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Best Buddies International is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, inclusive living, and family support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).Lindsay Jewett is the Director of Mission Advancement for the Rochester Office of Best Buddies. In this episode we discuss why she was drawn to working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and how her personal mission has evolved over the years. We also spend time discussing the amazing work of the local, national, and international arms of this nonprofit organization.Website: https://www.bestbuddies.org/newyork/Support the show
In this kickoff episode of our summer series, host Michelle Malik sits down with Jordan Rembrecht, the newest Career Specialist at College of DuPage and newest host of The Career Ready Podcast. Jordan shares her career journey—from volunteering in high school and switching majors in college to working in HR and eventually joining Career Services.Hear how mentorship, internships, and involvement in programs like Best Buddies and the COACH program helped shape her path. Jordan also offers advice for students exploring careers and navigating the job search.
Best Buddies State Director Katey DeMarais talks about their annual Friendship Walk. An event that supports the non profit that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities all over the world.
Best Buddies State Director Katey DeMarais talks about their annual Friendship Walk. An event that supports the non profit that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities all over the world.
Have you ever gone on a holiday that's exciting, full of disaster or very beautiful? Well, we sure have! We are the Best Buddies, and we are going to tell you our holiday tales and stories. From beautiful islands to squishy car rides we have it all wrapped up into one amazing podcast. Check out all the podcasts from Xavier at https://www.archdradio.com/podcasts/slp/xavier-evanston
In this episode, I was joined by Jennifer Corriveau, a health and wellness coach and owner of Integrity Nutrition.We discussed Jenn's journey from corporate life to entrepreneurship, the importance of community in health and wellness, and her advocacy for inclusion through Best Buddies.Jenn shares her personal experience with cancer, emphasizing the power of mindset and resilience.The conversation also touches on the role of supplements in nutrition, dispelling myths about supplements, and the significance of a balanced lifestyle.Jenn's positive outlook and 'get to' mentality should help you to embrace life's challenges and find joy in everyday experiences.TakeawaysJennifer Corriveau is a health and wellness coach with a passion for helping others.She transitioned from a corporate job to owning Integrity Nutrition during the pandemic.Building a community around health and wellness is crucial for success.Jenn emphasizes the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle post-competition.Fundraising initiatives have raised over $50,000 for local charities.Best Buddies promotes inclusion and friendship for individuals with disabilities.Herbalife products are meant to supplement a healthy lifestyle, not replace real food.A balanced approach to nutrition is essential for long-term success.Jenn's cancer journey taught her the importance of mindset and resilience.Living with a 'get to' mentality can transform daily experiences.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Health and Wellness Coaching03:04 Journey to Integrity Nutrition06:12 The Importance of Community in Wellness08:56 Fundraising and Giving Back12:03 Understanding Herbalife and Nutrition14:47 Passion for Helping Others17:57 Challenges in Health and Wellness Coaching35:48 Embracing Imperfection in Fitness Journeys38:02 The Relationship with Food: Balance and Enjoyment41:57 Planning for Success: The 80-20 Rule46:34 Incremental Changes for Lasting Impact54:44 Facing Adversity: Jennifer's Cancer Journey01:05:28 Control Your Controllables: A Mindset Shift
In this episode of the Nonprofit Leadership Podcast, Dr. Rob Harter is joined by Anthony Kennedy Shriver, founder, chairman, and CEO of Best Buddies ...
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Disability rights activist Tim Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics, editor of The Call to Unite and author of Fully Alive, delves into the profound impact of unity and dignity in education and beyond. Shriver eloquently discusses the transformative power of inclusion, recounting personal anecdotes and professional experiences that highlight how bringing people together fosters empathy, resilience, and a sense of belonging. He emphasizes the critical role of educators in nurturing these values, advocating for the integration of programs like unified sports and Best Buddies in schools to bridge divides and promote mutual respect. Shriver also introduces the Dignity Index, a tool designed to measure and encourage respectful dialogue, which he believes is essential in combating the pervasive culture of contempt. His insights are not only a call to action for educational leaders but also a beacon of hope, underscoring the potential for societal change through compassionate leadership and community engagement. This interview is a must-listen for those committed to fostering inclusive environments and driving positive change in their communities.Let us know what you think!
Brendan Aylward has devoted his life to making fitness accessible to everyone, and this year, for the second year in a row, he will be racing with Jacob Wyman as a Team Hoyt Duo at the Boston Marathon. While Brendan's race times are certainly impressive (he and Jacob have a marathon PR of 2:55), what's even more impressive is Brendan's commitment to inclusion in sport.In this episode, Brendan, the founder of Unified Health & Performance and AdaptX, shares how his involvement in the Best Buddies program in high school led to a career focused on ensuring that athletes of all abilities can pursue their goals.Speaking of which, Brendan takes great pride in racing for Team Hoyt New England with Jacob.. Rick and Dick Hoyt have been a major influence on Brendan's career path and this year Brendan and Jacob are so excited to run Boston for the second consecutive year for Team Hoyt. In this episode, Brendan shares how he trains and races while pushing Jacob from Hopkinton to Boston and what the experience meant to both of them.We hope you are as inspired by Brendan and Jacob as we are. To learn more about Brendan and AdaptX, check out AdaptX.org. Brendan also hosts a weekly podcast, the AdaptX Podcast, in which he amplifies the voices and ideas of individuals who are building accessible businesses or products, advocating for inclusion, or excelling in adaptive sports.Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at @runfartherandfaster.Interested in hiring a coach? Email us at julieandlisa@runfartherandfaster.com or head over to our NEW website (www.runfartherandfaster.com)! Please follow, share and review our show!
Our guest this week is Rady Johnson of Westport, CT, a recently retired senior executive at Pfizer and a father of three including one with intellectual disabilities.Rady and his wife, Diane, have been married for 38 years and are the proud parents of three children: Katherine (36), Bridget (30) and Michael (34) who was adopted from Romania as a one year old and who has intellectual disabilities.Despite a wide range of challenges, Michael has lead a pretty remarkable life. Through organizations like Special Olympics, Best Buddies and church youth groups, Michael has grown and developed. Remarkably, Michael holds down three jobs; one as an office aid a Tauck, the world-wide travel agency, another on the maintenance crew at a Long Island beach, and a third at Marshall's the department store. The Johnson family story is a shing example about commitment and the importance of communityall on this episode of the SFN Dad to Dad Podcast.Show LinksPhone – (917) 545-3090Email – Rady.Johnson@outlook.comLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rady-johnson-0ab46a7/MIRA Usa Guide Dogs For The Blind https://www.mirausa.orgRegister for the 6th Annual SFN Dads Virthual Conference on May 10, 2025: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/TLkN_ViJTTqnaK-M8pHPNA After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.Special Fathers Network -SFN is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs. Many of the 800+ SFN Mentor Fathers, who are raising kids with special needs, have said: "I wish there was something like this when we first received our child's diagnosis. I felt so isolated. There was no one within my family, at work, at church or within my friend group who understood or could relate to what I was going through."SFN Mentor Fathers share their experiences with younger dads closer to the beginning of their journey raising a child with the same or similar special needs. The SFN Mentor Fathers do NOT offer legal or medical advice, that is what lawyers and doctors do. They simply share their experiences and how they have made the most of challenging situations.Check out the 21CD YouTube Channel with dozens of videos on topics relevant to dads raising children with special needs - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzDFCvQimWNEb158ll6Q4cA/videosPlease support the SFN. Click here to donate: https://21stcenturydads.org/donate/Special Fathers Network: https://21stcenturydads.org/
We play Mind the Gap, Dave's Dirt, and more!
We play Mind the Gap, Dave's Dirt, and more!
We play Mind the Gap, Dave's Dirt, and more!
Best Buddies: Champions of Disability Inclusion with Anthony Kennedy Shriver In this episode of ‘Pushing Forward with Alycia,' Alycia welcomes Anthony Kennedy Shriver, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Best Buddies International, to honor Best Buddies Month and Spread the Word Day. They discuss the harmful use of the ‘R word,' the growth and impact of Best Buddies since its establishment in 1989, and Anthony's personal inspirations from his family, including his mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and his aunt, Rosemary Kennedy. The conversation highlights the importance of employment, social connections, leadership, and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Anthony emphasizes the cultural shift towards inclusion, the powerful role of companies in creating inclusive environments, and Best Buddies' various initiatives, including employment programs, leadership training, and the exciting new launch of a dating app in collaboration with Bumble for people with special abilities. Themes That Shaped the Conversation The True Spirit of America
Gartenkrimiqueen Martina Parker und "Geht's noch" Autorin Susanne Kristek sind Schreibschwestern, Bestsellerautorinnen, Best Buddies und als Gäste in dieser Podcast-Folge so witzig und gutgelaunt wie ehrlich, offen und liebevoll. In diesem Talk mit Verlagskollegin und Podcast-Host Dagmar Hager talken sie über das wahre Leben als Autorinnen, was Freundinnen alles füreinander tun (Unglaubliches! Stichwort Schreibblockade), neue Projekte, den "Zuagroast-Film, was um alles in der Welt Kartoffelsamen sind, und über so viel mehr.
Join Dr. Shine on What's Your Shine? The Happy Podcast for an empowering conversation with Annette, the reigning Miss Texas and an advocate for autism awareness. Discover how Annette's unique background—being the first immigrant to win Miss Texas—has become a cornerstone of her authentic brand. She candidly discusses how embracing authenticity, staying true to herself, and making bold choices, like cutting her hair short before competition, propelled her to success and encouraged others to see themselves represented in pageantry. Annette also opens up about her personal connection to autism advocacy, sparked by a terrifying experience involving her younger brother Andrew. Her dedication has led her to partner with national organizations like Autism Speaks and Best Buddies, aiming to create essential training programs for law enforcement and educators to better support individuals on the autism spectrum. Key Topics: Annette's journey to becoming Miss Texas and placing first runner-up at Miss America Authenticity and confidence in pageantry and beyond Her platform, the SPARK Project, and its impact on autism awareness and safety The importance of friendship, community, and self-care in balancing a demanding public role Practical strategies for advocacy, awareness, and creating positive change Tune in for this heartfelt discussion on resilience, authenticity, and the power of saying yes to new opportunities.
Today we're talking with members of Backlight Productions and Best Buddies, two organizations dedicated to building bridges, friendships, and having fun with people of all abilities. We'll also learn about a new mentoring program for caregivers and an online tool that makes finding resources for anyone with a disability easier. Join us!Today's episode was produced by Katherine Ceicys.GUESTS Melissa Smith, CEO Backlight Productions Fernanda Aguilar, Backlight Productions performer, Best Buddies participant Zack Wood, Backlight Productions performer, Best Buddies participant Zack McCann, Backlight Productions performer, Best Buddies participant Kara Jackson, Backlight Productions performer, Best Buddies participant Elise Cofer, Deputy Director, Eunies Buddies Tennessee of Best Buddies Dave Krikac, founder The Gear Foundation, developed Ask Stella Now
This week we have an Anniewood favorite on! Greg Fitzsimmons drops in to talk about his breakdancing past, crazy party stories, his new special "You Know Me", and much much more! "Welcome to AnnieWood Tour" dates - check them out and catch her in your city! https://www.annielederman.com/shows And just so you don't forget, here's Todd's YouTube channel: @officejungle-t7n https://www.youtube.com/@officejungle-t7n Want more, Annie? Of course you do! Here's where you can find her: MEMBERSHIP: Join the Movement and subscribe to our new Patreon! With uncensored and ad-free weekly episodes, exclusive live-stream content, raffles and giveaways, viewer awards, and more! You don't want to miss all the action happening here on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/annielederman YOUTUBE: Thanks for checking out my podcast, AnnieWood! Click to Subscribe! https://localast.ro/SubAnnie New episodes every Thursday at 9am PST / 12pm EST! INSTAGRAM: Please give us a follow on our NEW Anniewood Podcast Instagram channel for BTS content and a bunch of exclusive media and live videos! @welcome2anniewood WEBSITE: Head to my website, http://annielederman.com for some kicka$$ merch and a list of all my tour dates! Can't wait to see you all out on the road! OUR SPONSOR (THANK YOU!): Get special discounts from our sponsors using the codes below! Support the show and get 10% off the best hummer ever. Use code ANNIE at https://www.autoblow.com Support the show and start earning points when you pay your rent. Head to https://www.joinbilt.com/ANNIE Produced and Edited by: Walker Media @toddwalker.mp4 This Video Podcast Contains Paid Advertising. #AnnieLederman #AnnieWood #interview #comedy #podcast #netflix #gregfitzsimmons #bestbuddies
Greg Germann is an actor known for his work in film, television and on Broadway where he starred with Mark Rylance in BOEING BOEING. He was a member of Circle Repertory Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre and has performed at Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, La Mama, Second Stage among others. Created roles in Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, Steve Martin's Meteor Shower, Only You, Found A Peanut and many more. He has also appeared in numerous films including TALEDEGA NIGHTS, FRIENDS WITH MONEY, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, SWEET NOVEMBER, QUARANTINED, ONCE AROUND, among others. Greg is best known for the many characters he has created on the small screen, including Tom Koracick on GREY'S ANATOMY and Richard Fish on ALLY McBEAL, as well as House of Lies, Once Upon a Time and many more. During the war in Afghanistan Greg traveled there twice as a goodwill ambassador, visiting thousands of troops from Kandahar to Kabul along with dozens of Forward Operating Bases (F.O.B's) across the country. For over 15 years he's been involved with Anthony Shriver's organization BEST BUDDIES, which is dedicated to creating employment and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). At one time servingon the California Advisory Board. For almost 20 years Greg has had the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors for THE PEOPLE CONCERN Los Angeles, whichis dedicated not just to manage the unacceptable crisis of people experiencing homelessness, but ending it! Greg recently served as the Board Chair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
(00:42) Meet Ben D'Amico, the executive development chef for Giant Eagle's Market District stores, who takes us on a culinary journey through the world of large-format grocery chains. From humble beginnings as an intern to crafting prepared foods for 24 locations, Ben shares the exciting and challenging aspects of his role, including creative collaborations like 'Flights and Bites' with Ana Eats Pittsburgh or exclusive menus for collegiate soccer teams. (08:11) Ben takes us behind the scenes, revealing the complexities of maintaining consistency and quality across multiple locations. His insights into evolving consumer tastes showcase how Market District stays ahead of the game, offering customers options that range from budget-friendly to premium quality.(23:16) Beyond the corporate kitchen, Ben shares his work with 'Best Buddies' partner Tori, on a unique pasta dish that reflects the flavors of Italy and Greece, set to be a highlight at the upcoming Taste Buds event. Ben also opens up about his Italian and Slovak roots, emphasizing the importance of family traditions like the Feast of the Seven Fishes, and we also get a quick mention of his wife's children's book, "Harvey's Hamburgers." (33:25) Plus Chantal and Alex Huff reveal their recent visit to Reva Modern Indian Cuisine, and Chris Fennimore of QED Cooks shares an updated approach to a beloved seafood dish. Have a seat at the table and enjoy!Support the showLiked the episode? We'd love a coffee!
More of your calls on what Candy bar best relates to Jayden Daniels + could Juan Soto come back to DC? full The Chris Russell Show Hour 2: -Right back out to your calls on what type of Candy bar best represents Jayden Daniels -Chris takes some time to talk about the upcoming Bestbuddies auction tomorrow -Closing out the calls on what Candy bar would Jayden be -Juan Soto is now a free agent after the Yankees lost, could he come back to DC? 2567 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 20:17:00 +0000 BKXQaSOElGNrclHROre1T4oAGWueJa2X sports The Chris Russell Show sports More of your calls on what Candy bar best relates to Jayden Daniels + could Juan Soto come back to DC? Chris discusses and debates DC sports on his daily show. Get informed and opinionated discussion of the Washington Commanders, the Nationals, Capitals, Wizards, and more. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. Sports False
The Chris Russell Show- Full Show Thriller Halloween Thursday, October 31st, 2024 full -Chris opens up the Halloween show by asking what Candybar best represents Jayden Daniels -Call lines open up to give your take on what type of candy bar is Jayden Daniels -right back out to your calls on what candy Jayden Daniels best represents -Closing out the hour with what Halloween candy bar best correlates to Jayden Daniels -Right back out to your calls on what type of Candy bar best represents Jayden Daniels -Chris takes some time to talk about the upcoming Bestbuddies auction tomorrow -Closing out the calls on what Candy bar would Jayden be -Juan Soto is now a free agent after the Yankees lost, could he come back to DC? -Chris goes off on Dallas Geodert's Halloween costume + more on if Juan could come to DC -Cleanup on Aisle 3:MLB trades are underway, Capitals play the Canadiens tonight in DC, Wizards managed to get their second straight win over the Hawks - Commanders Guard Nick Allegretti joins the show after practice. Nick talks about his big hit during the Hail Mary and his progression through the big moment, his experience with walk-off wins, the issues with man downfield calls, what comparisons can he draw between Jayden and his time with Patrick Mahomes, and more -Moron of the Month: Ravens fan who beat up two Commanders fan after the game will be facing a lot of jail time 7881 Thu, 31 Oct 2024 20:21:00 +0000 jfSJAawcb4iUovPaweGFrAeYEFbvIo5U sports The Chris Russell Show sports The Chris Russell Show- Full Show Thriller Halloween Thursday, October 31st, 2024 Chris discusses and debates DC sports on his daily show. Get informed and opinionated discussion of the Washington Commanders, the Nationals, Capitals, Wizards, and more. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. Sports False https://pla
In this episode, I speak to Jeanne and Sara from Best Buddies. Best Buddies International is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, inclusive living, and family support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).I found this episode to be very informative and inspiring. They are currently looking for people to become buddies in their citizens' program to be matched for a one-to-one friendship. After listening to this episode I hope that you will feel inspired too and will get involved in whatever capacity you can. For more information about Best Buddies in your community please visit https://www.bestbuddies.org/If you are in New Hampshire visit https://www.bestbuddies.org/newhampshire/Be sure to follow Dose of Good on social media for the latest updates on the PodcastFacebook -https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552349588905Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dose_of_good_podcast/?utm_source=qrYouTube - / @doseofgoodpodcast
Partners in PROMISE is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect the rights of military children in special education and disability communities to ensure they receive equal access to education. Listen as Dr. Jenna Kremkow and Carla Wyrsch discuss how the PROMISE advocates for military children with special and exceptional needs. This podcast is made possible by generous funding from the Tinker Spouses Club. To learn more, visit https://www.tinkerspouses.org/. Audio mixing by Concentus Media, Inc., Temple, Texas. Show Notes: Resources: Partners in PROMISE https://thepromiseact.org/ Partners in PROMISE Special Education & EFMP Binder https://thepromiseact.org/binder/ Educator Report https://thepromiseact.org/educators-report-partners-in-promise-2022-research-findings/ Bio: Jenna Kremkow is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Elmhurst University. She completed her MS and PhD at The Pennsylvania State University with an emphasis in autism, augmentative and alternative communication, child language disorders, and stakeholder training and perspectives. Clinically, Jenna has worked as a speech-language pathologist in elementary schools, outpatient clinics, and early intervention settings. Jenna teaches courses in augmentative and alternative communication, autism, language disorders in children, and research methods. One of her research areas focuses on the experiences of military families with children with autism and the use of technology to improve communication outcomes and quality of life for children with autism and their families. Her goal is to use research to support data-driven recommendations and policy changes to improve special education services for military families. Carla Wyrsch is the spouse of a retired United States Marine and mother of two. She has devoted her career to educating and advocating for children with disABILITIES. Her experience spans a variety of settings, including residential treatment facilities, military bases, public schools, and the Lerner School for Autism at the Cleveland Clinic. Currently, she is a School Operations Director with MIYO Health. In addition to her work with MIYO Health, Carla enjoys volunteering with Best Buddies of Greater Memphis, the Organization for Autism Research, and Partners in PROMISE as a content creator and advisory board member.
In this episode, we have the honor of sitting down with a true legend in the New England cycling community—Richard Fries. Richard is the Co-Founder of Domestique Events, which organizes two incredible gravel events: the Lime Rock Epic and the Natchaug Epic. He also serves as the Director of Cycling Experience at Best Buddies International, a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities and support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.In this episode, Richard shares his remarkable journey in cycling, from his early days as a bike racer to his current roles as an event producer, advocate, and commentator. We dig into his career highlights, including his time working with the UCI as their first official English-language announcer and his leadership role at MassBike. Richard also discusses the important work Best Buddies does to foster inclusion through its charity rides and cycling programs, and how he helps make those events some of the safest and most enjoyable rides in the country.We also explore how to make cycling more inclusive, bridge the gap between different types of cyclists, and hear about Richard's thoughts on e-bikes and the decline of road racing in New England. Finally, Richard gives us an insider's look at the Lime Rock Epic and Natchaug Epic—two must-ride events for any gravel enthusiast!Tune in for an inspiring conversation about endurance sports, cycling advocacy, and why New England truly is the best region for cyclists.**Episode Highlights:**- Richard's early career in cycling, his time as a race announcer, and founding Domestique Events- The mission of Best Buddies and its impact on the community through cycling- Insights on making cycling more inclusive and accessible- The challenges and rewards of putting on iconic gravel events like the Lime Rock and Natchaug Epics- Richard's favorite rides and thoughts on the future of New England cyclingFor more information, check out Domestique Events and Best Buddies. Be sure to follow us on Instagram @newenglandendurance to stay updated on future episodes and events!Art & Eric embark on a journey to showcase and celebrate the endurance sports community in New England.
Host Jeremy C. Park talks with Morgan Tansey, Area Director with Best Buddies Tennessee, who highlights the organization's history and efforts to establish a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for One-to-One Friendships, Integrated Employment, Leadership Development, and Family Support programs for individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in Tennessee.During the interview, Morgan discusses the power of the One-to-One Friendships with their school based programs that start in PreK and extend through college, and their Citizens program for adults. She shares some testimonials and talks about the ripple effect of creating community champions for inclusivity, and highlights some of the other programs with the Integrated Employment and Leadership Development. Morgan wraps up discussing ways the community can get involved to support their efforts, including some upcoming gala events in the fall.Visit https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/ to learn more and get involved.
There were some big events that happened this weekend with Tough Mudder Infinity in Pittsburg, the final Conquer the Gauntlet under the Mainprize ownership, the first of the Savage Point Series races in Maryland, and the Spartan European Championships, but we covered the final BoldrDash OCR in Exeter, RI! BoldrDash as a race series had a huge role to play in our overall OCR history! It was Mike's 9th ever OCR, and Katelyn's 7th ever OCR back on May 3rd 2014 (video here). We have also volunteered more at this race than any other, whether it was Mike waking up really early to volunteer all day at an obstacle, or helping people through the course with the Find Your Bold/all abilities team! While it didn't have the huge reputation around the country or even world like FIT Challenge had with the annual community awards, it was still an integral aspect of local OCR in New England! Lynn Hall started these events back in 2011, has put on events at incredible venues such as beaches, ski hills, and former amusement park land, before settling at a permanent course at Canonicus the past few years. We wish Lynn the best in what she continues to do with Find Your Bold! Lastly, if you have information as to the spelling or last name of the guests in this episode, we would appreciate it. 0:00 – 6:40 – Intro 6:40 – 18:17 – Quick News 18:17 – 21:03 – Content Preface 21:03 - 25:27 - Start Line Audio 25:27 - 1:13:29 - Interviews (Laura Conkelin, Lisa Addelin, and Emily Addelin, Jasmine Somatis, Kya, and Kaleen, Katie Callahan, Eric, Anthony, Jose, Jack, and Jesus, Andy, and Matt, Caroline Fritz, Becky, Steve Bacon, Jacqueline, Connor Nolan, and Sandra Pearson, Mike, Kristen, Angelica, Dazar, Amir, and Kesha, Lee Carney, and Tracy Carney, Ryan McGowan, Joe Cronin, and Kevin LaPlatney, Greg Hall, David, Josh Fiore, Amy Haskell, Andy Haskell, Mike Stefano) 1:13:29 - 1:21:35 - Lynn Hall Interview 1:21:35 - End – Outro Next weekend we will have an episode on Spartan Pan American Championship in Seattle, the Killington Spartan Beast, or something else! ____ News Stories: Mike Lozan Death and Celebration of Life Run Obstacle Wonderland Course on Plattekill Day Anthony Kunkle Taking on OCRWC Evan Perperis New Book Carlo's Dog Peaches Cerus Fitness News Shield Justice Looking for Tough Mudder Sonoma 2023 Participants (Can't Find Ad but Here is Related Reddit Post) We Were Featured in OCR Directory Jack Carpenter's Brain Tumor Tyler Matechak Taking on The Barkley Fall Classic 50K Lindsay Webster Registered for Canadian Trail Racing Championships Spartan Canada National Series Kelowna Beast Podiums Spartan Kelowna Super Podiums Spartan Canadian National Series Results Spartan West Virginia Beast Podiums Spartan West Virginia Super Podiums Savage Maryland Podiums Car Seesaw Secret Link Baba Transition Secret Link Gym Pokemon Secret Link Old Gymnast Secret Link Old Runners Secret Link ____ Related Episodes: 71. Color Me Bold with Lynn Hall, Find Your Bold, Best Buddies, and P90X Instructor Certification! 117. BoldrDash WinterDash with Lynn Hall and Crazy AF News! 140. Thrive Outside in the Mud with Brooke Merriam and Lynn Hall! 187. BoldrDash Bootcamp and Challenges with Lynn Hall! 221. BoldrDash Winter Dash with Race Director Lynn Hall! 381. New England OCR Expo! (Part 1: Vendors) ____ The OCR Report Patreon Supporters: Jason Dupree, Kim DeVoss, Samantha Thompson, Matt Puntin, Brad Kiehl, Charlotte Engelman, Erin Grindstaff, Hank Stefano, Arlene Stefano, Laura Ritter, Steven Ritter, Sofia Harnedy, Kenny West, Cheryl Miller, Jessica Johnson, Scott "The Fayne" Knowles, Nick Ryker, Christopher Hoover, Kevin Gregory Jr., Evan Eirich, Ashley Reis, Brent George, Justin Manning, Wendell Lagosh, Logan Nagle, Angela Bowers, Asa Coddington, Thomas Petersen, Seth Rinderknecht, and Bonnie Wilson. Sponsored Athletes: Javier Escobar, Kelly Sullivan, Ryan Brizzolara, and Joshua Reid! Support us on Patreon for exclusive content and access to our Facebook group Check out our Threadless Shop Use coupon code "adventure" for 15% off MudGear products Use coupon code "ocrreport20" for 20% off Caterpy products Like us on Facebook: Obstacle Running Adventures Follow our podcast on Instagram: @ObstacleRunningAdventures Write us an email: obstaclerunningadventures@gmail.com Subscribe on Youtube: Obstacle Running Adventures Intro music - "Streaker" by: Straight Up Outro music - "Iron Paw" by: Dubbest
Privileged Twinks: A Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Podcast
This week all of the best friends fall apart! Ayan is upset at how others think she acts around Lesa. Lesa is still feuding with Taleen, but shifts her attention to Ayan at her and Stanbury's goodbye Dubai party. Sara and Akin call things off, and we get a preview of the first reunion episode. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with your RHODubai friends and follow us on Instagram at @privilegedtwinks --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/privilegedtwinks/support
If you have not yet done so, please subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, and Spotify. And also like us on Facebook at Adulting with Autism Podcast. Also, we have the website, Adulting with Autism with Merchandise. 20% will go to a nonprofit sponsoring those that need housing and a transition program. Thanks. Hey guys, welcome to Adulting with Autism, the podcast where we dive into the roller coaster of adulthood through a neurodiverse lens. I'm April Ratchford, your friendly occupational therapist mom, proudly on the spectrum and raising an amazing young adult son with autism. Join us as we share stories, tips, and laughs, offering a supportive space for anyone navigating life's twists and turns. Grab your drink of choice, no judgment, and let's embark on this journey together. This is Adulting with Autism. Hey guys, hey. Happy Saturday. I know I've been MIA the last week and I need to catch up. It's been a rough sort of week for the last couple of weeks, and I've been overwhelmed and having some doubts, and it's been tough. It's been really, really tough. Just like some of you guys, I do have doubts, and just like your moms and dads and other parental units, I get extremely exhausted and tired and the lack of community is hard. And this leads me to my next guest. Kevin Johnson not only helped take care of his brother, he took care of another son he has that is on the autism spectrum. Now, his brother has an intellectual disability. He primarily helped raise his brother with his mom while his father was away. I think in the military, he'll give you more of an insight, but that helped him when his son was born and he and his wife found out that his son had autism, prepare for the difficulties that they had to face with everything, preparing their son for the hardships that we have to prepare you guys for. And one thing he did say is that it's not a sprint. It's a marathon. And parents, we are going to be exhausted. And. We need to be a community. And that's what I'm trying to form is a community for us to lean on one another because it is a marathon and there's no other way around it. It's not going to be a sprint and it's going to take a while for our kids to launch and to find the resources that they need to be on their own. And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all. And Kevin not only is raising his son with autism, he had two other sons while working, which is amazing and which all of us do. So we get exhausted. So kiddos, give us a break. Sometimes we zone out and it's only because we get exhausted as well. You got to remember, no matter how old you are, whether you're 18 or whether you're 25 or whether you're 30, we've been doing this your entire lives without a break. And we love you. We love you very much. But some of us are in our 40s. Some of us are heading into our 50s. Some of us may be heading into our 60s and it takes a toll. And we didn't plan for this and we thought we would always have a community and we didn't. So here I am trying to create a community so we can finish this marathon for you guys. But let me tell you about Kevin. Kevin is the founder-in-chief, executive officer of the Johnson Leadership Group, LLC, and an independent certified coach, mentor, trainer, and speaker with the nationally recognized John Maxwell team, where he leads learning experiences that are tailored to meet the specific needs of the audience to help maximize efficiency, growth, awareness, and effectiveness. He's a native of Richmond, Virginia, and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business. He earned a master's certification in government contracting from the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. He completed a 34-year career with the federal government in 2017 and has been married for 30 years and raised three sons. Since 2001, he has written 20 books as a principal or contributing author on such diverse topics as faith, book marketing, blended families, finance, and leadership. His current book series, Leadership with a Servant's Heart, has earned 15 literary awards and is a two-time new release bestseller on Amazon.com. Recently, Kevin was honored with a Leadership Award from Men Impact Change in 2020 and Outstanding Leadership Award from Education 2.0 Conference 2023. His life's mission is to create a generation of next level leaders around the globe. So you guys take some advice from Kevin because he's done it not once, but twice. So here's my guest. Welcome to welcome him to the podcast, Kevin Johnson. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on. Absolutely. My honor and my delight to see you this morning. So tell my audience all about how you actually have a brother that has special needs and now you have a child that is on the autism spectrum. Yeah, it's been a lifelong journey for me. I am a native of Richmond, Virginia, and I don't have any sisters, but I have one younger brother, three and a half years younger than I am. And we are the sons of a United States Marine, my dad, and then my mom worked in the federal government. So we moved around quite a bit. And when I was three and a half years old, my younger brother was born on one of the Marine Corps bases, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. And the doctors advised us right after birth, when they examined him, that they were. Some issues with oxygen, sufficient oxygen getting to his brain during development in the womb. So he was born with a mental disability. And it was a challenge initially because it was primarily my mom and I at home helping to raise him, support him, negotiate on his behalf, love him, care for him because dad was away fighting in America's wars. Marines are on the front line. And so I learned a lot about this neurological disorder as a young boy helping to raise my brother. And then fast forward many years later, after I graduate from college, I meet this young lady who captures my eye. We start dating, we fall in love, we get married. And then from our union, we have three sons. And interestingly enough, they don't have any sisters, all boys again. The youngest son, Cameron, and he's 26 now, he didn't talk for his first two years. He didn't say a word. And something else was very odd about him as well. For his first three years, when the sun came up, he thought it was time to go to sleep. And when the sun went down, he thought it was time to get up and play. And so we finally had him diagnosed through one of the pediatricians. And sure enough, he was diagnosed at the age of two with autism. So here we go again, right? This time I'm educating my wife and my brothers on how to handle this situation. Again, negotiating on his behalf, advocating for him, serving him, and supporting him. And even to today, I'm doing both, more so with my son than I am with my brother. But it's just been an interesting journey to watch how these neurological imbalances and impact their lives and the lives of others around them. But at the same time, be laser focused on those areas where they're a genius. They're an absolute genius in other areas. It's just a matter of giving them opportunities and supporting them and loving them. So that's the two-minute executive summary version of how I've been involved in this process. Thank you. What difficulties did you have with transitioning them from going from their school life to the adult world? Because I noticed that in some school systems that the transition is like rocky. Like you have, they guide you and then it's like a drop off. Yep. Yep. There's no prep. You do fall off the cliff. Absolutely. So the biggest thing that I've been an advocate for and one of the primary messages that I send out to the community for parents that don't have children on the spectrum and parents that do, because we serve as mentors in that capacity, is to educate yourself. Get the education, heighten the level of awareness in terms of what's available, what services are available, what programs can we tap into to help them as best as we can become an all-around person. Because when they're in school, elementary, middle, and high, they have that infrastructure. It's in place. But once they graduate from high school and they start to move into that adult age, depending on what state they're in, 18 or 22, I'm sorry, or 21, it really becomes the challenge and the burden, the parent or the legal guardian. Or in our case, we're both. We're both legal guardian and parent. And just getting out there in a community, joining member organizations, partnering with other parents that are dealing with the same challenges, and you'll get access to information. And then from that information, you can start to use it and apply it to your son or daughter in terms of what works best. So we have our son actively engaged in a very, very well-run day program from nine to three every day, job training, therapeutic integration. He works with peers. He works with children. He gets a chance to go out into the community from time to time, social skills, sporting events. All of that is built in Monday through Friday from nine to three. And then every other Monday, he gets together with a group of 20 of his peers. And for about three hours, they go to the bowling alley and they bowl. They just have some fellowship and some bowling. Later this year, after the summer, we're going to enroll him in an art therapy where they do glassmaking, ceramics, portraits, pictures, and he'll be in an environment with his peers, but also older adults who are not on the spectrum and other peers who are. So to be a mixed environment, because he loves to do that. And so just kind of finding out what makes them tick as they move into those adult age. Sometimes we can just ask. You'll be surprised. They'll tell you in many cases, not all, but in many cases, they'll tell you what they're interested in. And then whatever we can do to find the information to help them out is always a good way to go. So that's what we've been doing day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. It's a journey, but together we get there. We're working on independent living next. We're also working on getting him to be able to drive if that's possible. I share with him that's a four-phase process because you take your class, your learner's permit, and you take your written exam. Then you have to get behind the wheel with an official instructor. You have to pass that. And then you have to go back. Now you have to pass another written exam to get your license. So it's a process, but trying to get them to yes is always the key. So that's the journey that we've been on with our young assignments. I know a lot of parents get really frustrated with their kids because it's like a tug of war because they want to be their own individual, but yet their maturity level isn't there quite yet. And they go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And sometimes it's a war zone. What advice do you have to give to parents that they will get there, but there's got to be some compromise? Yeah, yeah, that's a good observation. We've all been there. Absolutely. I think it's a matter of really two things that come to mind. Number one, the more time we spend with them, the more we get to know them. And I'm not talking about just living in our household, being under the same roof. I mean, spending some time really, really observing what it is they gravitate toward, what is it they stay away from, and having that quality time, getting to know them that much better to help them to navigate the road. The second thing is just getting them as best you can. I know it's not easy. As best you can to try and do different things. We go to the swimming pool. We go to the movies. We eat a meal together. every other week we go together to get haircuts we go to certain restaurants because of his limited diet together we go to church together, And like I said, now he's been in his day program for a while, and we're going to be branching out and doing some other things, art therapy. And sometimes you'll get some feedback around, I don't really want to do that. And then other times they'll get involved in that activity and you'll discover that they absolutely love it. And that's a strategy that we can use to break through. But whatever it might be, we do have to be patient. It just takes time because neurologically, they're not processing like you and I process. It's just different. My son has been for years going through this thought that if we recommend something different or if we ask him to modify his behavior or if we make a recommendation that he could or should do something different, you know, whether it's washing clothes or cooking or cleaning up around the house, he interprets that as him making a mistake. And then he'll start to apologize. And I'm like, you didn't do anything wrong. I just want you to consider, you know, when you're cooking your food instead of turning the stove on high, put it on medium. But he interprets that as did something wrong. So it's the big things, it's the small things, but we just have to be patient over time. And I know it's not for everybody. Some of us have more patience than others. Some of us have more time than others. I get it. Some of us can handle pressure better than others. I get it. We're all over the place. But just try to be as patient as possible and get access to the resources for your local community. You'll find some good people that are part of these organizations who are willing to help. How can you, like, because I know being on the spectrum, there's such a variety. How can parents best support other parents? Because I feel like when they're little, there's a good community out there for parents. But as they grow older it seems like parents kind of fall off the the leeway and it's just like there's not enough community support for as they grow older and i'm not sure if it's, once they grow older as they just get more difficult than when they're younger. Yeah, there needs to be more groups. Yeah, it's a combination of everything that you just said, April, because what happens is by the time they grow up and move into adulthood, truth be told, you and I are tight. It has been a journey and we're tired. Right. And we're kind of throwing out that helpline. Can somebody please help me? I've dealt with this all of my life, and I'm just tired. I need some space for me. I think the way you ended your question is appropriate, and that's the key advice I'd give everybody. Get involved with some of the local organizations that are available, that have information for us to tap into, And then other parents who are dealing with the same thing that we are dealing with, whose head we can put on their shoulder and they can put their head on our shoulder, we can be there to support one another and give each other encouragement. I'm a member of our local autism society chapter here in Howard County, Maryland. I have been for years. And there are so many resources available. I'm a big proponent of the Best Buddies program. Really, really good. I'm a big proponent of local churches that have a special needs ministry because there's a lot of good resources there. Fortunately, because of where we live, we're in close proximity to all of these different programs and these different organizations. I have found that summer camps, summer camps can be helpful. That would be that person's opportunity to go away for about a week. I don't usually do it any more than one week. Just kind of go away for a week. Parents aren't there. Legal guardians aren't there. They're entrusted to a qualified staff that's there to support, and they're in the company of other peers, and they do all kinds of stuff. They do academic. They do social skills, therapeutic integration they swim they play volleyball horseshoes it's a great opportunity to kind of help them on their journey to become more independent as well but having those support network groups very very helpful for the parents and very very helpful for the legal guardians while we're also pouring into our sons and daughters to help them to be the best they can. Have you found any vocational educational supports for the young adult if they decided they wanted to go on after high school? Because I know a lot of them want to. To do higher education, but it seems like some of them need extra support and a lot of the schools don't offer a lot of support. Yeah. So two things come to mind. First and foremost, reach out to your local community college. Community colleges tend to be a little bit more focused in this area than the larger accredited four-year universities and colleges. They sort of have a different focus. But right after high school, my son went through a program called Project CERT. Project CERT. And it was available at our local community college, Howard Community College, here in Howard County, Maryland. And it was for a full year. They wore uniforms. They wore khakis. They had a blue long-sleeve khaki shirt that they wore. They did all types of different academics in the classroom. room. And they also boarded the bus periodically during the day to take different trips around the city. And they did that together as a peer group. It was part of their education for a full year that the county paid for as part of their services. And it was only for one year. I wish it was longer. But Cameron had an opportunity to work an internship for the Howard County government. He was an administrative assistant. He did filing and copying. He worked in an office environment. They liked him so much, they asked him to come back. So he did a second internship from there, and it worked out very well. It was an office setting, and it was in the confines of the Project CERT program. But that's a great way to launch our sons and daughters after they finish high school, whether they get an actual degree or they get a certificate. In my case, Cameron had a high school certificate. He participated and graduated. And the full high school graduation, cap town, all that good stuff. All of his teachers were there. And then he matriculated to Howard Community College Project Search Program. And that kind of launched him to what he's doing today from nine to three every day, Monday through Friday, with job training, social skills. They go out in the community periodically, therapeutic integration to prepare him for independent living. So try the community college right there in your area to see what academic courses are available for special needs students and enroll and get them involved. Absolutely. Now, do you and your wife have any fears about, you know, once Cameron is ready to live on his own and finances the apartment that he may want to be independent, the driving? Do y'all think about those things? Because I know my son is not too far behind Cameron. He's 22. And God love him. He works at Kroger, https://thejohnsonleadershipgroup.com/ https://www.facebook.com/kevinwaynejohnsonpage https://x.com/writing4thelord https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8QdXWDOB889u5XKqazk6Hg https://www.instagram.com/writingforthelord https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwaynejohnson/
Jack Mayor, a Best Buddies Ambassador and ComEd EnergyForce Ambassador sits down on the job with Award-winning Podcast Host Daniel Smrokowski on the Special Chronicles Podcast's EnergyForce Series S7:Pt7 to prepare for National Disability Employment Month coming up in October. We highlight his role as an EnergyForce Ambassador, his work as an Illinois and Global Ambassador for Best Buddies, his job at Oberweis, Jack's experiences in each role, and how they've helped him with his other employed positions. Episode 592 ShowNotes & Links:
On this episode of the Girl Powerful Podcast Tedi Serge welcomes an model, actress, comedian and philanthropist. She volunteers for Best Buddies and at her local hospital spending time with kids. She has a worldwide following on instagram with 2.3 million followers. Charlotte works with elevated brands in beauty, health and wellness. @charlottemckinney. Tedi and Charlotte McKinney discuss listening to your body, building confidence, dealing with breakups, working in comedy, not drinking alcohol, and more! 5:44 What has Charlotte McKinney noticed when doing pilates? 9:00 Gaining confidence in the comedy world. 15:00 Charlotte's recent breakup. 24:00 Dealing with the dark times and depression. 27:15 Sobriety from alcohol. 38:00 Volunteer work. 40:44 What makes you feel the most alive? Available for download on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher. Girl Powerful Podcast with Sonya and Tedi Serge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Manager Minute-brought to you by the VR Technical Assistance Center for Quality Management
Go behind the curtain at the National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials (NCRTM) with Heather Servais, Project Manager. Join us as we delve into the vast resources available to vocational rehabilitation counselors, supervisors, and VR professionals. From employment navigation to disability-specific resources and cutting-edge training, Heather reveals how the revamped NCRTM website is a treasure trove of information and tools to enhance your practices and improve services. Tune in to explore these new features and see how the NCRTM can support you in your vital work. Don't miss this opportunity to unlock the full potential of this dynamic platform! Listen Here Full Transcript: {Music} Heather: This is made by people that have done the work, like it's just so relevant and timely to what's happening in the field. We have resources on a Microsoft Word and PDF, PowerPoints. There's a whole bunch of information on the NCRTM page, which is a great starting point for when you're thinking about how can I make this information accessible for everyone? If you have a customer who's thinking about work, or you want to have some reputable job-seeking tools, it's a great tool for those counselors to be able to give to their customers. If you want help locating some resources, just email us NCRTM at New Editions dot Net. Intro Voice: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow. Carol: Welcome to the manager minute, Heather Servais project manager with the National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials, or the NCRTM, will join me in the studio today. So, Heather, how are things going? Heather: It's so good to be here. I'm great. I'm so excited to be on Manager Minute. Carol: I love it, I love it. We've been doing lots of fun stuff lately, so it's kind of fun to do this collaboration. I want to give our listeners a little bit of a background. So the NCRTM is a central clearinghouse for vocational rehabilitation information for individuals with disabilities, and it offers VR and education communities an opportunity to contribute new knowledge to their specific fields and gain visibility for their work. Now, I remember Heather, when I was still with Minnesota Blind, and I stumbled across this website and it was full of information, I was like, what is this? I had no idea it existed. And back then we had this internal like a little intranet. And I remember linking up staff to different materials because back in the day, and I know you went through a big refresh of the website back in the day, it was a little complicated to get through. I was linking folks to some really specific things that existed out there, and I thought that was so cool. Now, I know since you've been on, you've been working really hard on promoting the website and everything that NCRTM does, and we wanted to just take our listeners behind the curtain at the NCRTM. I also wanted our listeners to know, too, that Heather and I have been collaborating for the past few years on a lot of different items, and she has been fabulous in promoting our podcasts and all our materials for the VRTAC for Quality Management. So with that, let's dig in. So, Heather, would you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your journey into VR? You didn't just like land at the NCRTM out of nowhere. You came through kind of a fun journey. Heather: Yeah. I'd love to tell you a little bit about my journey in VR. Well, if you would have asked me when I was growing up if I would be a VR counselor or know what the field of rehabilitation counseling was, I would have told you no. I actually landed in this field by happy accident when I went to college. I was majoring in history and was considering being a teacher, or maybe pre-law, and I was looking for ways to get involved on campus. And I came across a club called Best Buddies that pairs college students into 1 to 1 friendships with individuals with disabilities. And I just loved being a part of the club. I loved my buddy that I was able to be paired with. And then while I was volunteering, I got asked by one of my co volunteers to consider working with this new company in town that worked with individuals with disabilities on independent living skills and non-residential support services. So I started doing that when I was in college, absolutely fell in love with it. And then when I graduated, I moved on to work for a community rehabilitation provider, where I started as a job coach, moved up to an employment specialist. I dabbled in vocational evaluation and then eventually became the employment services manager. And while I was there and working in the field, I absolutely just fell in love and I knew that this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. So I actually went back to school for my master's while I was working full time. I was really lucky to be the recipient of an RSA scholarship. That helped me be able to go back to school to get my master's in rehabilitation counseling, and I was able to do that, which I really felt like helped my career and was really able to be beneficial to me. When I made the jump from community rehabilitation provider to the state VR side, it was like there was all these names and terms and theories behind the work that I was actually doing. So it really kind of tied it all together in a nice little bow. I worked for that community rehabilitation provider for about seven years, and then I decided to make the jump to state VR to be a counselor. And for a long time I had a general caseload. I also worked in a rural county, and then towards the end of my time in the field, I worked with youth. And then I made the jump over to VR headquarters, where I took a supervisory job as the supervisor of at the time was a new unit called the Field and Provider Relations Unit, and this unit did training and technical assistance with both VR staff and with the community rehabilitation providers that were providing those employment services. So I really enjoyed it because it got to pull together the field experience that I had and then also the provider experience. And then my last stop at Florida VR was as the assistant chief of Field Services, where I oversaw a lot of the programming. So I oversaw learning and development, Ticket to Work, the employment programs team and the deaf hard of hearing deaf blind team and business relations team. I worked there and I loved building programs and loved being part of state VR. Towards 2020, I started to study for my Project Management Professional, or PMP certification. We were managing a lot of projects and building a lot of programs, and I felt like the PMP kind of helped me have a better understanding of some different methodologies to be able to do that. So it really helped pull the programmatic experience with the project management experience. And that's what really landed me here at NTM. So in my role, I get to work with a lot of technical assistance centers and training centers, and I'm able to have both the VR program knowledge and then also the project management knowledge to be able to understand the terms of the project and the contracts and the business aspect of this too. So it's been a long journey, but I'm so happy to be here because this role I get to work with so many different stakeholders. I love working with the VR agencies, the counselors, the rehabilitation counseling students, the parents, the families. I get to see it all, and not just from a local perspective. I'm getting to work with state and nationwide programs, and I think that's just a really big joy. Carol: And it's so cool. What a great fit for you. This explains a lot. You crack me up, though, because I was considering being in pre-law like back in my undergrad as well. I feel like we have kind of similar journeys. I was a job coach. I'm like, we both come from those humble beginnings, kind of fall into VR, and we find a lot of our guests on the show have been from different backgrounds and sort of stumbled into VR different ways. So that is so cool to know about you. Thanks for sharing that. Now, I know sometimes people are maybe confused a little bit about the NCRTM can you ground us in like how all this works, how you're connected with RSA? Like who do you actually work for? Because people are like, is this an RSA thing? What is this thing? So give us the skinny. Heather: Yeah, sure. So the NCRTM has actually been around for more than 40 years. When I found that out, you know, I was a little history nerd. So I did some digging and I was shocked. I was like 40 years. I mean, I think I've, you know, been around in the field for a long time and I didn't even know about the NCRTM until I was working at headquarters as a manager. So I think about the first basically half of my career, I didn't even know about it. And that's one of the things about this job is like, I want people to know. And so when NCRTM originated, it was a paper based repository that was basically where RSA grantees would submit their products at the end, and they would be stored and used and to what it is today, which is this really dynamic and engaging platform that has a website and a YouTube and social media and lots of connections. And so it's kind of continuing to grow and evolve. And the driver of NCRTM, where it actually originates is section 15 of the Rehabilitation Act. We are in there. And what section 15 says is that it creates a clearinghouse, and it says that we have to deliver three things. One is information about the location, provision and availability of services and programs for individuals with disabilities. We also need to have information and research related to recent medical and scientific developments bearing on disabilities. And we have to have information about the current numbers of individuals with disabilities and their needs. And so when we look at NCRTM, that's our driver. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to share that information, the NCRTM itself and how it relates to RSA. Right now, NCRTM is funded by a contract through RSA and is operated by New Editions Consulting. So technically I work for New Editions Consulting, which is a fantastic company to work for. We just won one of the top places to work for the Washington Post, so they take wonderful care of us. It's been one of my favorite teams I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of. It's just been a really fun place to work. So we work very, very closely with RSA. We have a coordination team, so there are a big group of folks from RSA and the different units there that add and contribute to the content and the planning and the strategic direction for NCRTM. And then we also work really, really closely with the Technical Assistance Centers with other RSA grantees and federal partners to build out the content to deliver to our users through the NCRTM website and our platforms. Carol: I had no clue that that had been around for 40 years. Holy cow. I had no idea. That is amazing. And I can imagine, you know, when you think about the paper based, you know, products in the day. Heather: How do you get that out into the hands of the field? So we live in a great time, you know, we have this technology and we can use it because the products that are coming out of the technical assistance centers and some other RSA grantees, you know, this is made by people that have done the work. Like that's one of the things that I love so much about the clearinghouse is it's just so relevant and timely to what's happening in the field. Carol: Yeah, I love it. That advent of social media, too, has helped so much with us all being able to kind of cross plug and promote each other's tools and activities and things that are going on that has been so great. Now, I know since you arrived there, I feel like, no, I'm not disparaging anybody from the past, but I feel like you've brought this just fresh, different look at things and you've been really doing a lot of cool stuff. So would you talk about some of that cool stuff that you've been doing and kind of where are you getting your ideas from? Because it's been really fun to watch. Heather: Yeah, I came onto the scene with NTM in late 2021, and there was a lot of this stuff that was already in progress, and we launched a new version of the website in 2022. So not only do we have, you know, pretty robust content, NCRTM has mostly been known for the library. When you say NCRTM, people think library, library, library, and that is a big part of what we do. We have more than 3600 items in our library. When you think of a library, it can be anything from podcast episodes, research papers, blogs, toolkits, guides, trainings. There's such a diverse array of materials in that library. So that's one of the things we were most known for. We started with some of those library enhancements, so we had an enhanced filtering. So now our users are able to locate by topic area, disability type, audience type. There's a ton of filters that you can select to really zero in on materials of interest. We also added some recently viewed features. So if you go to the NCRTM and you're poking around looking for some things and you look at it, you can go back and you'll see some of the items that you recently viewed. We now have the ability to share the information from the website so you can email it to yourself. You can share it directly on social media. Also, as part of that big website launch, we updated our training and events page. This is one of those plugs that if you are new to the website, I love directing people to the training and events page because I know time is of the essence and there's so much training and information available, and NCRTM collects training and events and post them from the Technical Assistance Center. So if there's something happening from those, those are going to be on our site, from federal partners, from grantees. So a grantee could be a university, could be a nonprofit. There's lots of different types of events that are out there on our site. You can sort by live, which means these are like live upcoming events. So you're going to want to log into those or on demand. So that could be either a training module that was made to be an asynchronous learning experience, or it could be a recorded event from one of the previously featured live and upcoming events that we had hosted prior. You can also sort on that training events page by CRC Credit Availability. So for those of you that are counselors or administrators or managers that are looking to get those CRC credits, this is a great way where you can zero in on finding those trainings that are of interest to you, that offer that CRC credit for free. It's a great resource. We also added some new pages to the platform so that we're really the result of user feedback. I think that's one of the things that I'm most proud of with NCRTM team that we do is we are serious about user feedback. So we are collecting feedback from surveys. We run user advisory groups a few times a year. We also are really out in the community talking to VR counselors, talking to rehabilitation counseling students. We're talking to grantees about their needs and what they're doing, really wanting to get the feedback so that we can curate content or we can build content that's meaningful for folks. So in the spirit of section 15, one of the new items that we launched on NCRTM was a programs and services page. And this page focuses on job seeking resources. So for individuals with disabilities. So all processes from when you're considering employment. So maybe you need to do some assessments. Or maybe you're just thinking about going to work all the way through the hiring and retention and career advancement phases of your career. So this is a really great starting point. If you have a customer who's thinking about work or you want to have some reputable job seeking tools right at your fingertips, you can use it there. It's a great tool for those counselors to be able to give to their customers as a starting point. And we do update that page regularly. So if you would like to see like a national level resource on there that you found, that's not, email us. We're here. We want to add things to that page. We are constantly growing the page. We are adding new information to the library and to the website regularly. Carol: I actually have your site up right now. I love it really did change with that refresh that you guys did in 22 I remember having. Well, I'll say it, I tried to search in the library before and it would bring up like either 50,000 things or no things. When you put in word search or something, it just seems like your capabilities on here are so much more robust than they used to be. Heather: Yeah, we've definitely added a lot of enhancements to make it a lot more user friendly. We were trying to make it more streamlined. We wanted things to be easier to find, easier to get to material. And then we're also trying to be a little bit plainer in our language. Some of our users felt the language was way too academic, and we wanted this site to be something that's useful for all. So we're trying to do better with using plainer language and getting straight to the point of what the document is or what that material is, so that it's easy for people to digest when they're reading it. We also added a business engagement page. So for those counselors or even those folks who work for VR agencies that are on the business relations or business consulting team, this is a great resource to kind of help you understand the business needs and how to work with employers. When you're thinking about things like job placement and job retention and accommodations and the process for hiring, that's another great tool that you can use and share in your work. But you can use it as a counselor to educate yourself. It's also helpful when you're engaging with businesses so that you're using their business language. Carol: Excellent Heather: One other thing for counselors to consider. I know sometimes when we're VR counselors, I always say it was the hardest job I ever had. There's so much that you have to balance. There's so much to learn, and it always feels like there's things on your plate that you need to do. And sometimes we're so focused on our individual customers, our individual caseload, that we can forget that we're part of something so much bigger. It's not just our caseload or our office or even our state. We're part of a national VR program. Every state has a VR program. There's programs and the territories. There are so many others that are in this field along with you. And I think that's one of the great things about NCTRM is it can kind of help connect the dots so that you get to see the bigger picture. You can find materials that are created by other folks that are doing this work. You're able to see what innovative practices are working on caseloads that may be similar to yours. It may give you strategies that you can better know how to work with your customers. So I think that's one takeaway for NCRTM is just it's a different perspective. You can find things from your peers to help improve your work, and it just connects you better to the VR community around the country. Carol: Do you guys agree with that page at all with like CSAVR and the NET? Heather: We did. We were very happy that CSAVR and Kathy West Evans was helpful with us when formulating that content and reviewing that content. So yes, absolutely. We partnered with them to help put that together. Carol: Excellent. Heather: We also have I know you mentioned the Disability Innovation Fund and I'm a Manager Minute podcast listener. So I know, I know you've done some episodes with some DIF grantees, and we have a whole page that's dedicated to the Disability Innovation Fund grants. And so this is one of those pages that we're working on. It's definitely still a work in progress. So if you're interested in learning more about those Disability Innovation fund programs, we have each iteration of the grants there so that you can see kind of a little bit about what the purpose is and what those grants are doing. And then as those grantees are submitting products, we're going to be linking those products in the library right to that page. So you can kind of start to see some of the outcomes from those grant programs. So that's a really exciting page that we added. We're looking forward to being able to continue to update that pretty regularly, as we're starting to get some of those products in from those grantees. Carol: I love that. Those Disability Innovation fund, let me tell you, since we started doing podcasts, you know, featuring the different years and the States and what they're doing, I had no clue, you know, you'd hear about them. But unless you're really, like, talking to the people and finding out what's going on, man, there's some awesome stuff happening across the country that is going to be so helpful to the rest of the VR. People put out their products. It's good to know you're going to have a page dedicated to all of that, because I just envision these really amazing things coming from that, that are going to be so useful to VR as a whole for years to come. Heather: Absolutely. And there really is a lot of innovation coming out of the agencies that have these grants. And that's exactly what we want. We want others to be able to access those materials so they can think about how that could work in their state, and how that could work in their program, and be able to connect to resources that can help them on their journey to implementing and improving and streamlining their services. Carol: For sure. 100%. Heather: And then lastly, I have to plug here for the Accessibility Resources page. So accessibility is such a huge part of what we do. And coming from the field of VR and coming from a provider background, I knew about accessibility in theory, but it really wasn't until I got to working at the clearinghouse when I realized all I didn't know about accessibility. And this is definitely an area where I've had a lot of personal growth and a lot of personal learning to do since I came on board here. But the NCRTM has a page for accessibility resources. So if you are with a VR program or you're a VR counselor, or if you're an RSA grantee and you're looking to make your products accessible. So if you're thinking about having a PowerPoint, how can you make that accessible so that the information is accessible to all users? We have resources on a Microsoft word and PDF and PowerPoints. We have guides, we have video tutorials. There's a whole bunch of information on the NCRTM page, which is a great starting point for when you're thinking about how can I make this information accessible for everyone? And so we encourage folks to check that out too, because it's a really great starting point. Carol: Yeah, I think that's been an area that maybe VR has not done as well with. You would think we'd know better and do better and be better with that. But I've been amazed over time, different places I've gone or, you know, folks I've talked to and people still struggling with accessibility. So your having those resources out there is super timely and really important. Heather: Yeah, absolutely. And it really is one of those you don't know what you don't know until you kind of get into the thick of it. And I'm thankful now that I know better and I'm starting to do better. But it's definitely a journey and there's a lot to learn. And I would encourage folks not to be intimidated because you can start small and just learn a little at a time. And over time, that makes a really, really big difference in what you can do with your materials. Carol: Absolutely. Now, I know we have a lot of counselors that listen in, and you and I had talked about this a little bit. What advice would you have for counselors who may be exploring your website for the first time? I know you and I talked about you felt like you'd be a whole different counselor had you known about the cool materials that are out there for them. Heather: Yeah, man, I do. I feel like I would have been totally a much better counselor than what I was. When I think about going back to being a VR counselor, it can be overwhelming. I always say the hardest job I ever had was a VR counselor. Just because there's so much to learn. You have a lot of cases. I had to travel a lot for mine because I was in a rural county. You have a lot on your plate and it can be kind of overwhelming and you kind of start spinning your wheels sometimes because you're like, well, I don't even know if I have time to find out this information to help me do better. And I think, you know, what I would tell counselors is NCRTM is here and you can plug in. And so whether you're a new counselor and you're coming into VR kind of cold, maybe your background is in something different. You know, maybe you came with a social work background or a business background, and you may be kind of struggling to learn the VR part of counseling. Or if you're a seasoned counselor, you know, you may feel like you've been doing this a long time and you know a lot. But if you're not learning, you're not growing, and there's really always something more you can learn. And so we have resources for you in every stage of your career. And even as you continue to grow and transition, we have a lot of resources for those who move into management or supervision and program administration. So it's a really great resource to be able to support you when you are out there in the field looking to do, I think about like motivational interviewing and how much I really wanted to do that and use that technique. And I went through some trainings and it was like, okay, But the trainings, I always felt like they were just kind of never really got to the nuts and bolts like it was overviews. And one of my favorite resources in the NCRTM was actually this motivational training series that was created by Oregon VR and it's, you know, several years old now, but it's nuts and bolts. It's how to do motivational interviewing in a VR setting. Like it's amazing. And I wish I would have had that when I was a counselor. And there's also all kinds of different toolkits and guides. There's so much available. There's also another place on the NCRTM team where you can kind of as a starting point. We produce these things, which is a fancy word. We call it a curated list, but basically we have more than 20 curated lists on various topics, and most of the topics that we have selected these curated lists on were user driven. These were given to us. Ideas came from the field, came from our users. And these curated lists usually have, you know, 10 to 25 different resources on them about various topics. So for instance, we did one on VR 101. So for those folks, it can be counselors, it could be parents. All of the curated lists are segmented by audience. So if you're a counselor and you're looking for resources for yourself, you can check out these lists and it'll say for VR professionals. Or if you're looking for resources that you can share with your customers, you'll see for individuals with disabilities and families for general audiences, some of them are for specific disability types, like we have a list on autism and employment. We have a list on mental health. We have curated lists on work incentives, financial incentives, labor market information. So there's more than 20 of them out there. We add new lists pretty regularly. Right now we're in the process of updating some existing lists. So these lists change and they grow. But that's a really great starting point. If you're not really sure where to go or what to look at, I'd also highly recommend plugging into those training and events pages. So I know with the variety of information and training topics that are available, sometimes you really don't want to sit down and do a training, but you can look and a lot of the trainings are available on demand, so you can do it at a time that's convenient for you. As nerdy as it sounds, I like to listen to trainings in the background sometimes, so most of the trainings that are on the site I've listened to, I've taken myself and there's some really good stuff out there. So I'd encourage you to not be intimidated. But I'd also like to offer is just support. There's a team behind the team behind this curtain that's there to help you. So if you want to get acquainted with the site or you want help locating some resources, just email us. Our email address is NRTM@NewEditions.net, and one of our team members will be able to help you right away. So don't feel like you're in this alone. Like we can help you navigate and help you learn how to explore and show you what's available on the site and how it can benefit your work. Carol: All excellent advice that you've given that is super cool. I know that curated list. When I found that, I'm like, oh my gosh, that literally is what I felt like I did back in the day when I was at Minnesota, was create a curated list from your website. It was like linking counselors to these different really awesome materials on particular topics. So it's so awesome that you guys have done that. I feel like this is advanced so much and I know your team can do other cool stuff for VR agencies. So I heard you say, you know, obviously people can email you and you can do some support, but what are kind of trainings you could do for a VR agency on supporting using the website and such? Heather: Yeah, absolutely. So we are happy to do in-service trainings and system demonstrations for VR agencies. In the past we've had agencies where we've done executive leadership, where we've shown the executive leadership how to use the site. Not only do we show you how to use it, we talk to you about it. We tell you about it, and then we show you it. So you get to see a live system demo and then, you know, we can take requests. So if it is of interest or particular parts of the website where you want to learn a little bit more information, we can focus on those areas. We've also done it with teams or units. So we can do any type of training like a 1 to 1 setting or like small group setting for your teams. If you're interested in learning more about NCRTM and how you can use it in your work, we also help agencies with locating materials. Well, not just VR agencies. We help individuals so we get emails all the time about people. I just had one last week from a parent who has a child that's transitioning into the workforce, and they're really interested in learning more information about customized employment. And so the parent reached out to us because they really weren't sure where to go. And we were able to pull together a list, kind of walk the parent through what was on the list and was able to share that with them. So if you've got a topic that you're interested in, or maybe you're looking to compile a curriculum of trainings that are available to support you, there's a ton of great resources out there for the training. So those on demand training modules are very common. So if you're an agency and you're looking to build out a training curriculum without like basically rebuilding and restarting and rebuilding the wheel, let's take a look and see what's already out there. You know, this stuff that's coming out of the Technical Assistance Centers and RSA grantees. It's really relevant to what's happening and what's needed in the field right now. And we really want folks to be able to connect to that so we can help you locate those. I had an agency that was asking about financial literacy training, and I was able to send them, Carol, to the financial literacy training from QM, you know, so it was really great. So we have these kind of resources and these requests coming in all the time, and we welcome that. We want to be able to help you navigate resources that's out there. It's up to us to know where to point you and we're happy to do that. And then another thing that we do. So for those agencies that want to submit products to NCRTM, or maybe they're a DIF grantee or another RSA program grantee, we do accessibility technical assistance. So the team behind the team is we have a 508 team here at New Additions, and they help us a lot with accessibility work and making sure that the products that go onto the NCRTM are accessible so we can help provide technical assistance. We do accessibility reviews on materials, especially if they're the result of an RSA grant. And then we can offer if it's like remediations or complex accessibility work, we can provide technical assistance on that. So for instance, we had an RSA grantee who was really interested in doing some new video work, but they really weren't sure how to do audio descriptions. And so our 508 team was able to provide that technical assistance, to be able to kind of show them and walk them through how to do audio descriptions in work. We often do a lot of document remediation, so we're able to kind of review your PDF and word documents. If you're submitting it to the NCRTM, to let you know if it's accessible or not, and then what kind of steps need to be taken to make sure that it's accessible. So that's another service that we offer. Carol: I had no clue about that. That is fabulous. I hope people take you up on that for sure. Oh my gosh. You've talked about the website and the materials posted there. So I know that the RSA grantees can put information out there. Are there other people that can put information on your website? Heather: Yeah, technically anybody can submit materials to the NCRTM. It's a public website. So anybody can what we recommend if you're interested in submitting, we have an online library submission form. So when you go to the NCRTM website home page, if you navigate to the library using that top navigation bar on the far left hand side, it says library. When you go into the library, then you will come across a link on the right hand side of the page. And what that link says is submit materials to the NCRTM library. You can go ahead and click on that link. And there's a form that you can fill out. And you'll just have to put some very basic information about the material that you're submitting. So maybe this is something that your agency created, that you're very proud of and would like to be on the NCRTM website. Or maybe it's something from a federal partner that's publicly available, that's not in our library that you think should be. That's another thing you can do is you can submit it to NCRTM. Every material that's submitted is reviewed by our team to make sure that it's accessible, and then also that it's appropriate to be on the NCRTM, and then we can go ahead and publish it and make it available on the website. So anybody can yeah, anybody can submit, which I think is pretty cool. And we really encourage folks. So if you're a VR agency and you have tools and you have success stories or you have trainings you want to share and you want them to get the word out about it, send it our way, we will help you figure out a way to put it on the site and help you amplify that material. Like, we really want these products and these materials that you're working on that are really meaningful for the VR community. We want to get them out there. Carol: Well, we're definitely better together. You know, everybody's creating all of this great stuff. We don't have to all reinvent the wheel. Like, let's use this so each other can get like all that great stuff. Everybody's producing. I think that's wonderful. Heather: Yeah. If you're afraid to use that form, you can always email us like we are small team, but we're very responsive. We take a lot of pride in making sure that we're responding to folks quickly. So if you have questions about submitting materials or you want to walk it through, you can email us at NCRTM@NewEditions.Net, and we'll walk you through that. For those RSA grantees we have a whole guide that's out there, the guide for product submission and websites about submitting products to the NCRTM. But that's more for RSA grantees. If you're an individual or you're a VR agency, definitely email us or use that library submission form and we're going to be happy to help you. Carol: Very cool. So I know you have a lovely newsletter you guys put out. And then I saw recently kind of a little different format. You were doing like a news blast or something. Sort of groovy. How can folks, because we do have a lot of counselors that listen into and they don't always have access, you know, maybe the directors on your mailing list or something. But how do folks subscribe so they can get it quickly? Heather: Yeah, we have a lot of ways that you can connect with us. Carol, you mentioned the newsletter. We do put out a monthly newsletter. We are trying some new things. So we are starting to do some news blasts. So if there's some really important announcement or might be an event reminder or something that NCRTM is doing, we're going to start sending some more regular communications to our subscribers. The best way to do that is to sign up for the NCRTM newsletter. And you can do that by using the web page. You use the top navigation bar and click on join the NTM network tab. That's going to take you to our page, where you can start to subscribe so you can subscribe for our newsletter. Like I said, it goes out once a month. We also have another subscription where if you're really interested in keeping up to date on what's new, what's happening with the library materials, you can subscribe for library updates. So once a month, you'll get a list of all of the new items that were added to the NCRTM library. And it really varies month to month. Sometimes we have a lot of folks that submit products, other times it's just our team out there looking and finding what's new and putting it onto the site. So some months you'll see a lot, some months you might not see as much. It just really depends if you're really interested in staying up to date, we encourage you to do that. We also have social media. You can find us on X which is formerly Twitter. Our handle is at RSA_NCRTM. So we encourage you to follow us on Twitter. We do a lot of amplifying new products. We talk about some of the events and trainings that are going on. And then we also have a YouTube. So whenever NCRTM hosts a training because we do host trainings ourselves too. Right now we're doing a series of lunch and learns. Carol, you were a big help with moderating what our first Lunch and Learn event last November with Doctor Herbert. We had a panel discussion about recruitment and retention. We also just did a really wonderful lunch and learn session that we did alive. And then we just released the publication earlier this month on managing counselor workload guilt. So for those of you counselors who are out there maybe struggling, feeling a little guilty because your workload is high, and this really looks at strategies to kind of find balance and prioritize wellbeing. It was a really fantastic event. And so that video is available on our YouTube channel. And then earlier this month we hosted a lunch and learn where we partnered with NRIC, the National Rehabilitation Information Centre, and really kind of zeroed in on research. And how can you navigate with NRIC and use research in your work. And so the video of that will be coming out very soon too. So if you're interested in looking at some of the trainings that NCRTM has done, definitely check out our YouTube channel. Carol: Yeah, folks, definitely need to sign up because then you get everything. I love it because I must be signed up like three different ways. I get it, you know, from RSA, Joe Doney. And then I get from you guys, I get it all the time. So I make sure I have all the current information and the lunch and learns are fabulous. They're really fast paced. It's nice. There's just great guests that have been on there. I think they're really a good product that you've developed. Heather: Yeah, so definitely the newsletter. I think you hit it. That's the best way. So if you're looking to connect, we have a lot of ways. But the newsletter you're going to see a lot of the new stuff that's coming out. You're going to be able to see any of the lunch and learns that we're hosting. You're going to get to see NCRTM materials. You'll also get to see all of our new library materials. We usually feature 3 to 4 new library materials on that newsletter, too, so you don't sign up for library updates. You can still see that in the newsletter. So yeah, the newsletter is really a great source to get the most information about what's happening at NCRTM. Carol: Very cool. So is there any way our listeners can help you? I don't know if you had any particular ask for them. Or are there ways that our listeners can help you guys? Heather: Yeah, absolutely. Like I mentioned, we are very serious about user feedback. So we want to hear from you. We want to be able to curate content that's meaningful and helpful for you. So we want you to share your ideas with us. So if there's library materials, if there's a webinar or training topic that would be helpful for you or idea for a new curated list, we want to hear from you. That's how we continue to build and grow the NCRTM to make sure that it's meaningful to our users. So really reach out to us, email us, NCRTM@NewEditions.Net. We also have a customer feedback survey so you can connect with us. That way you can fill it out if you have ideas for content or things that you would find helpful, and then also just connecting with the NCRTM team by signing up for the newsletter would be a really big help. It also helps keep you up to date on what's happening. Those are some of the bigger ways that your listeners could help us is really those connections. Tell us what you need, how we can help you, and then connect with us and stay up to date. Connect with us so that you know what's going on, because I guarantee you your work will benefit. Carol: Awesome. Thanks for joining me today, Heather, I really appreciate you being on. This was great. Heather: Yeah, thanks for having me. It was awesome I appreciate it. {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!
Hey a quick word before the Show notes, Our public Discord is here https://discord.gg/QH6ePP2r come join Sean and Nick plus 2000+ Members all chatting about Game Pass and XboxWelcome to this week's episode of the "Game Pass Tracker Show," where we delve into the latest and most exciting news from the world of Xbox!This week, top stories include Xbox's innovative move to bring cloud gaming to the Amazon Fire TV Stick, expanding accessibility and convenience for gamers everywhere. Despite high expectations, "Hellblade 2" struggled in European sales last month, failing to make it into the top 100. Meanwhile, Xbox is gearing up for a significant presence at Gamescom with its biggest booth yet planned for this August. In other news, Bethesda's Todd Howard emphasizes a patient approach to future Fallout games, suggesting quality over speed in their development. Also on the horizon, the suspenseful universe of "A Quiet Place" is being adapted into a video game set to terrify Xbox players in 2024.In our news bulletins, Xbox has rolled out new perks for Game Pass Ultimate members as of June 2024, enhancing the value of its subscription service. "Avowed," the eagerly anticipated RPG from Obsidian, has been confirmed to offer a fully playable third-person perspective. And for those eager to dive into new adventures, "Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn" is now available for preload on Xbox Game Pass.Our feature story explores an intriguing scenario: What would an Xbox version of Disney look like? Imagine a universe where Halo, Gears of War, Doom, and Activision's blockbuster franchises merge into an expansive, interconnected entertainment landscape. We discuss the potential for crossover stories, shared universes, theme park attractions, and much more.Don't miss this episode of "Game Pass Tracker Show" for your essential dose of all things Xbox, from game releases to speculative fun about the future of gaming.
About Anthony & Peter McKelvy and Northern Re: Peter is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Northern Re, a New York and Cayman based alternative asset group focused on securitizing risk in the casualty reinsurance space. He is responsible for the firm's financial strategy and developing a modern tech stack to drive evolution in the space. Peter also serves as the Chairman of Park Agency, the Kennedy family office built on four generations of familial success across public service, philanthropy and business. In that role he works to ensure the long term success of the family as it enters its 5th generation. Before co-founding Northern Re, Peter spent years as a product leader managing multiple engineering teams at various startups. He joined Uber in its early stage. Peter established and led the Driver Compliance organization, growing the group from a concept to multiple engineering teams spanning several offices. After five years with Uber, he left to lead product at Boost Insurance, where he was responsible for the company's strategy and technology build. He and his team created a platform that propelled revenue growth from $0 to $100 million in 3 years. Peter is committed to volunteering with philanthropic groups including Best Buddies and RFK Human Rights. In his free time Peter enjoys spending time outdoors exploring US National Parks. Peter is a cum laude graduate from Bucknell University and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is also licensed as a director with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. Peter and his wife live in New York City. A modern reinsurance company with a focus on data-driven portfolios of property and casualty risk. Our thesis is built around combining deep industry ties, a sustainable capital structure and a partner-first approach to collateral. These elements enable us to deliver a more effective solution to the industry. NoRe Holdings, maintaining an office in New York City, wholly owns Northern Reinsurance SPC, Ltd. a Cayman Islands domiciled B(iii) captive reinsurer.
The latest in Donald Trump's hush money trial with the prosecution resting their case on Monday. Also, with summer almost here, experts share their tips on the best ways to travel for the upcoming season. Plus, Best Buddies launches a new initiative to help support families of children with disabilities. And, Shop TODAY Editorial Director Adrianna Brach shares a few best-selling products at a discount to get you ready for summer.
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Willy was joined by Anthony Shriver, founder, chairman, and CEO of Best Buddies, the leading global organization dedicated to supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Inspired by his mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver who started Special Olympics, Anthony has taken Best Buddies from an idea to a leading global non-profit impacting millions of lives. He and Willy discussed his upbringing and how his parents' emphasis on giving back shaped him, the story behind creating Best Buddies and developing it into global movement, the importance of inclusion, the challenges of mental health, his commitment to faith and living a life of service, and much more.
In Chris Fleming's recent Peacock stand-up special Hell, he calls out some audience members who are married and shouts, “This show is not for people who have wives. You have a wife?! Go see Mike Birbiglia!” Fleming is fearless about dragging the names of other comedians into his bits: from Bo Burham to Nikki Glaser to Bert Kreischer and more. Chris is a Massachusetts theater kid turned comedian and it manifests in stand-up comedy that is simultaneously avant-garde but also crowd pleasing. Mike and Chris sit down for a truly productive session of working out new material and they break down why Massachusetts is so darn repressed. Plus, they do no-holds-barred impressions of each other in what is one of the most unhinged episodes of Working it Out of all time.Please consider donating to Best Buddies
SHOW TOPICIntroducing the Inaugural Seneca Valley Best Buddies Walk with Dr. Kathy Mahon and Seneca Valley fourth grader, Miss Lucy Martsolf SPECIAL GUESTDr. Dr. Kathy Mahon, School Psychologist and Miss Lucy Martsolf, Seneca Valley fourth grader at Haine Elementary SchoolDr. Kathy Mahon is in her 23rd year as a school psychologist with Seneca Valley. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Mercyhurst University, Master of Education and Specialist Certification in School Psychology from Edinboro University, and Doctor of Education in School Psychology with a neuropsychology specialty from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is also the lead advisor for the Best Buddies chapter at Haine Elementary. Miss Lucy Martsolf is a 10-year-old student at Haine Elementary who has been active in the special needs community from a young age. She has volunteered at numerous sensory events through the nonprofit her mother started in honor of her sister in 2016. She has an older sister with autism who she loves very much. They are “best buddies.” Miss Martsolf has demonstrated courage to help individuals who learn differently and respect for those who demonstrate a need for a helping hand. IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEWOverview of the new Best Buddies chapter at Haine Elementary SchoolVolunteering with Best BuddiesDetails about the upcoming Seneca Valley Best Buddies WalkMission of the Best Buddies WalkHow to register for the Best Buddies Walk, scheduled for Saturday, June 1Seneca Valley Best Buddies Walk (runsignup.com)
Before becoming involved with Best Buddies, Zach was not very socially active and did not participate in many extracurricular activities. After joining his high school Best Buddies chapter during freshman […] The post Zach Smith National Football League (NFL), New York City appeared first on PLAN of MA and RI.
Before becoming involved with Best Buddies, Zach was not very socially active and did not participate in many extracurricular activities. After joining his high school Best Buddies chapter during freshman […] The post Zach Smith National Football League (NFL), New York City appeared first on PLAN of MA and RI.
Jeff and Tim Kurkjian sit down with me to talk about fatherhood and family. It is great to hear the strong bond and mutual respect they have for each other. They share memories of when Jeff was a kid to know when Jeff became a dad. After that we talk about their new podcast, Is This A Great Game, Or What? and how long it took them to get this podcast started. In addition they share what they can expect from their new podcast series. Lastly, we finish the interview with the Fatherhood Quick Five. About Tim Kurkjian Tim Kurkjian is a Hall of Fame baseball writer. Tim Kurkjian joined ESPN in March 1998 as both a reporter for Baseball Tonight and a senior writer. Known for his passionate storytelling and insight, he continues to provide analysis through his writing and regular appearances on Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter. Kurkjian is also a staple in ESPN's Little League World Series coverage, and has served as a regular analyst in the booth, including for Monday Night Baseball and Wednesday Night Baseball. Follow Tim on Twitter at @Kurkjian_ESPN. Check out their new podcast, Is This A Great Game, Or What? wherever you get your podcasts. About Jeff Kurkjian Jeff Kurkjian grew up in Maryland. He, his wife, Emily, and their daughter, McKinley, reside in Skippack. Kurkjian is a proud graduate of Syracuse University. Jeff loves to volunteer his time working with ALS United Mid-Atlantic. He does this in memory of his uncle who passed away from the disease in 2023. Also, he has worked with the Salvation Army, Best Buddies, the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and more. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his baby girl and binge watching the newest shows. He also is the host of the nationally syndicated show, “Jeff Kurkjian's Country Beat,” heard on stations across the country including Philadelphia, Boston, Tampa and Vegas, just to name a few. You can follow him on all socials @jpkurkjian. Semper Smart Games Is Sponsoring This Week's Episode Understanding that play is the mind's favorite way of learning. Semper Smart Games has a mission of creating uniquely fun and educational games that teach invaluable skills and knowledge. They create games that you can play at home, in the classroom, or almost anywhere you can find a small playing surface. In addition, they are committed to giving today's families meaningful tactile gaming options that are not screen based. It helps to encourage personal interaction. Sign up for news on new and exciting projects, promotions and games they are working on. About The Art of Fatherhood Podcast The Art of Fatherhood Podcast follows the journey of fatherhood. Your host, Art Eddy talks with fantastic dads from all around the world where they share their thoughts on fatherhood. You get a unique perspective on fatherhood from guests like Joe Montana, Kevin Smith, Danny Trejo, Jerry Rice, Jeff Foxworthy, Patrick Warburton, Jeff Kinney, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Kyle Busch, Dennis Quaid, Dwight Freeney and many more.
In Episode 156 I had the honor to speak with Garett Tomasek, U.S. leader of Best Buddies. Garett was introduced to me and the Unstoppable Mindset by accessiBe's own Sheldon Lewis, also a past guest on the podcast. Sheldon also introduced me to an incredible woman who is a Best Buddy in Canada. Meet Jessica Rotolo who is a talented and fearless 25-year-old model, artist, self-advocate, actor and dancer, who has a passion for performing on film and stage. Jessica was born with Downs Syndrome. I empathize a great deal as my parents, like Jessica's, were told that she would be a burden on them. As with my parents, Jessica's parents, especially her mom, fiercely opposed the idea that their daughter could not grow up to do whatever she wanted with her life. Along the way, Jessica was introduced to Best Buddies Canada where she met one of her pier buddies, Lauren Abela. Under the Best Buddies program, a Best Buddy like Jessica gets a new “pier buddy” every year. These people are volunteers who choose to become friends and mentors for persons with development or intellectual disabilities. In the case of Lauren and Jessica, their relationship flourished, and they became and still are clearly best friends, and Jessica's mom, Dorlean is also part of the team. Mom refers to herself as Jessica's Momager and prefers to work behind the scenes. However, she clearly is a significant part of the conversation you get to experience on this episode. Clearly these three are an unstoppable force. Lauren is a leader in Best Buddies and Jessica is an international ambassador for the program. Check out this episode and be ready to be inspired and encouraged. About the Guest: Jessica Rotolo Jessica is a talented and fearless 25-year-old model, artist, self-advocate, actor and dancer, who has a passion for performing on film and stage. Jessica was born with Down syndrome and is a role model for her community as well as an Ambassador for DramaWay, Best Buddies Canada and Best Buddies International. As the recipient of several awards, Jessica has also been recognized in the Ontario Legislative Assembly and the Canadian House of Commons for her outstanding international commitment in advocating and fundraising for her Down Syndrome community. She has performed in several musical drama productions throughout her career at DramaWay, a Toronto drama company serving the All-Abilities community. She has been a guest on several Canadian News Stations and Talk Shows. She has appeared in numerous campaigns for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society and a Documentary called “Employable Me Canada” not to mention a number of other fashion shows and photo shoots, including the Fashion Arts Toronto show and with designer 3ndolith. Dorlean Rotolo As her “Momager,” Dorlean is committed to supporting her daughter, Jessica, in all aspects of her career of modeling, acting, dancing and her advocacy for Best Buddies Canada, Best Buddies International and the Down syndrome community at large. Lauren Abela Lauren is a recent psychology graduate and now Student Recruitment Officer at the University of Guelph-Humber. She was first introduced to Best Buddies in high school at St. Jean de Brebeuf in Vaughan, Canada. Lauren fell in love with the atmosphere and purpose of the organization, and soon took on greater leadership roles including co-founding her own chapter with Jessica and becoming Canada's first Global Ambassadors for Best Buddies together. Because of Jessica, Lauren chose her thesis research topic to be called, “Down Syndrome Acceptance: Changing Attitudes Through Interventions.” Through her research, she found a positive relationship between disability education and inclusionary attitudes. Lauren is grateful to have attended university on a full scholarship as a Founders' Academic Merit Scholarship recipient, and made the most of her last 4 years as an active member in the community. Upon graduating, she received her school's top graduation awards, including Gold Medallion for Leadership Excellence and Michael Nightingale Community Enrichment Award. Presently, Lauren plans to pursue further education to become a Registered Psychologist and continue her research assistantship with her former professor's non-profit, Teaching & Learning Research (TLR) In Action, studying the accessibility of post-secondary classrooms for the visually impaired. In the meantime, she travels around Ontario promoting her school, encouraging students to apply for scholarships and consider joining Best Buddies. Best Buddies taught her that friendships are not something to be taken for granted, and the power of giving kindness to someone who needs it most holds immeasurable impact. Ways to connect with Jessica, Dorlean & Lauren: Best Buddies Canada Instagram: https://instagram.com/bestbuddiescanada?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Best Buddies Canada Website: https://bestbuddies.ca Jessica's Instagram: https://instagram.com/jessica.rotolo20?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Jessica's Linktree Website: https://linktr.ee/Jessica.Rotolo20 Shop Jessica's Cards: https://kidicarus.ca/product-tag/jessica-rotolo/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: **Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. **Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hello once again and welcome to unstoppable mindset today we get to do something a little bit different, something we haven't done a lot, although when we do it. It's kind of fun. And that is we have more than one guest on the podcast today. Several months ago, we had a guest on Garrett Tomasek, who is involved with best buddies in the United States. And if you listened to that episode, you had a chance to learn about Best Buddies. And he was introduced to us by Sheldon Lewis here at AccessiBe well. Along the way, Sheldon also introduced us introduced us if I could talk I'd be in great shape but introduced us to Jessica Rotolo and Dorlean Rotolo and Lauren Abela. Lauren is a best buddy Jessica is a best buddy of Lauren's. And we also have, as I said, other people involved in this whole thing specifically Darlene, who is Jessica's mom, she prefers to be called her momager. And we're going to talk all about that. But Jessica is involved in a lot of different events. Jessica is a model, she's an actress, she does a variety of different kinds of things. And she was born with Down syndrome. So we're going to talk about all of that. And we're going to talk about best buddies and do whatever it is that we need to do to make this a fun time. So sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. And I think I'm going to start with Jessica and say welcome to unstoppable mindset. How are you? **Jessica Rotolo ** 03:00 Yes, I'm great. I'm great. I go. ahead, go ahead. I am 25 years old, and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and I was born with Down syndrome. And right here is a buddy of mine, a pure buddy who I love. **Lauren Abela ** 03:21 Lauren. Jessica is hugging me right now. I'm Lauren. **Jessica Rotolo ** 03:24 And my mom who I live with **Michael Hingson ** 03:29 Hug your mom too. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 03:30 And I'm getting hugs right now. **Michael Hingson ** 03:33 Okay, just checking for **Dorlean Rotolo ** 03:35 being just as mom is the amount of hugs we get. Well, that's kind of I once said on a documentary she did that she she would be a professional hugger. **Jessica Rotolo ** 03:45 And that was called employable me. And that was when I was looking for a job and they helped me actually get a job at Navara the costume rental store. And well, so they do and they also helped me get my art and to Christmas cards. **Michael Hingson ** 04:04 Oh, so do you have a job today? Today? **Jessica Rotolo ** 04:07 I do. I actually work at my preschool. Centennial. Jobcentre. Ah, okay, I am a path forward classroom assistant there because I went to Centennial when I was a kid, a baby, a baby, a **Michael Hingson ** 04:27 baby. Well, that's kind of cool. Well, Lauren, let's welcome you also to unstoppable mindset. How are you? **Lauren Abela ** 04:34 I'm doing good. I'm nervous but excited. **Michael Hingson ** 04:38 Don't be nervous. No need to be nervous. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 04:43 You don't bite do you? **Michael Hingson ** 04:45 Never anxious. Just food. And humans are not food. So no. Well, Lauren, tell us a little bit about you kind of growing up. Why don't you start us off with that. We learned already a little bit about Jeff because she's 25, and she was born with Down syndrome, we'll come back to that. But tell us about you, Lauren. Yeah, **Lauren Abela ** 05:05 so I was born, normally developing, I have a twin brother and two older sisters, born and raised here in Ontario, Canada. And I first got involved in high school with best buddies in the 11th grade. So halfway into my career, and I haven't left since. So **Michael Hingson ** 05:24 how did you discover Best Buddies? **Lauren Abela ** 05:26 So I know that the club had a presence around my high school. And they would often host events and have tables set up during club fairs, and they would have big sales. So within those first couple years, I was getting familiar with the organization. And then finally, in the 11th grade, they were recruiting people for to join the Club. And then after that, I was like, you know, why not? What's, what's stopping me from joining and just and making new friends. So that was why I wanted to go and join and was that hope of making new friends and here I am today, so incredibly blessed to have my truly lifetime best friend Jessica? **Jessica Rotolo ** 06:06 Yes. And I started best buddies in grade nine of high school. And I've been in Best Buddies for 10 plus years. And it's been a fun ride through it. Oh, **Michael Hingson ** 06:24 well, how did you discover Best Buddies? We heard how Lauren did. But Jessica, how did you discover Best Buddies? **Jessica Rotolo ** 06:30 I actually heard about it from a teacher in class that Emily Chang was an is her name. And she told everyone about it. And I said, oh, oh, join. And I heard of I joined and I loved it ever since. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 06:57 Now. How to highland park. **Jessica Rotolo ** 07:00 Yeah. To Highland Park High School. Yeah. How **Michael Hingson ** 07:05 close in age are you to learn and Jessica? **Jessica Rotolo ** 07:08 Well, I'm 25 and Lauren is 22 turns.Okay, four months? **Michael Hingson ** 07:13 Yeah. All right. So, so you and how old? How old? Were you, Jessica, when you were in the ninth grade and started voting and best? You were four. Okay. My gosh. Okay. So, you started well, before Lauren, how did you guys meet and become best buddies. **Jessica Rotolo ** 07:31 So we met when I went to Humber College, when I went there. And I, she called Best Buddies, Canada. And she wanted to join, she wanted to start up a Best Buddies group up there. And I called Best Buddies, Canada. And I said that I want to start up as buddies up there as well. So best buddies, Canada basically. put us together. And we met first at Humber, at the Starbucks there, and we decided to start up a Best Buddies chapter. **Lauren Abela ** 08:14 And, Michael, just to add on to that, if you're not, if, you know, just to share some background information that's based Canada is quite a small leadership team. So we had reached out to different people within the organization. And then in office, they're like, Hey, someone from Hungary reached out. Yeah. Someone from the University of Guelph Humber reached out. So it was the team over at the space Canada. Deanna and Vicki who connected Jessica and I together. Yes. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 08:40 And the university and the college are right beside each other. They are Yeah, so. **Jessica Rotolo ** 08:46 So the Humber College actually went to 12. Humber University University. **Michael Hingson ** 08:50 Right. So did you get a college degree, Jessica? **Jessica Rotolo ** 08:57 Well, I was in the sea ice program there. And that is a two year program for people with special needs, like me and other people who have autism and other any **Michael Hingson ** 09:14 special special special needs. Yeah, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 09:16 it's a two year program. Yes, **Jessica Rotolo ** 09:18 a two year program. And I was in person for a little bit and then COVID happened. And I was online, which I did not like. Yeah, yeah. But I also did a documentary in 2018 called employable me. And that's when I got the job and the cards, but they also said that I was eligible to graduate two years before 2015. And that meant that if I graduated, then I would have gone to Humber College in person all throughout **Dorlean Rotolo ** 09:56 Europe, but then I don't think you'll remember Lauren. Yeah. Yeah, I meant to be, **Jessica Rotolo ** 10:01 but it was meant to be. But I went, I deferred it for a year and then an orphan. Yeah. Worked out. **Michael Hingson ** 10:08 Yeah. Sodid you go back to college and finish or? **Jessica Rotolo ** 10:12 Well, I defer it for a year. And they went to Humber what engineering. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 10:18 She got accepted. But then she deferred the acceptance for one year because I had a number of things she was doing. So then she went to college for the two year program. Okay. The second year was COVID. So yeah, she was **Lauren Abela ** 10:31 Jessica. I can't imagine what if you had beat me to starting the chapter? Chapter. Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 10:40 So after COVID, so you haven't gone back and finished your second year yet? No, **Jessica Rotolo ** 10:45 no, I'm done now. Oh, no, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 10:47 you finished? She finished it online, **Michael Hingson ** 10:49 online. Okay. Okay. And I **Jessica Rotolo ** 10:51 graduated online as well. Cool. **Michael Hingson ** 10:55 So you virtually walked across the stage and got here. So Dorlean, tell us about you a little bit, kind of your life growing up, and then certainly having the opportunity to be with Jessica, and being a mom and all that. This has obviously been different for you than probably what you expected? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 11:20 Oh, absolutely. I grew up in Saskatchewan and rural farming community. My father was a farmer, my mother, a nurse and, you know, had a lovely life in not in Saskatchewan, and then move to the mountains. And then after when I was living in Banff, I decided I wanted to move out to Ontario, so moved here and luckily met my husband. And you know, we had Jessica and it certainly was a shock like most families when you have a surprise that you weren't expecting, and but we wouldn't change Jessica in any any possible way. She is a force to be reckoned with. Yes. And the Down Syndrome has not stopped her from leading an unbelievable life. I **Jessica Rotolo ** 12:06 do anything anyone else can do. Yeah, she's **Dorlean Rotolo ** 12:09 very, very accomplished, young lady. And we're incredibly proud of her. And my first time that actually I went to a hotel to a, an event in Vaughan, which is north of Ontario. And I didn't know it, but it was a Best Buddies event that was being put on. And I remember having a t shirt from it that I eventually just gave away because I'm like, I don't know why I have this t shirt anymore. And then lo and behold, when Jessica, signs up for Best Buddies, I'm like, Oh my gosh, I should have kept that T shirt. Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 12:46 Yeah. Well, so do you have other children? Yes, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 12:49 we have one daughter. Her name is Bobby. And she's doing her PhD in Waterloo, Ontario, and very proud of her. She started her PhD when she was 22 years old. And that's in public health. And yeah, she's doing very accomplished younger woman as well. **Michael Hingson ** 13:05 Jessica, are you gonna go get a PhD? **Jessica Rotolo ** 13:08 I don't know. Yeah. To a makeup course. So I want to learn everything to know that is about makeup. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 13:20 Well, when you go into her bedroom at Sephora. **Jessica Rotolo ** 13:26 She's got a makeup to **Michael Hingson ** 13:29 what to tell people a little bit about Jessica. Jessica is a model. She's an artist, self advocate, actor, and dancer. And you have performed in a variety of different kinds of things that I do want to get to all that. But the point is that you are definitely doing a lot of stuff. So maybe a PhD isn't in your future, and that's okay. Or you might decide down the line that you want to be more of an academic, but that's probably a whole lot more boring than being an artist and a dancer. And especially, I speak from experience being a self advocate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so you **Jessica Rotolo ** 14:08 I am a self advocate for Down syndrome and Best **Dorlean Rotolo ** 14:12 Buddies and alopecia and alopecia because **Jessica Rotolo ** 14:15 in 2014, I was on a pill for sleep disorders and I caused alopecia. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 14:25 Yeah, target all patients. **Michael Hingson ** 14:28 Tell us about that. Tell us what that is. How **Jessica Rotolo ** 14:31 alopecia is hair loss. So I was completely bald from head to toe. Like hair, eyebrows, lashes everywhere. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 14:42 And then so we after nine months from the pill Jessica passed out. So we took the took her off the pill and then within eight months her hair started growing back. Yeah. But then there were still patches that were not coming back. So Jessica was would go to Sandy Brooklyn. hospital. Yes. And every three months is hollow just **Jessica Rotolo ** 15:03 there. We did 50. So it is a 50 steroid injections and my head and eyebrows. And that did not work **Dorlean Rotolo ** 15:14 every three months. And then very luckily Pfizer came out with a trial test pill, which Jessica was accepted to three and a half years ago. And so she's been going to a dermatologist and she's on that. And it's grown her hair to 32 inches long. **Jessica Rotolo ** 15:30 Wow. And growing and growing. And going with the pill. Yeah. **Jessica Rotolo ** 15:36 And now we're doing a documentary on my hair grow hair loss and hair growth journey. And I'll be cutting my hair off shoulder length, and I'll be donating my hair as a wig to someone who has **Dorlean Rotolo ** 15:58 alopecia. So continental hair is where Jessica bought a number of weeks when she had her hair loss. And they are graciously part of the documentary with Sunnybrook Hospital. And they will, Michael Suba. His name is and he will be donate making a way out of justice hair that will be donated to a young woman who is suffering from alopecia. **Michael Hingson ** 16:22 Oh, that's that's pretty cool. Yeah. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 16:25 And she's getting her hair cut when I started taping this weekend. **Jessica Rotolo ** 16:31 We can Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 16:32 What's the new documentary **Dorlean Rotolo ** 16:33 gonna be about? Well, Jessica's hair loss and regrowth journey. Okay. And **Michael Hingson ** 16:38 when will that be released? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 16:42 For spring, spring? Because we'd like to enter into Tiff and all the film festivals, and then also put it into the educational system. Yes. So it'd be a 12 to 15 minute documentary. Yeah. So we're very excited about it. We have a wonderful director named Scott drecker. Who is, is doing all the filming will **Jessica Rotolo ** 17:02 love him. Yeah. I also did a couple of public service announcements. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 17:09 And that's how we know him. Yeah, that's how we did that was for the Down Syndrome. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 17:15 Society. That's right, **Michael Hingson ** 17:16 so. So Dorlean, what is best buddies meant for you? Clearly, and I know that Jessica and Lauren have thoughts about that, and we can talk about that. But I'm curious, what does it really mean for you? 17:32 Well, the biggest thing for me was friendship. When Jessica joined, the friends that she made, and still has connected with is unbelievable. They are women that now our doctors are going to medical school. They are all very accomplished young women, and they still keep in touch with Jessica. So to me, it's friendship, this is what best buddies really is. For our family, and but also it's the, it's to the it's given just so many unbelievable opportunities to become a leader, they they have given her so many different ways where she can just shine and and and be that leader that we knew was in there. Because she hasn't gotten it from other other places, associations, but Best Buddies has just let her shine. I've been to two **Jessica Rotolo ** 18:29 leadership conferences in Toronto, Canada, twice. One was a sleepover and when was a day thing? **Michael Hingson ** 18:39 And what were the leadership conferences about or what did you accomplish there? **Jessica Rotolo ** 18:44 Um, basically how to make new friends and learning how to speak in front of large crowds. 18:54 Well, there you go. And be an advocate. Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 18:58 So Lauren, do you go to on any of these events with Jessica? **Lauren Abela ** 19:04 Yes. So my first one similar to justice story was in high school. So before we had met, but you know, just over the summer, we went to the International Leadership Conference. **Jessica Rotolo ** 19:13 We did and that was our first one in person. Yeah, first, where was that? Indiana? 19:21 Oh, it's an Indiana **Jessica Rotolo ** 19:23 in the US. **Michael Hingson ** 19:24 I have. I have close friends. So we live in Bloomington. It's beautiful. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 19:29 Believe how stunning it was just loved every minute because Joe and I went as well. Yeah. And we had a mini vacation while they were off working and getting up at six and **Lauren Abela ** 19:42 made sure I was up on time. Mondays but so memorable. **Michael Hingson ** 19:48 This is where I know Best Buddies is is a miracle organization because there's never a day that just go get up at 6am **Michael Hingson ** 19:58 Well, you know that's how actresses are They like to sleep late. Oh, **Michael Hingson ** 20:01 yeah. Yeah, I like to sleep in and then they party till 1111 30 at night so or later. **Michael Hingson ** 20:10 Sleep. So So Jessica, you are doing a lot of different things with acting and art and so on. Why and how did you start all of that? And how young were you when you started that? **Jessica Rotolo ** 20:24 I believe I started this. My art and everything. When I was like four, I think what, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 20:34 John who taught you how to do so Jessica signature has a heart tell them? Yes. **Jessica Rotolo ** 20:38 My heart is Madras signature. And my my aunt, my aunt, Auntie Bev taught me how to make an M first, and then a V at the bottom and connect it and connect them make a heart like a heart. But now, I do it all myself. Yeah, yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 20:59 So what kind of art do you do? Hearts, our hearts. **Jessica Rotolo ** 21:04 Make hearts and then also people, female and male. And **Michael Hingson ** 21:11 what kind of art is it? Is it just drawing or painting or what? **Jessica Rotolo ** 21:15 Painting Manet? Okay, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 21:19 you're one of Jessica's pieces **Michael Hingson ** 21:20 of art? Well, for those who can see the podcast, because a lot of people are going to be listening to this, but if you want to show one, I don't see a problem. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 21:30 Well, you know, the the unique thing about Jessica is Hearts is that she divides them into little squares and colors. And so they're very, very colorful, and, and very **Jessica Rotolo ** 21:41 intricate. I would say it **Dorlean Rotolo ** 21:44 takes her about 40 to 50 hours to do one of **Michael Hingson ** 21:46 her I was just gonna ask that. Yeah, so 50 hours to do one, huh? Are you do you do oil paint or what? **Jessica Rotolo ** 21:54 No acrylic paint acrylic. Okay. Yes. So like on the canvas. Now, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 21:58 when she first started out, it was crayons. It was like a pencil crayon. Yeah. And then I introduced her to the acrylic paint when she got older. And yeah, they're they're a work of art. And she's Yeah, our prime minister has one dancer and mentioned national has one while we gave 24 away to a World Down Syndrome Day event that we did on March 21st. So many people have just because wonderful heart and **Jessica Rotolo ** 22:26 then when I started acting, I believe it was 15 I think with drama away, or your 14 when you thank you. I was 14. And I loved it ever since that **Dorlean Rotolo ** 22:48 you call them your second family. Yeah. And what do you do with drama? Where **Michael Hingson ** 22:51 does the classes tell us about trauma? **Jessica Rotolo ** 22:54 Our drama, winter or is like a group B? This is Mississauga, West Scarborough east, everywhere. Number of classes for drama. There is songwriting, which I love the most. That one is where you write your own songs. As a group as a group. Yes. And then dance. Dancing. I love dancing and dancing. I started when I was 1616. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 23:34 Yeah. But when with drama when you didn't when you were young boy. But how **Jessica Rotolo ** 23:39 old? Were your little? Oh, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 23:40 yeah, you started like with ballet. You were three years old. **Jessica Rotolo ** 23:44 Three years old. I started dancing. Wow. **Michael Hingson ** 23:47 So you've been doing it a while needless to say, which is certainly cool. And you've been dancing. So drama. What kind of drama do you do today? **Jessica Rotolo ** 24:00 Um, we do a lot of plays. Like, um, the last play that we did was the very first play that drama we ever did. Wizard of Oz such **Dorlean Rotolo ** 24:12 as 22 years ago. Yes. And I was **Jessica Rotolo ** 24:15 the what keepers of the West. **Michael Hingson ** 24:20 And did you say the big line? I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too. **Jessica Rotolo ** 24:26 I did not. Really? I was going to and what **Dorlean Rotolo ** 24:33 did you say instead? **Jessica Rotolo ** 24:35 I don't remember. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 24:37 You don't remember your line. **Michael Hingson ** 24:42 Oh, what what was her line? **Jessica Rotolo ** 24:44 Yeah, for God. **Michael Hingson ** 24:47 Don't talk to her about forgetting lines. **Jessica Rotolo ** 24:51 But that was the past play that we just did. **Michael Hingson ** 24:56 You just did that one, huh? Yeah, we **Jessica Rotolo ** 24:58 just did that one. Now. **Michael Hingson ** 24:59 I I'm curious. Are plays like that recorded? Do this? Anybody make videos on them? Are they available? **Jessica Rotolo ** 25:07 Yeah, yes. They're all recorded and you can get them online. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 25:11 Yeah and drama. Wait, drama way.com Yeah. And there because it's everybody, everybody that is in an actor all everybody has special needs. And **Michael Hingson ** 25:23 I'm just gonna say Yeah. Then from verbal to **Dorlean Rotolo ** 25:25 nonverbal. And Danielle stir nod who is the **Michael Hingson ** 25:29 executive producer, director and co founder. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 25:33 She? She has that everybody has an amazing role. And the costumes the props are very fun. believable. Yeah. Her staff. What do you think about the staff have drawn love **Jessica Rotolo ** 25:45 them? Yeah, I miss a couple of them. Because some of them are to move on how to move. Yeah, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 25:53 but it's an incredible organization. Yeah. Yeah. And so last year for drama. Wait, I **Jessica Rotolo ** 26:02 am yeah, I'm also an ambassador for jumbo i Tell **Michael Hingson ** 26:05 me about that. Please. **Jessica Rotolo ** 26:08 I love being an ambassador for jumbo I just because I have these a car for being an ambassador. And I can just give one out to any any for if Danielle **Dorlean Rotolo ** 26:25 needs a spokesperson, or anybody who wants to be entered interviewing about drama, wait, just because asked to represent drama. Wait. **Michael Hingson ** 26:36 So Lauren, how are you and Best Buddies involved with what Jessica is doing with drama? Where are you? Other than obviously supporting? Yeah, **Lauren Abela ** 26:48 so actually really had an amazing time watching just because played the Wizard of Oz this year. It was spectacular. So I really, really enjoyed just showing up supporting, watching, it was really a really nice time because all the laughs and how serious everyone takes their role. Like it was a honestly professional production. Needless to say, so. That's the reason generally, they don't have a direct connection at the moment. But nothing that we can't start today. There's anything I've learned from Jessica is that, you know, if you want to do something, go ahead and do it. **Jessica Rotolo ** 27:26 We did a lot of other plays. And actually, some of them were copied onto DVD guns, instead of like online, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 27:36 and there are other actors or performers that are part of the best buddies. organization as well. Yes, yes. But Best Buddies has been incredible. Especially, you know, the way you can tell them what were you with you and Lauren, the first Canadian? **Jessica Rotolo ** 27:52 Oh, yes, we actually we are the first Canadian buddy best buddy pair to be a to be the best buddies global ambassadors. And our kids, this is the top **Lauren Abela ** 28:11 are the ambassadors I'm wearing a purple collared shirt that they gave us at the International Conference this year, which **Dorlean Rotolo ** 28:17 says Best Buddies ambassador. Yes. And then Jessica, you're wearing which **Jessica Rotolo ** 28:21 shirt? I'm wearing my best buddies Canada talk. **Lauren Abela ** 28:25 And it has the logo in white, or a solid red t shirt. **Michael Hingson ** 28:29 What is the logo look like? If you would learn Oh, **Jessica Rotolo ** 28:32 it's actually the logo is two people putting their arms like this around each other on each other. **Lauren Abela ** 28:42 Like, like **Michael Hingson ** 28:43 this doesn't work very well just to go because most people aren't going to see this. They're going to hear it **Jessica Rotolo ** 28:48 actually I got this talk at the 20th year Leadership Conference. **Michael Hingson ** 28:57 Cool. So for you, Lauren. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 29:01 Might may say the the gentleman that he his name is Keith Haring and he's a contemporary artist in the world and he create created and donated the best buddies logo for Anthony Kennedy Shriver Wow, they weren't went to university together. Uh huh. Huh. So that's who does that develop the logo? Yes. **Michael Hingson ** 29:25 So Lauren, what is your favorite thing about having Jessica as a as a best buddy and a best friend? **Lauren Abela ** 29:31 Do I have to pick just one Michael like really? Possible to **Lauren Abela ** 29:42 certainly the key one that like stood out as soon as we met the first day, it was just your confidence. Yeah. And how you approach life and it's definitely learned a lot from you. Still learning each day is a how you can just Jessica how you can just take on challenges and be like You know what, I deserve to be here and I'm gonna own it, whatever you're doing. If you're standing in front of 100,000 people, you're gonna own it. I believe that. So definitely just Well, **Jessica Rotolo ** 30:10 I actually did something called motion ball. I know I for Special Olympics, Canada, I auditioned with a really. I did an audition tape, which I technically really didn't need to, because I was in already. But I auditioned, like, my little skit, and then I won. And I'm much I didn't plan on. And I got to perform at the guard and find out how many people 2500 2500 People **Michael Hingson ** 30:55 did you start? Yeah. **Jessica Rotolo ** 30:58 And I loved it. I don't get nervous whatsoever. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 31:04 And a very interesting fact. Is that, so Anthony Kennedy Shriver started special started. Best Buddies. Yeah. In like 1989. And his aunt and mother started Special Olympics. Right? So he comes from a fabulous lineage of people that just give to the world. And especially people with special needs. So they're extra special. They have an extra special place in our heart, don't they? Yeah, they really do. **Michael Hingson ** 31:37 Well, I think Lauren, you've probably kind of answered this, but I'm going to ask it anyway. What has Jessica taught you that you can take away as a life lesson? Yes, **Lauren Abela ** 31:46 so something I've been sharing with different high schools I've visited for my school. As that's my new job. After graduating from university, I now go around to different high schools in Ontario, recruiting people for the University of Guelph Humber, and include this part of my speech, because I really want others to have a similar friendship story if they can, if they can join best buddies or start their own chapter. And that's that, you know, how to be accepted for who you are. Because Jessica accepts me for who I am. And how to love with all of your heart. So I really, really appreciate Jessica for those two very big. Well, **Michael Hingson ** 32:29 Ken, I think that's extremely important. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 32:32 What do you say they're a very big hug right now. **Michael Hingson ** 32:34 What do you think? What? What do all of you think that best buddies can teach the world? And how can we get more people to pay attention to the lesson? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 32:46 Well, from a parent's perspective, sure that my child can do anything like anybody else, it may take her a little bit longer, but she can do anything. And she just needs to be given the chance from a job to being a friend. Just give them the opportunity because they deserve it. They're part of our planet. And, and they're, you know, we were made by all made by our you know, who we believe in, if you're, if it's God, it's whoever you believe in, we are all made together to live on this planet, and we each deserve. You know, that opportunity just to live a wonderful, wonderful life and Best Buddies. Absolutely. Does that. It does. Yes. **Michael Hingson ** 33:31 Well, well, Jessica and Lauren, in their various ways are ambassadors. It sounds like so are you do you go out and give speeches and talk to the public? No, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 33:39 no, I don't. I don't **Jessica Rotolo ** 33:42 know. She goes on the documentary. Unbelievable. Me with me. Yeah, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 33:45 yeah. So but no, I don't I just I'm behind the scenes making sure that when just because they're, everything's done for her or we work together to do it. Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm her taxi. I'm her. **Jessica Rotolo ** 34:00 With us now for us. Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. For us. That's the **Jessica Rotolo ** 34:04 same for worldwide Down Syndrome Day. 2023 **Dorlean Rotolo ** 34:08 was yeah, just it was, you know, helped me don't do it for me, help me. Let me let me show you that. I can do it too. I may need help. But just and that's, you know, his World Down Syndrome days. Again, their theme. Yeah, it was wonderful. And **Jessica Rotolo ** 34:22 I was also bullied in the past like, as a little baby and as a little kid and now Best Buddies really helped me make new friends. Yeah. And **Michael Hingson ** 34:38 that's real accepted. That is clearly great and a good thing. And and having a good friend like Lauren is always a valuable thing I think for for anyone, Lauren, you got your degree in psychology. You're going to continue on and go further with that. Yes, **Lauren Abela ** 34:57 I do want to pursue further Education, hopefully become a psychotherapist and and maybe a psychologist down the road. But you know I haven't shared yet but just to come and our friendship influenced my thesis topic thesis research paper. For my fourth year I just wrote it. And that was on Down Syndrome acceptance, changing attitudes through interventions. So it was measuring, quantitatively whether a short video, just sharing more about people with Down syndrome of all different ages, genders in jobs and careers, and how capable they are. And it did find a positive relationship between education and acceptance attitudes. So if there is any advice that I can give people, it's to be open to learning, and to ask questions, and approach people with a positive and open heart. You know, there's enough hate in this world don't spread more from yourself. **Michael Hingson ** 36:03 There's too much hate in this world, actually. But yeah, well, you know, so we've, we've heard a lot about Jessica's leadership and so on, and mom in the background, but you've taken on leadership roles and Best Buddies and elsewhere. Why did you do that? And what what was the inspiration to make that happen? **Lauren Abela ** 36:22 Yeah. Well, I know, I mentioned to you how I joined the student union with my university Ignite. And that was wanting to make clubs more accessible for students to join, seeing the positive impact of Best Buddies on the school. And I just wanted to give back in that way, and like Jessica, Tommy take action, you know, don't wait for someone else to do it. If there's something you want change, and then be that difference you want to see in the world. So that's how I approach these leadership opportunities. And it's certainly, you know, really definitely a credit, Jessica to many of my accomplishments, including the the award that my school gave me. Yes, yeah. Because we were. **Michael Hingson ** 37:11 Now when when you're a best buddy with someone, so Jessica is your best buddy. And and probably more relevant to ask it this way. Do you have more than one best buddy? Or do you stick with one person and devote all your time to that? **Jessica Rotolo ** 37:27 I have lots of money. I have like eight buddies now, since high school. **Michael Hingson ** 37:39 But how many do you have at one time? **Jessica Rotolo ** 37:42 I'm one at a time, one at a time. **Michael Hingson ** 37:45 So Lauren, same for you. **Lauren Abela ** 37:47 Yes. So the beauty of the organization is that for each year or semester, depending on how the chapter organizes it, you are matched with just one person typically hoping, hoping that the numbers do line up. And the goal is to during that one year of commitment, foster friendship to last a lifetime. So that's what happened to Jessica. So **Jessica Rotolo ** 38:10 the mean, yes, but when I was in high school, yes. It was like I had four buddies. From that chapter one **Michael Hingson ** 38:22 each year. Yeah, yes. Yes. Or what? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 38:27 years because you were there for seven years. Yeah. **Jessica Rotolo ** 38:30 Yeah. So I actually know the names as well. Tiffany so Ha, Chloe, Grace, Lauren, Mary Louise from Tmu. And Lisa, and now Priyanka from the Tim you, so? **Michael Hingson ** 38:49 So if you and so the two of you, Lauren and Jessica, are not in the organization's definition. Best Buddies, your best buddies for life anyway. But you have you have different Best Buddies says Best Buddies in the organization. Yes. Yeah. **Lauren Abela ** 39:07 So how it is organized is that students with intellectual or developmental disability are classified as a best buddy. Yeah, and those without an IDD is a pure body. Yes. So those one pure buddy is matched with one best buddy each year. And you know, you can request to be with a person sometimes it really it differs Chapter Two chapter. Yeah, we actually **Jessica Rotolo ** 39:33 requested I requested her to be the the first by developer chapter **Dorlean Rotolo ** 39:40 and the unique thing is Humber is that you have to be a student to be in the in the organization, the chapter, but it Tmu **Jessica Rotolo ** 39:50 Tim, you the buddies don't have to be a student. Yeah. And the pair bonding is have to be a student. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 39:57 Yeah, yeah. And community To be living has come where they are us t Fs okay? **Jessica Rotolo ** 40:03 Yes FST has come in helped us find the bodies and bodies. So **Lauren Abela ** 40:11 different Best Buddies chapters, especially at the university slash college level will partner with the community organization to recruit the best buddies from whereas we at Humber, we're very lucky to have students in the CIC program that we could recruit directly from, **Jessica Rotolo ** 40:27 which I helped with because I was in that program, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 40:31 which has helped you became the largest club and yeah, at the school, didn't you? I **Lauren Abela ** 40:36 want to believe so. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 40:40 You have amazing amount of people come is wonderful. Yes, yeah. Yeah, there's so many great events. **Michael Hingson ** 40:49 So what kind of events? I think we've heard some of the things that the Jessica has done well, but, and obviously, Darlene, but Lauren, what kind of events have you done with this buddies? Or is it sort of similar to what Jessica has already told us? **Lauren Abela ** 41:04 I think the events I just mentioned here are just all of her personal accomplishments. I can't top that, Michael ask someone else. **Michael Hingson ** 41:15 Trying to top it, it's **Dorlean Rotolo ** 41:17 been very shy here, because without Lauren, it was it was a group that, you know, an effort between the two of them, there are partnerships so without each other, that clubs certainly would not have been successful, no as it was, but also the support that best buddies Canada gave them was really wonderful. Deanna is just **Lauren Abela ** 41:40 amazing. And some of the events that Deanna allowed us to participate in include the Ascot, yes. Which was an annual fundraiser so just Can I volunteered with that event? We've gone to the Blue Jays game. Free tickets from Best Buddies, Canada. Yeah, PJs **Dorlean Rotolo ** 41:56 Care Foundation went into the box and sat in the box. **Lauren Abela ** 41:59 Yeah, we're also we've got watch the champions movie and in the feeder in Toronto. Yeah. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 42:04 And that's you've also could, you've had dance evenings at the at the school you've had friendship walks, right? Yeah. Yeah, **Jessica Rotolo ** 42:16 we did. You guys did. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 42:19 Talk to your Yes. That was best, buddy. Yes. **Jessica Rotolo ** 42:22 We also did the friendship dance. But that was my high school. Yeah. And I came in second in a dance off. **Michael Hingson ** 42:34 So Jessica, do you do social media at all? Yes. **Jessica Rotolo ** 42:40 Well, we both do, actually. And what do you do for a zoo? **Michael Hingson ** 42:43 Tell us about that. Hi, sorry, sad again. **Jessica Rotolo ** 42:48 We do Instagram lives together. Tell us about that. It's really fun. **Lauren Abela ** 42:53 Yes, maybe I can share how it started, which came about because of COVID. It was hard to connect with people. And I'm not sure it was a service. But it's Canada that reached out to me. They reached out to us. And they suggested that we go live on their Instagram just sharing a skill. And it became almost a weekly thing for us. **Jessica Rotolo ** 43:14 I believe our first we did a makeup tutorial we **Lauren Abela ** 43:18 do. Yeah. So we've done anywhere from makeup to baking. Cooking. walks outside. Yeah. Fashion. Yeah. And **Jessica Rotolo ** 43:27 also the conference. Yeah, **Lauren Abela ** 43:31 we went live at the conference too. For those that couldn't make it as it was quite far. We wanted to have Sharon in our experience so highly, highly recommend every person to go to a leadership conference at least once in their life. Yeah, **Jessica Rotolo ** 43:44 well, I did three **Dorlean Rotolo ** 43:46 who were some of the people throughout the conference in Indiana. Famous people that you got to meet **Jessica Rotolo ** 43:52 Miss T Miss USA Miss Teen USA, Garin **Jessica Rotolo ** 43:57 flowers? Yes. Getting flowers **Jessica Rotolo ** 44:01 in the Champions cast, the movie of champions, the cast there, but a couple of them our best Windows ambassadors as well. So **Dorlean Rotolo ** 44:13 yeah, yeah, it was one. That was wonderful. You guys had perfect weather. **Jessica Rotolo ** 44:17 Yes. Perfect weather. It was so nice. It was so hot out there. It was. **Michael Hingson ** 44:25 So I'm Darlene, are you strictly behind the scenes? Are you an ambassador for Best Buddies? Or do you take on any kind of roles **Dorlean Rotolo ** 44:33 on behind the scenes Michael? **Michael Hingson ** 44:36 be out in the open at all? Huh? **Michael Hingson ** 44:38 No, I'm behind the scenes. I'm the momager. And yeah, I just make sure that, you know, whatever Jessica needs, you know, from whatever, you know, helping her with what she's going to wear for any event to getting her there safely, making sure she has, you know, nourishment and drinks. Yeah, Let's, I'm just Yeah, strictly behind the scenes which I is for me. One **Jessica Rotolo ** 45:06 time. Enjoyable me. Yeah, why not? That's **Dorlean Rotolo ** 45:08 what we're best buddies. Studies. I'm just when Jessica, when Jessica **Jessica Rotolo ** 45:15 except for my Hayden Park chapter for that she was a part of it as well. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 45:25 Yeah. So what I did with when Jessica was at Hayden Park Secondary School with GE, all girls school in the public, the Toronto District Public School Board. **Jessica Rotolo ** 45:36 Yeah. And we had an attacker with another school UTS UTS. Yeah. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 45:40 And so they were a distance away. So I would drive with our van and I would take two trips for the girls to load into the van and drive them over. So they didn't, because it was too far for them to walk. So it was really nice that they got to go to the other school instead of always having an event at their school or school. Yeah, **Lauren Abela ** 45:59 yeah. Yeah, one thing to jump in, that parents can do, in terms of supporting Best Buddies is actually to advocate to the staff at their school if there isn't a chapter to ask for them to be started one. Yeah. So that's one thing that we want to encourage family members and supporters. So if you know, of a friend or your child who has a disability, and there isn't a best buddy chapter to reach out to the President, the principal, the vice principal, and to see if one can be started. Yeah. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 46:33 And then they just need one of the teachers would be, you know, be the contact with with the school, but it depends if it's at a high school versus a university level. Yeah. Because if it's a university level, did you need a teacher University? No, yeah. No. **Lauren Abela ** 46:51 Students just ourselves. Students. **Jessica Rotolo ** 46:57 In high school, it **Lauren Abela ** 46:58 was an elementary level. So we do our best buddy chapters in elementary as well. Same **Michael Hingson ** 47:04 process in the US and Canada. **Lauren Abela ** 47:09 Well, similar, so you just reach out to your state's supervisor in terms of the States or in Canada, reach out to Best Buddies Canada office, and they will be able to provide support on next steps and how to move forward. **Michael Hingson ** 47:23 So since it's come up, we might as well deal with it if people want to reach out how do they figure out where their local Best Buddies offices are reaching out to their state or whatever? How do they do that? **Jessica Rotolo ** 47:37 You can go online at best buddies.com. Yes, yes. **Lauren Abela ** 47:43 And then there you can find contacts, and what chapters are currently available to be joined. based on your geographic location? Yes. **Lauren Abela ** 47:56 Your work there. Very **Dorlean Rotolo ** 47:57 good. So what is it **Jessica Rotolo ** 47:59 best buy this for? us.org.org? **Michael Hingson ** 48:02 Yeah, that makes sense. This would be a nonprofit. Yeah, yes. Yeah. And do all Best Buddies chapters, pretty much do the same thing with the same kinds of people. So you deal primarily with intellectual disabilities, not all physical disabilities. **Lauren Abela ** 48:17 So there are intersecting disabilities. However, the best buddies main audience are those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It doesn't exclude anyone, everyone is welcome to join. It just depends on on the the matching system, but there's also the Associate Member position where you don't have to be matched. You can just attend events as you please, to enjoy and the fun and make people meet people across the whole chapters. And that's what **Jessica Rotolo ** 48:44 we are right now. **Michael Hingson ** 48:48 How large is best buddies in Canada now? **Jessica Rotolo ** 48:55 A shop there was in 1993. And that was the York University campus. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 49:05 Yeah, Cam doctor, but how many there are in the in Canada? I really don't know that number. **Jessica Rotolo ** 49:11 Me neither. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 49:12 But it's there's a lot of chapters lots. **Michael Hingson ** 49:16 And you say a started in 1993? Yes. Your, **Jessica Rotolo ** 49:20 your character University was the first ever chapter. It's **Dorlean Rotolo ** 49:23 just north of Toronto. Uh huh. **Lauren Abela ** 49:25 So I can give overall statistics. Best Buddies programs now engage participants in each of the 50. United States. And we're in Canada as well and in over 47 countries impacting over 1.3 million people worldwide. Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 49:41 So it is pretty substantive, although I don't generally hear much about it, but I'm glad that we've been able to do this, but I haven't really heard a lot about Best Buddies outside of being introduced to Best Buddies, people by Sheldon, which I really am grateful to We'll be able to do, because I like the message you clearly send the message that I think I and other people with disabilities, sin, which is we're as capable as anyone else stop limiting us with your own attitudes and beliefs. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 50:19 And one very interesting fact about what is happening right now with Best Buddies International, it is. They have its National Disability Employment Awareness Month, right. N D. A. M, in India, and is basically to have people you know, just trying to get everybody employed. It's a very big part of the best buddies in the US is to they have wonderful programs. Do **Michael Hingson ** 50:49 you know what the unemployment rate among people with Down syndrome is? No, I don't have that statistic either. Yeah. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 50:57 We have. We have many families whose children or young adults are at home and do not have employment. Like when, as Jessica mentioned, when she was in the last documentary, they helped her get a job at a place called Malabar the costume rental store. And she absolutely loved, loved, loved it. But then COVID happened, it was close down. And then yeah, it was closed for good after that. So she lost her job. He loved it. **Michael Hingson ** 51:24 When he just wanted to go try on costumes. **Jessica Rotolo ** 51:29 Oh, I also I also got to meet a celebrity that came in. He was an actor. From the show victorious. He played back on the show. **Lauren Abela ** 51:54 On the topic of employment, just wanted to quickly mention, I was an ambassador for the Discover ability network. So any viewers listening in from Ontario, this is a free service paid for by the government, for employees with disabilities to connect them to employers looking to hire inclusively. So discoverability network, feel free to check that out later. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 52:14 And Jessica with fcb, Canada, she did a public service announcement. And they one of the things they helped create was a What would you guys create on? Oh, **Jessica Rotolo ** 52:29 we pretty wanted to be employable. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 52:38 employable? Yeah. Yes. And employable. And so they created the first LinkedIn, LinkedIn network for people with Down syndrome. **Michael Hingson ** 52:46 Yes. Ah, now what organization is, again? 52:50 FCB. Canada. What **Michael Hingson ** 52:51 is FCB? 52:52 It's just one of the advertising agencies in I'm not sure what FCB stands for. I was wondering, yeah, I'll look that up. And then with the Canadian Down Syndrome Society, so it doesn't say FCB it just says FCB. Canada. Yeah. Wonderful, wonderful people. And, yeah, so the employable. So anybody who has Down Syndrome who would like to connect to it, it is a LinkedIn page, specifically for people with Down syndrome. Yes. What does it stand for? Long name? Yeah. Oh, yeah. **Lauren Abela ** 53:30 Full service, integrated marketing and communications agency with offices in Toronto and Montreal? Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 53:36 Well, there you go. Yeah. Well, that is cool. Well, let me ask, Jessica, what are your long term plans? I mean, so you do art, you do modeling and a number of different things. Do you just want to continue that? Do you have any kind of long term goals in life? **Jessica Rotolo ** 53:55 I do have one 54:03 guy in this house. Yeah. That's the problem. You know, Michael is yes, Jessica wants to move out of her house. But you know, it's financially she would never be able to that's the unfortunate thing because she doesn't have the income to be able to move out of her home or home. So she is forced to live with us until, you know, maybe we could while we're trying to get a business going with for Jessica with her with her heart design. And, and her cards are soft. I **Jessica Rotolo ** 54:33 am till five. Yeah. I wouldn't move out. Yeah, I don't live on my own. **Lauren Abela ** 54:39 You know, some people would blame the economy, so I can't really blame the economy. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 54:44 Yeah, it's very expensive to live in Toronto. So champion champions. **Jessica Rotolo ** 54:49 Want to move closer to my work, and your My vigor score for my drama classes around that area. Well, **Michael Hingson ** 55:00 you might, you may find as time goes on, you'll be able to make more of a career out of some of the things you're doing, which would really be exciting. No boys in your life I gather, huh? No, **Lauren Abela ** 55:11 not Yeah, that **Michael Hingson ** 55:12 was a pretty definitive answer. **Jessica Rotolo ** 55:14 I don't want to I don't want any. No, no. No, boy. **Lauren Abela ** 55:24 Are we gonna dance at each other's wedding? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 55:29 They're gonna dance at each other's weddings, but she's got to find a guy first. **Michael Hingson ** 55:35 Seems like a reasonable thing to do. And, you know, I'm, I'm one of those people who's of the opinion there is somebody for everyone. So you just never know, Jessica. 55:44 Yeah. You'll never know. **Michael Hingson ** 55:48 We have Well, we've already got Dorlean addressed. I mean, she's got a guy. So that works. Yeah. So Lauren, what about you? What are your sort of long term goals and guys, and all that? **Lauren Abela ** 55:58 Definitely looking into buying a house in a few years, hopefully. Definitely working because I just started working after just graduating this year. So I want to find a salary position. Some pretty good. And again, yeah, do a master's, become a psychotherapist, maybe do some more research. You know, start a family, get married first. Goals and happy and healthy and make a difference in the world? **Michael Hingson ** 56:28 Have you found the right person to get married to yet? Um, **Lauren Abela ** 56:32 I hope so. I think so. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 56:36 He's our favorite. **Michael Hingson ** 56:37 He's a keeper. No, mom, mom blesses. So that's a good start. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 56:42 He's an extraordinary young man. Very nice. **Michael Hingson ** 56:45 So for each of you question, what advice do you want to give to the world? And we've talked a lot about different things. And I know, we've probably addressed some of the issues. But as we kind of bring this to a close, this has been going for a while it's almost an hour, can you believe it? But **Dorlean Rotolo ** 57:04 what kind of what kind of interviewer? What kind **Michael Hingson ** 57:07 of advice and suggestions? Would you like to leave people with what kinds of thoughts? Let's start with Dorlean? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 57:15 Well, My Messages to Young families, when Jessica was in my arms in the hospital, the doctor that came into the room to assess Jessica basically told me that I would grow to love her, which just absolutely broke my heart. Yeah. And so to all the young families, you know, yes, it's a shock at the beginning when you when you're holding your, your child, and you know, the diagnosis, but life will be incredible. We could not ever imagine our life without Jessica, but also the people she has brought to our lives has been a true blessing. It's been a blessing for us, you know, meeting people like Lauren, Peter, and just all of Jessica's friends in the mothers that I've met and fathers, they're just beautiful people. So it'll be okay. That's, that's my message. It'll be okay. **Michael Hingson ** 58:09 Have you ever had the opportunity to go back and see that doctor who said that? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 58:15 No, no, I don't know what I'd say to him. And especially days later, when we went to back to the hospital, and then he used Jessica as a specimen for a fellow doctor to show the fellow Doctor all the signs of that it's a baby with Down syndrome. Basically, I had a break down for a couple of days, because, you know, that's Is this the way my daughter was going to be perceived by the world? And, you know, we certainly have shown that No, she's not. She's a perfect person in our eyes and everybody's eyes that No, sir, yeah, yes, surely so. **Michael Hingson ** 58:52 So I don't, I don't want to do a lot of preaching myself this week. But I will make the comment that we've got to get beyond this idea that disability means lack of ability, because it doesn't mean lack of ability at all. It's a characteristic and everyone has it. But you know, I hear what you're saying. My parents were told that they should send me away when it was discovered that I was blind and the same thing and they rejected that. And I wish more parents would, would take that step to not just go by what science says just because somebody is different. Yeah. 100%. So Jessica, what kind of advice do you have for the world? How do you want to leave people thinking about you this week? **Jessica Rotolo ** 59:38 So I would say be yourself and just don't be afraid to leave your friends. **Michael Hingson ** 59:47 Yeah, yeah. And it's all about, as you said, being yourself and having the courage to be yourself and don't let people talk you into something that isn't true. Yeah, yeah, it is. and **Jessica Rotolo ** 1:00:00 don't let anyone tell you different. **Michael Hingson ** 1:00:03 Oh, yeah. That's the real key, isn't it? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:00:06 Yes. You know? Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 1:00:10 And if you don't know what you want, figure it out and use your best buddies and your friends but figure it out. Because you can certainly want things just like anyone else. Yes. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:00:22 And you know, people don't have to be alone. And if you are alone, contact Best Buddies. **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:00:27 They will help you. You don't have to be alone. It really is an amazing organization. Yeah, right. **Michael Hingson ** 1:00:33 And Lauren, and Lauren, you what kind of thoughts do you want to leave everyone with? **Lauren Abela ** 1:00:37 Yeah. If you can choose to be anything, be kind. That's it and everything that you do. And if you are unsure how to be kind, research, ask questions, you know, and if you're thinking that you want to learn more about Best Buddies, then go to the website, reach out to us on Instagram, we are very happy to share more and and consider things that you can do in your everyday life that are simple, simple things that to spread that kindness and to make that best buddies impact of friendship and inclusion and whatever workplace you're in. Yeah, **Michael Hingson ** 1:01:15 speaking of Instagram, do you guys still do the live Instagram? Yes. **Lauren Abela ** 1:01:20 It's been a few months, maybe a year, but we will do more we promise **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:01:25 crazier with you guys put on the love means event, World Down Syndrome Day event. Now the documentary him really has been advocating in different areas. Yes, very, very busy. Which is wonderful. So wonderful life. **Michael Hingson ** 1:01:39 Yeah, I want to just go do it. Yeah, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:01:45 exactly. Just make that phone call. Well, I **Michael Hingson ** 1:01:48 want to thank all of you for being with us today. On unstoppable mindset. Clearly, you're unstoppable. All three of you, especially as a team, but individually as well. And I want to thank you all for being here. And if you know other people who we ought to bring on as a guest on unstoppable mindset, please let us know. And for all of you listening out there and watching, we would love to hear your thoughts about any other guests that you'd like to have as well as we'd like your thoughts. And I know Jessica, Lauren. And Dorlean would like your thoughts also about this podcast? And actually, let me ask that question. If people want to reach out to you all directly, can they do that? And how would they do that? **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:02:28 By email, or your Instagram or so **Jessica Rotolo ** 1:02:31 then what **Michael Hingson ** 1:02:32 what is your Instagram address or handle or how do people find you? Mine **Jessica Rotolo ** 1:02:39 is Jessica dot Rotolo 20 and rotala **Michael Hingson ** 1:02:43 was R O T O L O yes. So Jessica dot Rotolo 20. **Lauren Abela ** 1:02:48 Yes. And mine is L A U R E N A B E L A Three. **Michael Hingson ** 1:02:58 So you're the third Loren Abela. Jessica is the 20th Rotolo so **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:03:10 on Instagram, so everybody have to reach me through Jessica. Yes. **Jessica Rotolo ** 1:03:15 Well, sorry, my email. No, **Dorlean Rotolo ** 1:03:21 I just like it too many emails. No, yeah, they can reach out to Jessica's Instagram. Do **Michael Hingson ** 1:03:26 it on Instagram. That's fine. Well, I hope people will reach out to you guys. We really appreciate it. And I want to thank everyone again for listening. We really appreciate you being here and listening with us. It's been a fun hour. And that's one of the main goals on a stoppable mindset. It's not just for us to have fun, but I hope that all of you listening had fun as well. I'd love to hear your thoughts, please email me at Michael m i c h a e l h i at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Or go to our podcast page www dot Michael hingson H i n g s o n.com/podcast. And wherever you're listening, please give us a five star rating. We value greatly your reviews and we love those five star ratings and really appreciate you giving those to us. So please do so and reach out. We'd love to
Dicen los expertos que tener amigos no sólo te da felicidad, también aumenta tu autoestima y mejora la salud. Son razones más que suficientes para que los padres de niños con discapacidad intelectual se impliquen en la búsqueda de esos amigos a través de la Fundación Best Buddies.
This week we had the joy of speaking with Lindsay, the Director of Communication and Stewardship of Best Buddies International!Best Buddies International is an amazing organization that works to enhance the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Their mission is to enrich lives through their four pillars; One-to-One friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, and inclusive living.We chatted about all four of these pillars and how YOU can get involved with this amazing organization!Feeling inspired by this conversation? Get involved with Best Buddies International by visiting their website HERE!Follow Best Buddies International on Instagram, and Facebook to stay up-to-date with all of their incredible events! For more, follow us on Instagram. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Check out our website here, or send us an email at courageouslykindpodcast@gmail.com Be kind to yourself and others today :)
Caroline Forbes-Pozen is an elementary special education teacher based in Denver, Colorado. She recalls the privilege of getting involved with Best Buddies in high school at Zionsville and what motivated her to pursue this career path. She describes her previous experience as a teacher on St. Thomas Island in the US Virgin Islands. Both Jimmy & Caroline are also forever grateful for their protective mothers & caring teachers early on in school. Finally, Caroline reveals to Jimmy she is 15 weeks pregnant and what she is most looking forward to as an expecting mom! Full show is anywhere you get podcasts! Rate, review, subscribe & donate! https://linktr.ee/jbkonair --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jbkonair/support
Merry Christmas GTCCers! G and Tom are back with a little festive bonus pod for you all to enjoy in the classic Christmas lull between the big day and New Year's Eve. Back at the start of December G spent some time with the charity Best Buddies and welcomed the founder of the charity, Anthony Kennedy Shriver, to the GTCC. Best Buddies is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Cam Wurf, Chris Froome, Magnus Sheffield and Tom Pidcock have all helped Best Buddies in the past and this year G was privileged to lend his own support to the charity. He spoke to Anthony about the charity's work and much more besides. We'll be back in early 2024 with some more brilliant guests on the GTCC. See you then. Music courtesy of BMG Music Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Yo BroskiYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/barstoolyak
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