they may be overlooked.”