This is a story about a 2nd grade student, Penelope who is fully included into her home school of Willard Elementary School in Evanston, Illinois. In this piece, we explore the tough decisions that Matt and Megan Lassman went through to get to this place… Please watch and share
Rather than just posting another video blog here at Pepsi with Brigid, we are going to have a viewing event first at Inclusion Solutions along with a discussion. We have shared the story of the Lassman’s several times now. We sit down with Matt and Megan to discuss how Penelope is being included into their neighborhood school for the first time this year. Most parents who have a child with disabilities, are rookies and are simply left to trust the school systems and what they are being offered. Matt and Megan share with us the impact that it’s having on them, their family and the community.
Please join us
April 10th at 7pm
Inclusion Solutions office
2000 Greenleaf
Evanston, Illinois 60202
http://www.inclusionsolutions.com
Have you ever thought that the idea of Poverty is just to big to think about, much less get involved with? Me too.
After the earthquake in Haiti, I traveled there as a friend of a local organization in Evanston, Illinois called the Haitian Congress to bring 4 containers of supplies to people who needed assistance. I saw things that I had never seen before and then was confused about what to do afterwards…
In this video blog posting we discuss briefly the Haiti trip, then my introduction to the RESULTS organization where I traveled to Bangladesh to meet with RESULTS partner BRAC where I saw with my own eyes solutions to extreme poverty. There are solutions…
Please join us
This week we discussed the FDR Memorial with Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, one of FDR’s grandchildren. Anna has been associated with the Roosevelt Institute for over 30 years and is currently the CEO of Goodwill Industries of Northern New England. At Goodwill, she works on inclusion and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
The FDR Memorial in Washington DC was originally commissioned without any image of disability. The disability community felt that the memorial was not complete without this image, and members of the disability community, along with Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and her cousins, advocated for an additional statue to be placed at the entrance of the memorial. The statue, which depicts FDR in a wheelchair, is the most accessible and most photographed statue in the memorial.
A special thanks to Anne for this conversation – it was quite a treat. Please go visit the memorial in Washington DC.
My parents Pat and Brigid Hughes sat down with me to discuss what it was like to raise a child with mental illness. It has been 5 years since my brother Brian died and today (April 24th) would have been his 43rd birthday. I felt compelled to share his story with you.
I think about my brother all the time. He is with me everyday in my business life and my personal life. I am forever grateful to my parents for making Brian part of our lives, and for their extraordinary generosity in sharing his story with people we have yet to meet.
Please watch this video to meet my brother Brian and our parents.
After I shot 40 minutes of video interviews with my parents, I struggled to tell this story. I approached my cousin Terry Maday who is in the film business and asked for his help in telling a story that brings clarity to my brother’s life. Terry and Oscar Ayala both did an amazing job and I will be forever grateful for their support.
Please meet my friends, the Lassmans. 7 years ago, their daughter Penelope was born and there began a wild road of learning how to live with a child with disabilities and how it has impacted their whole family. They also discuss how important community and friends have been in their experience.
Several years ago, (before I was thinking about blogging) I interviewed them because I was very moved by a story they told me and I put it on video because I thought Oprah Winfrey would have appreciated it… I haven’t heard from her yet, so please watch it, it blew me away and I think it will you… (please excuse the bad hair in the intro)
My goal with sharing the Lassmans with you is to say that when the community engages and supports families like the Lassmans, our world is a better place. Please talk with each other and take the time to
In early February, I received a call at work from a McDonald’s franchisee in Morganton, North Carolina asking about our OrderAssist system to make drive thrus accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Then about a week later, I received a call from a teacher at the North Carolina School for the Deaf also in Morganton, North Carolina. This teacher, Rene told me that she teaches a unique class of students and that they were interested in making their town more “deaf friendly”. They had seen a video that our company had posted several years ago and it prompted them to contact me.
Rather than just send information to the students via email or snail mail, I suggested that maybe it would make more sense to come and see them in person. So I asked my mom, Brigid to join me and we took off on a Thursday morning and flew to Morganton. We had dinner that evening with the 5 students, Ms Skelton and the Principal. The following morning I gave a presentation to the entire school about our efforts to make drive thrus accessible in North America. Heather Joyner and the 5 students ended up joining me on stage to share the news that Heather was going to install our OrderAssist at two of their locations. After the presentation, a small group of us went over to McDonald’s and installed the system together.
Heather and Patrick Joyner, the owners of this McDonald’s are wonderful people. Their business is very impressive. They have been hiring people with disabilities for a long time and make it a priority.
After this nice, long day, we say down and just talked about what happened – check it out…
28 Million People are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (10% of US population)
To see how OrderAssist works watch this news story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PUyRd5xEcM
Here is the survey that we took as a company in 2004 FINAL_Report_Re_Drive_Thrus_2004
To find other locations with OrderAssist – www.deafdrivethru.com
I hope these students realized that they can truly impact the world – they just impacted ours!
