Page 7 - New Hope Center Summer 2014 Newsletter

It’s a Ten-pin Strike!!!
Pictured left to right: Dillon Vanne, Amy Martell, Zach Woelfel and Renee Schmid.
For Renee Schmid and Zach Woelfel New Hope Day Service has given them more than they ever imagined.
“Every day offers challenges as well as unending rewards in our job,” says Renee. “One of the challenges we’ve noticed is in bowling and how hard it is for everyone to bowl using only two bowling ramps for three lanes during our weekly outings. Everybody has to wait for the person down the ally to use the available ramps and most times waiting slows things down and we can’t get many games in.”
So, Renee enlisted the help of fellow co-worker Zach Woelfel and their friend Dillion Vanne, to do something about it to use their combined talents to create and build a bowling ramp on their own.
“It was when we were watching and waiting during bowling with the clients that the idea came to us. So we all got together later to work out the design and a few days later we had our bowling ramp!”Said the three.
“The ramp has been on the Day Services wish-list for a pretty long time,” said Amy Martell, Day Services Manager. “To buy them they’re expensive and most of the ramps are large and hard to transport.”
The three took a lot into consideration with the design of the ramp making the height just right for someone standing as well as making the front section light and able to be detached to rest on someone’s legs if they’re in a wheelchair.
All three agreed that working on the project together has been fun to do. But that’s not all... they have plans to make at least two more of the ramps for Day Services and another to donate to a deserving person they know who could really use one of their own.
“We knew that having a ramp for Day Service is something that will make the client’s life easier and make bowling a lot more fun for them,”said Renee.“Working in Day Service has given us so much per- sonally that we just wanted to give something back.” ♥
Summer 2014 . NHC in-ACTION | 7
The Spirit of Giving...
That’s Awkward!
From a global perspective, nothing less than an economical and cultural shift to full humanity for people with disabilities will improve all attitudes to disability – with time, money, effort and acknowledgement that people with disabilities are people who matter will eventually bring change, albeit a slow process. That, my friend, is the hard truth, however terribly awkward.
So, how do you talk to someone who isn’t like you are? How do you interact with a disability?
Olivia Dedering, Comprehensive Reha- bilition Specialist at New Hope Center of- fers a few suggestions. “ Use person first language. Person first language places the person before the disability.” She offers, “An example in conversation would be to say ‘people with cognitive disabilities’ instead of using the ‘R’ word. Also, when talking to a person with a disability make eye contact and talk to them. Imagine what it might be like if on a daily basis someone was always talking to the person next to you.”
Awkwardness creates awkwardness...
So we asked several of our clients at New Hope Center, “What would you say to someone who doesn’t know what to say to you?”The answer was pretty simple. Almost everyone said they would just say “Hi, I’m ____, what’s you’re name? Then take it from there. ♥