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April 2008 SCI CONNECTOR
If you’d like to register to be in the FUN*RUN go to www.adaptfunrun.org or you can sponsor one of the SCI Network’s Board Members: for Bobby Coward go to www.adaptfunrun.org/sponsor?id= 76 or David Burds go to www.adaptfunrun.org/sponsor.php?id=62. The proceeds will be split with Nat’l ADAPT and the SCI Network.
photo: 2007 ADAPT FUN*RUNners at the Upper Senate Park in DC
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The Adventist Knights began their 2007 - 08 season by hosting a very successful Division III tournament. Nine teams came together from California, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA, Charlottesville, Virginia Beach and Harrisonburg, VA, Baltimore and Rockville, MD and Washington, DC. The tournament was extremely competitive and featured two Division II Champions. The Baltimore Ravens won the title two years ago and the CRS Hotwheels (of Cudahy, CA) are the current champions. So it was fitting that those two teams squared off in the championship game. The Hotwheels took the title with stifling defense and dazzling speed. They also went on to win the New York tournament the following weekend. This is a rebuilding year for the Knights whose roster is made up mostly of novice-level players. In spite of this, the team finished in seventh place in the tournament. The tournament was well-attended with lots of fans and received considerable coverage from the media. In addition to rebuilding, the Knight are placing lots of emphasis on job training and education. In fact, Ebony Lynn is not with the team this year because she has gone on to study at Edinboro University in Edinboro, PA. Harsh Thakkar has also been accepted to Edinboro and will begin classes in the spring. Stefon Butler has been accepted at Essex Community College and will start classes in the spring semester as well. The Knights will continue to stress education, job training, community involvement, independent living and maturity with its young players. The team will continue to aggressively recruit young players for the Greater Washington, DC area in its quest to help those who experience mobility-impairing injury and illness "Get Back Into Life."
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Redskins Season Tickets Raffle
The chances sell for $100 each with a limit of 100 available for purchase. Along with the Redskin tickets as 1st place prize, there are nine 2nd place cash prizes of $200. This allows for one in ten chances of winning, if not the tickets, at least double your money back. The drawing for the winners will take place in August 2008 at the annual picnic which will again be at the ENDependence Center of Northern Virgnia (ECNV), 3100 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, VA 22201. If there are those of you who have never purchased the $100 chance and have other questions about the raffle and picnic please contact the office. Chances will be sent out in the near future.
SCI Board President and Treasurer may call your name!
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Golf Tournament The golf event offers a chance for you to have a hand in the future of the Network's programs and services with your involvement. We are currently forming this year's Steering Committee. And based upon our past success, we know that we will need at least four operating sub-committees: Volunteer Recruitment, Pledges and Sponsorships, Golfer Recruitment, and Publicity. We desperately need help with all of these important functions. If you would like to help us build this year's success from the ground up, please call the SCI Network office today at (301) 424-8335 or Jesse Parker, President at (703) 851-1954. You may also e-mail Jesse at jesseparker@msn.com. We look forward to your involvement.
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In the new 2007-2008 Washington, DC Access Guide, you will find everything you need to know about the accessibility of the area’s hottest attractions as well as information on other resources for people with disabilities. Their website, www.DisabilityGuide.org, includes a huge database with a search engine to locate information related to disabilities. In addition to their very popular guide to restaurants and entertainment venues, they offer an enormous amount of information on topics such as support groups and vendors of assistive technology, as well as a discussion forum. Access Information, Inc was born on July 26, 2000 with the simple goal of giving the disabled in the Washington, DC area more information to make their journeys around the metropolitan area easier and more "accessible." Access Information, Inc is listed under the "Tips for Travelers with Special Needs" as the best disability resource for the Washington, DC area in the 2003 edition of Frommer’s, one of the largest and most respected travel guidebooks. [ top ]
In conjunction with the Access Guide, Russ has helped the SCI Consortium to develope the 2008-2009 SCI Resource Guide. This booklet has become a valuable tool for persons with a new SCI or a person new to the Greater Washington DC area. It lists the most frequently sought Spinal Cord Injury services in this region. The SCI Consortium - Greater Metropolitan Washington Area is a group of healthcare providers with a particular interest in and individuals living with SCI. For more info, email Russ at info@disabilityguide.org. [ top ]
The SCI Network has been operating since 1982 as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. For most of those years it has been run by an all volunteer board, as it currently is, and has also been able to maintain an office. We’ve been able to keep the doors open because of fund raising events, small grants and because of a few very generous donors in the past. The SCI Network Board is currently talking seriously about closing the office because of the lack of funds. This may happen within the next few months if we are unable to find the resources to keep the rent paid. We’re asking the membership to help us with the events listed in the current newsletter: Fun*Run; Golf Tournament; Redskin Season Tickets Raffle. We will appreciate any type of donation you may be able to make to help us. [ top ] |
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The FUN*RUN is an event where sponsored people will run, walk, jog and/or roll around Upper Senate Park to raise funds supporting disability rights. The FUN*RUN will kick off a week of activities celebrating ADAPT's 25 yrs. of activism and the changes that have promoted the community integration of people with disabilities of all ages. 
This spring will mark the 25th Anniversary of ADAPT. We'll be celebrating in Washington, DC from April 26th to May 2nd. We'll be holding the Fun*Run on Sunday April 27th. Monday through Wednesday there will be actions to call for solutions to issues regarding ending the institutional bias and FREEING OUR PEOPLE! Then Wednesday night the party begins with "When You Remember Me" a film with Fred Savage, Kevin Spacey and Ellen Burstyn that chronicles the start of Atlantis Community that started ADAPT. May 1st there will be an ADAPT history room. We'll be collecting oral histories (StoryCorps will be there and we’ll also be collecting our own) and stories from the past 25 yrs., we'll have a cookout and then in the evening a big show highlighting the past 25 yrs. of adventures, followed by a party, dance and all that! The ADAPT website www.adapt.org and the celebration site www.adapt25.org have lots more info for you!
ADAPT and their members have been working to preserve and protect the rights of Americans with disabilities, and to end the institutional bias that for too long has forced too many of our fellow citizens with disabilities into nursing homes and institutions instead of allowing them to live independent lives in their own homes and communities.
The annual Redskin Season Tickets raffle is being geared up for this year’s sale of 100 chances. The SCI Network of is again selling chances on a pair of Redskin Season tickets (8 home games). 
Work has begun for another successful Golf Lovers' Tournament. This year's effort will feature 36 holes of golf and combine extended play with partnering sponsorships and individual pledges. Our goal is to recruit a minimum of 50 golfers and 100 volunteers to help us manage the event and, more importantly, to help secure per hole pledges for the golfers. Each golfer will be expected to raise a minimum of $1,000 in pledges for the holes of golf played.
SCI Network Member Russ Holt and his friend founded Access Information, Inc. to provide accessibility information from the proper perspective: that of a person with a disability.