July 2026 Newsletter
A Note from Diane:
Happy Birthday, Inclusible! We’re so excited to celebrate 6 years this month of building community through inclusive games and connections. Boy, how we’ve grown… and continue to grow!
We continue to develop new partnerships, host events at new venues, meet new people, share what we’ve learned, discover new ways to be inclusive and we are always creating new games!
On this birthday, we would especially like to acknowledge Joyce Morris and Live Work Learn. With their support these past six years, we’ve had the opportunity to gain more experience and grow our skills. We’ve been able to test out our new game ideas and find out what works. Inclusible would not have accomplished all that we have without Live Work Learn, and for that, we are extremely grateful.
Please stay tuned to see where we’ll be going and what we’ll be doing next! And of course, if you want to join the fun, please reach out. We always welcome new volunteers, more players and we can even help you host an event of your own.
Event Highlights
Five Rivers…
In June, we were invited by Five Rivers Environmental Education Center to participate in a state-wide event called Get Outdoors and Get Together. This event promotes healthy living, inclusivity and access to state public lands. There were an estimated 700 visitors that day! Five Rivers is working hard to enable underserved communities to connect with the outdoors. They are one of the destinations on the free CDTA Nature Bus!
For our part, we offered picnic table games. We played inclusive games that work great outdoors and feature themes about our natural world. It was a fabulous day of non-stop game playing. The weather was perfect and the players were abundant—the best combination!
Play & Take…
We hosted our first Play & Take event at the Community Hub at Mosaic Village in Cohoes. Players were able to try out a variety of Inclusible games such as Dis-card, Doubles or Match and Coin-Go. At the end of our time together, they chose their favorite game to take home!
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Wildwood Programs for funding this series of events. Our next two scheduled events are at capacity, but keep an eye on our calendar for future events!
New Games Coming Soon
Part of Inclusible’s mission is “to do our part to protect our planet and its inhabitants through our long-term decisions and everyday actions.” Our two new games were created with this goal in mind. The more we understand about the natural world, the more effective we are at protecting it.
Monarch Mischief
Monarch Mischief is a wooden, handmade game that is also color-blind friendly (using high-contrast colors and spotted pegs). It’s a three-person game involving chance, surprise and a little bit of strategic mischief. Since these games are individually made, they will be available through special order.
Monarch butterflies are fascinating! Typically adults live for a few weeks, however the last generation of the summer delays sexual maturation and can live up to 8 months. This allows its migration south to Mexico from as far north as Canada! The National Wildlife Federation has six recommendations for supporting monarch butterfly conservation:
Include the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
Reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides and herbicides.
Encourage local authorities to be part of the initiative, Mayors’ Monarch Pledge.
Call on Congress to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act and the Monarch Act of 2025.
Participate in citizen science activities.
Natural New York Bingo: Flora & Fauna
Who doesn’t love bingo? Our new game is made up of twenty-five original photos of species that are all native to New York State. The “flora and fauna” of a place are its plants and animals. “Native” means the plants and animals that have a history of living in a local place and are not the result of human introduction. Native plants support a greater variety of organisms (biodiversity) and are at the heart of a resilient ecosystem.
Natural New York Bingo also contains interesting facts about each of the photos—supporting learning through play! Our bingo game will be available soon on our website. A fine motor-friendly version with velcro on the boards and bingo chips will be available through special order.
Special Mention
Rachel Sangaline
Since last year, we’ve had help managing our social media and our website. We are so thankful that the skillful, creative, and efficient Rachel Sangaline has made Inclusible one of her priorities. Thank you, Rachel! We truly appreciate you!
SUNY Volunteers
Magnus and Stephanie, students from the State University at Albany NY, were volunteering at Bring on the Spectrum and enthusiastically jumped in to lend a hand with our Live Work Learn sponsored events. We very much appreciate their contributions—leading games, supporting players and simply adding to the fun! Thank you both!
What’s Coming Next
Come out and support our community game nights! We are scheduled through the fall and winter at the William K. Sanford Colonie Town Library and will be trying this out at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library too! We will post dates for those on our events calendar as soon as we have them.