CROWN POINT | Forty-four year-old Denise Fields' scuffed work table was scattered with wood pieces and blocks of various sizes she carefully placed into clear plastic bags.

The Lake County resident is one of about 135 clients at the Arc BRIDGES South Center in Crown Point, a nonprofit agency serving adults with developmental disabilities.

The agency has four other locations in Gary, Hobart, Michigan City and Highland.

"We provide them services to have an independent life," said Devida Zaklan, facility manager of Arc BRIDGES South Center. "They have goals. They have feelings. They have emotion. They are no different than any one of us."

The South Center held a special breakfast and tour of its facility Thursday to celebrate March as National Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Month.

The organization provides training, day services care, residential programs and social services to help people with disabilities become more independent.

Fifty-three-year-old Ronald Logsdon joined Arc BRIDGES 30 years ago.

The Cedar Lake resident, who has Down syndrome, was ostracized and beaten up in elementary school in Hammond, he said.

Logsdon asked his mom in 1977 to enroll him in Arc BRIDGES, which operated under a different name at the time. It was there he further developed his skills in the community, and worked a number of jobs.

"It's given me lots of responsibility," Logsdon said. "It makes me a better person. I'm really proud of what I'm doing."