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Gary Ackerman credits an encounter with a child who suffered from Muscular Dystrophy as his motivation for supporting the MDA. "Meeting him made me realize how lucky I was to have two healthy children," said Gary. "At the same time, it made me want to reach out to parents and their children who suffer from this disease."
The encounter inspired Gary to dedicate his community service efforts toward eradicating this life threatening disease. Although his year-round involvement includes directing a variety of MDA-related activities, his participation on a project to raise funds for the construction of a summer camp is one of his proudest. "We created the camp to give these children a chance to act as much as possible like healthy kids," said Gary. "We were even able to construct a wheelchair accessible slide into the lake, which gives children a chance to feel what it’s like to jump into the water."
Gary's efforts have been recognized by Jerry Lewis, who presented him with the MDA's "Man of the Year" award. “Most of these children have a different mindset," said Gary. "They live life every day to the fullest and to be around them is personally rewarding because of the strength they demonstrate."
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Brad Adkins will tell you that he was very fortunate to have worked with his father at their dealership before he passed away. “Looking back at things, I was very lucky to have shared a close relationship with my father and had to opportunity to work with him,” said Brad. “Not all children have fathers or have the opportunity to spend quality time with them.”
According to Brad, “my father dedicated himself to doing what he could to improve their (children’s) quality of life through recreational activities.” In 2001, Brad directed effort to have a YMCA facility built and he donated $8 million in construction costs and land adjacent to his dealership for the new facility. Today the YMA is used by more than 2,500 members of his community and surrounding counties.
Brad participates daily with the YMCA. “I enjoy seeing the transformation of the children through our programs,” said Brad. “The YMCA provides our children with more than recreational activities. It fills them with positive influences.”
In addition, Brad has developed a ministry and missions program to assist employees with personal challenges, while also promoting literacy and education. The initiative also features a mentoring program for children.
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In 1975, a local rehabilitation agency asked Jim Click if he would consider hiring a few of their clients with disabilities. “We realized early on that people with mental, physical and developmental disabilities can do some things as well, if not better than, anyone else,” said Jim.
This realization inspired Jim and his wife, Vicki, to form Linkages in 1996. Linkages is a non-profit organization that focuses on creating a hassle-free process to link businesses with qualified, well-trained individuals with disabilities. Together, the Clicks and Linkages have found jobs for nearly 800 workers in and around Tucson.
“Hiring people with disabilities is not charity,” Jim says. “They are people who wear their uniforms proudly; come to work on time; do their job well; and you can’t put a price on the positive effect on morale. They affect our lives as much as we do theirs.”
In 1999, Jim was presented with President’s Award by the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. During the ceremony, President Clinton called Jim “unrivaled in his commitment to extending opportunity to people with disabilities.”
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George Doetsch has made supporting community health causes the focus of his corporate citizenship efforts. George supports, both financially and spiritually, important medical issues such as breast cancer research, neo-natal and shock-trauma advancements, and a myriad of other community healthcare issues.
In 2000, George created the “Drive to Survive Event,” which served to raise the needed resources for the University of Maryland Medical System/Maryland General Hospital’s Mobile Mammography Program. The event was a success and the new vehicle, furnished with mammography and bone density scanning equipment, is now delivering services to people in need all across Maryland. In 2001, the event supported the University of Maryland Medical System’s R. Adams Crowley Shock Trauma Unit.
In support of his community healthcare efforts, George established a “Charitable Contributions Committee.” Apple Ford provides financial and volunteer support to causes such as the Special Olympics, the Race for the Cure, Juvenile Diabetes, the March of Dimes and the local hospital through an on-going capital campaign contribution program.
“Excellent Healthcare is a universal cause which should benefit everyone in the community and should be made easily accessible to all. I am committed to supporting healthcare issues, causes and programs in every way I can,” said George.
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As a father of three children, Ken Kerley is familiar with the normal ups-and-downs that teenagers face on a daily basis. He also has an intimate knowledge of the challenges a disabled teenager endures, having watched his older brother live with Cerebral Palsy.
It was after coping with the death of their 18 year-old son, that Ken and his wife, Alice, decided to dedicate their efforts to assisting disables children. “We wanted to help them live ‘normal lives,’” Ken said. “So, 16 years ago we created the Capernaum Project out of our home.”
Ken’s program allows teenagers with disabilities opportunities to socialize with disabled and able-bodied youth. What started as a once-a-month outing, has turned into a program that stretches across continents. “We found ourselves with a wonderful dilemma,” admits Ken. “We grew too big, so we partnered with the Youth Life organization, which has allowed us to expand the program into 22 cities and Australia and South Africa.”
Now, Young Life Capernaum Ministries fills teenagers’ lives with weekly club meetings, special events, camping trips, and with experiences otherwise thought impossible, including snow skiing, horseback riding, mountain climbing and their high school prom. “It’s just nice to see these kids enjoy many of the things teenagers do,” said Ken.
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For most teenagers, the leap into adulthood is a journey filled with life decisions guided by peer influence. For Richard Stephens and his wife, Dee Dee, the journey of their oldest child into adulthood was one that they felt needed positive peer influences.
“We just wanted to create a support system that would allow our children and their friends to realize that not all of their decisions had to be guided by what’s popular and that the values we tried to instill in them were worth preserving,” said Richard.
In response to this need, Richard and his wife started Teen Advisors, a program that provides teens with peer counseling and attempts to create an environment where teenagers can stand up for values they believe in and find other teens standing alongside them. According to Richard, “We wanted to create an opportunity for positive peer influence to exist among high school students.”
Richard and his wife’s efforts have resulted in more than 10,000 teenagers participating in the program in the United States and Canada and they were presented the “1,000 Points of Light” award by former President George Bush.
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