Independence Empowerment Center

Time has really flown since our August Issue of YOUR POWER.  We at Independence Empowerment Center stay busy with a constant whirlwind of activity.  The following is just an example.

Local elections occurred, and I can only hope you voted.  (We have plenty of voter applications here at the office.)  If any of you had any accessibility issues at your polling place, please let us know.  A year from now will be the National election and we have to make it clear that the Disability Vote Counts!

We also had a table at The ARC of Prince William County’s Circle of Support.  This annual event draws a crowd of 500+.  It was like “old home day” visiting with our own consumers and their family members.  Our own Roberta McEachern spoke at two different workshops, sharing on information and referral resources and on things you need to know about Medicaid.

Board President, Jan McNulty and I joined two other board members, Bonnie Hawley and Brendon Cunningham at Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, Northern Region’s Disability Employment Champions Award Luncheon, where we received a Champions in Partnership Award.  There we saw a beautiful DVD produced by Brendon Cunningham about his own experience with paraplegia.  I hope that many of you will have the opportunity to view it one day.

Our accountant, Brenda Walker and I accompanied Bill Ward to the 25th Anniversay Dinner of ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia (ECNV).  We had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Ward presented with their Independent Living Award.  Many of you may recall that we initially began as a Satellite of ECNV, and Mr. Ward had been IEC’s first Executive Director.  We only have about 17 years to reach our 25th anniversary!

I continue to work on a Citizen’s Corp to discuss Emergency Preparedness for people with disabilities.  We have posted articles onthe topic in the past and wold be happy to resend if you request.  We also have information posted on our website at www.ieccil.org.  However, there are two key things for you to keep in mind…1) Preparedness begins with you.  2) You need to have a plan of your own.

Finally, IEC held a very successful social event on November 15th.  We had a crowd of about 50 at Ruby Tuesday’s.  It was masterminded by two board members, Bob Sevigny and Brendon Cunningham, with hours of labor put in by the staff at IEC to pull together a crowd.  It was a great event!  Thank you to everyone who came.  Stay tuned for more events - including our Holiday Gathering on December 18th.

Fall 2007 Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 4