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What's New
Charge: Renton woman beat, burned disabled man while cashing his disability checks
By LEVI PULKKINEN
SEATTLEPI.COM
A Renton woman is facing assault charges on allegations that she beat and burned a developmentally disabled man while cashing his disability checks.
Read the full story in the Seattle PI
Ed Baker, 100, receives Legacy Award from Arc of King County
By Chaitra Sriram, Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Issaquah Press
Issaquah -- One hundred years ago in Seattle, Minnie Baker, a local
schoolteacher, had given birth to her son Ed, who had a developmental disability.
When Ed was old enough, his mother tried to enroll him in a public school, but he
was denied entry. At the time, children with disabilities were not allowed to
attend public schools.
Read the full story in the Issaquah Press
Its Time
to Support Your Candidate
By Paul Strand, Friday, July 2, 2010
ActionDD
Olympia -- Summer is a hot political season. Legislative hopefuls
and worried incumbents need our support. This summer let’s step in with our
donations and encouragements. They will be voting for DD issues next winter,
and should remember their constituents. Consider hosting a gathering for them
(coffee hour, BBQ), put up signs, pass out literature, whatever they need.
Check out their websites and say hello through their contact page with words of
encouragement.
Give financial as well as physical support.
If any of them are in your district go see them, get to know them. None of
them are all that well supported and would love to see you and accept your help.
They will listen to your story and remember you.
Bill Looney retires as President of the Frances Haddon Morgan Center
Families and Guardians Group
ActionDD, Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Olympia -- In a letter to supporters and members Bill Looney stated, “When I can’t remember how long I have been president, it is time to step down.” For many years, Bill has been a steady organizer, ready to support residents, families and staff of the Morgan Center.
Regarding the recent attempt to close the Morgan Center, Bill gives thanks to “those families who traveled many miles to line the street, face the legislators, and go face to face with the DSHS figureheads who showed up to ‘answer’ your questions about FHMC’s proposed closure. Some parents stayed connected even when living far away.“
In his unique style of motivation, Bill won the support of representatives Sherry Appleton and Christine Rolfes in leading the fight to save FHMC from the chopping block. “We owe them and our loved ones our continued involvement. At the last minute they held the line, or FHMC would have been lost.”
Looney offered his thanks to “the FHMC direct care staff and their state union members, who stood with us facing the legislature, the governor, and DSHS.”
Bill’s resignation leaves no successor. He encourages others to step forward and volunteer to lead the Frances Haddon Morgan Center Families and Guardians
group, as others have done before him. Bill’s retirement will be July 1, 2010.
Rainier
School Launches new Video on You Tube
ActionDD, Monday, June 14, 2010
Olympia -- Friends of Rainier School
have produced a must see video that shows what an RHC is all
about.
-- See
the video on You Tube runs 8 minutes, 23 seconds
Sports organization for people with disabilities has been hitting home runs for 10 years
By Rick Steigmeyer, Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Wenachee World
LEAVENWORTH -- Built on the premise that everyone is a winner and no one is out, Upper Valley Connection was created to provide sports for people who aren’t often asked to play.
The sports organization for people with developmental disabilities celebrates its 10th anniversary at its final baseball game of the season Monday at the Icicle Middle School field in Leavenworth. The game will pit the Upper Valley Sluggers against the, well, more Upper Valley Sluggers.
--
Read the full story in the Wenatchee World
Board votes to shut down Arkansas
center for disabled
Associated Press - June 4, 2010
CONWAY, Ark. -- The state Developmental Disabilities Services Board has voted to shut down a facility in Alexander and wants the money saved from the closure used to boost salaries
of employees at five similar centers.
-- Read the full
AP story
Miami
Florida Area Advocates Wrestle Over a Novel Housing Plan for
People with Developmental Disabilities.
April 27 -- Read the full story in the Miami Herald
Author describes what having an autistic child taught her about God
By Bob Allen April 15, 2010
Associated Baptist Press
CINCINNATI -- Now a nationally recognized author
and speaker in the field of disability ministry, Kathleen Deyer Bolduc says she was unprepared to parent a special-needs child before the birth of her third son. Now 24, Joel has autism, intellectual disabilities and an anxiety disorder. She tells the story of their life together in Autism & Alleluias, a new book by Judson Press.
"There is a lot of pain involved in parenting a child with
autism," Bolduc said in an April webcast scheduled during Autism
Awareness Month to
promote her new book. "There's a lot of joy, but I think
we're kidding ourselves if we don't look at the grief that's
involved."
"I can also say at the same time that living with
autism, more than anything else in my life, has brought me
to a closer relationship with God," she said. "It really has
brought me to a gut-level understanding of the Lord's words
to Paul in Second Corinthians, when he said that 'My grace
is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in
weakness.'"
"Once I came to an acceptance of that truth, once I figured
out that I couldn't do it all on my own, that I needed God's
power to gift me with the strength I needed to parent Joel,
Joel became one of the most spiritual teachers in my life,"
she said.
In one of the stories told in the book, Bolduc
describes a particularly harrowing morning that started with
Joel rushing out of the house barefoot and in his pajamas
with the temperature in the 30s. It escalated into an
emotional meltdown for Joel and reduced her to tears.
Approaching her and reaching a hand toward her, instead of
grabbing for her glasses as he sometimes does when he is
anxious, Joel patted her face. "We need Jesus," he said.
"We do need Jesus," Bolduc said in the webcast.
"And Jesus is with Joel no matter how difficult things get."
Bolduc said the most important spiritual lesson
her son has taught her is that God's love is unconditional.
"God loves me just as I am. I don't have to try
so hard," she said. "And God loves Joel just the way he is.
I don't have to fix Joel. God loves him just as he is. Such
a huge burden lifted with that realization."
Bolduc said parents of children with disabilities
long for a church where their sons and daughters are loved
and accepted just as they are, regardless of their behavior
or their ability to achieve. Those that do, she said,
receive a lot in return.
When Joel was about 8 or 9, she says in the book,
his behavior caused Bolduc and her husband to give up on
sending him to Sunday school. They learned that if they sat
on the front row, where he could not kick the pew in front
of him, they could usually make it at least through the
congregational singing.
During communion, she said Joel would typically
act out in ways so that it "was not really a spiritual
experience, to say the least." One particular Sunday,
however, the pastor raised the plate in the air and recited,
"This is the body of Christ, broken for you" and then the
cup, saying "and this is the blood of Christ, poured out
that you might live."
Joel stood up and clapped his hands to his chest
and said: "For me! For me!" He turned around and said the
same thing to the people behind him.
"Joel gave a gift to the whole church that day,
when he turned around," Bolduc recalled. "He was announcing
to everybody: 'Wake up! Open up your eyes and look at the
sacrament with brand new eyes. This is for you and this is
for me. This is for all of us together.' I think it was just
an amazing lesson that my son had to teach the congregation
that day."
Another teachable moment came when Bolduc's
family had made a commitment to attend an African-American
congregation honoring Martin Luther King Jr. During the
music, Joel did what he usually did in their Presbyterian
church. He worshiped with his whole body, bouncing and
dancing in the aisle. This time, though, others were doing
it, too.
"A proverbial light bulb went on in my head," she
said. "I thought, 'You know, you just can't fit a square peg
into a round hole.' All of these years of trying to make
Joel fit into our worship service, it's craziness."
That created a dilemma for the family. "Do we
leave a church that we love, or do we try to help the church
see what Joel has to bring?" They chose the latter.
"I'm glad to say that our church has changed,"
Bolduc said. "And I like to think that it's changed
partially because of Joel -- and Peter and Jeremy and Matt,
who are three other guys with developmental disabilities --
and what they've brought to us.
"We have a contemporary service now that is much
more relaxed," she said. "Matt walks around and greets
people. He doesn't care what part of the service it is; if
he sees you and he hasn't said 'hi' yet, he's coming on up.
Peter dances during the worship songs.
"Joel stands up when everyone else is sitting
down, if he wants to, and people are telling me, quite
often, how much joy they get out of worshiping with Joel,
Peter, Matt and Jeremy. There are some real gifts if we open
up our eyes to them."
"Joel has changed me, and Joel has changed our
church," Bolduc said. "If you open up your hands and your
hearts and your minds and your attitudes, and you open up
your church doors to those with disability, transformation
will take place."
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press |
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