I have been appointed to the Salem County Freeholders Advisory Board for almost 20 years and my involvement with the Office on Aging and Disabilities is best characterized by my participation in our annual Disability Awareness Day. This was our 15th Disability Awareness Day and they seem to get better and better each year. The hard work by staff of the Office on Aging and Disabilities and its Advisory Board really has nurtured a great event.
About five years ago I suggested that we model an award that Wilmington Delaware’s Access Wilmington has to celebrate the contributions that citizens, agencies and businesses have made to improve the lives of our disabled population. As a long term member of that board, these awards highlighted great works that benefited the disabled population, but had the effect of improving the lives of all citizens in general. Patty Bomba typifies the values of this award as this year’s award recipient and will continue to add value to our county. If you know of individuals that should be considered for this award, contact me or call the office at 856-339-8622. Also, the office staff wants our residents to contact the office to answer your specific questions based on individual needs.
As I was walking around the vendor tables, I had a chance to talk Teri Figarola and Mary Fowle (in the picture above) and they made sure that I was aware of how they were able to attend: they called the Office on Aging and Disabilities at at 856-339-8622 and were able to obtain transportation.
There a lot of informational tables to get hand-outs about different organizations and services. This was also a great opportunity to ask specific questions and get answers that meet your individual needs. I have posted pictures of a sample of these vendors below.
More pictures are available on my Facebook page (Frank Hentz). My next post will be about Emergency “Go Bags” that was discussed and demonstrated by Frank Callahan of the Salem County Department of Health and Human Services Public Preparedness Division. The final post will focus on the keynote speaker James Beardsley, blogger, advocate for persons with different abilities and hand cycle racer.
Abilities Not Disabilities 