Inclusion
Cincinnati Students Learn Messages Of ReelAbilities
A little over a month ago I wrote about the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival organized by LADD, a nonprofit organization for whom I am now doing public relations, bringing world renowned photographer Rick Guidotti here to share his – and ReelAbilities’ – message that it is our differences that give individual’s their own unique beauty.
Through the ReelAbilities Education Outreach Team, Rick spoke with hundreds of area high schools. And already, something truly outstanding has occurred to spread impact. Milford High School Photography Teacher Janelle Schunk came up with an idea for a project pairing students with and without disabilities to create an 
exhibition called Different Lives Same Beauty.
Milford’s Photography I class worked with students in the school’s multiple disabilities unit to learn about each other’s differences AND similarities. In addition to create beautiful portraits, building relationships and friendships were also goals.
“I was nervous when I first met John, who is nonverbal. I wondered how I was going to make him smile. We learned he likes beads and were able to use beads to get him to smile and look at the camera,” student Leah Breuer shared in a blog post on the Milford Schools site. “Before I had never really talked to the kids in the MD unit, but after this project I know all of their names and I say hi in the hallways.”
What is really awesome about this is the lasting impact this project will have as a foundation for future good friends, neighbors, citizens, employers and employees.
Please click to see WLWT coverage.
Speaking about success in the classroom
What is inclusion and why is it important in the positive growth for all children? Sara Bitter, ReelAbilities Education Outreach Team
chair, was interviewed recently by Jason’s Connection about the impact of ReelAbilities’ work in area schools. Please click here to read her interview.
She shared how inspiration for working with ReelAbilities came from her son who has a disability. When he entered kindergarten, she gave a presentation to his class. I think the first thing the presentation did was, it helped the kids understand some of the challenges of his disability. More importantly though, it helped them to see (through real pictures) all of his many capabilities, she told Jason’s Connection.
“…we shouldn’t assume that because someone has a disability, he or she can’t have big achievements. Can’t have great life experiences. Or can’t get a job, have a family or have a successful life. Modifications and accommodations throughout a person’s education will help them be able to participate in almost every academic and extracurricular activity so they can grow into productive self-determined adults. It just takes an ability to think outside of the box and make this happen.
Please click here to learn more about the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival Outreach Program.
Rick Guidotti To Share Message Of Humanity With Cincinnati
Over the past few months, it has been such a great experience for me to work with the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival. Their work is truly about impacting perspectives and impacting lives, inspiring people to see the greatness in everyone. Next week will be one example of how they are accomplishing that….
Internationally acclaimed fashion photographer Rick Guidotti has photographed many of the world’s most elite super models; however, it is the story of focusing hi
s lens on the beauty of those who have genetic, physical, and behavioral differences that has inspired millions around the globe to reinterpret the meaning of beauty. Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival is bringing him to Cincinnati September 23 to 26 to share his message with schools and the greater community through a series of events…and will also photograph Cincinnati families who have a member with a disability for an exhibition during the 2015 Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival. The events are FREE and open to the public thanks to the generosity of local sponsors the Edwards Foundation, managed by Crew Capital and Contemporary Cabinetry East.
Public Events:
Rick Guidotti – Artist Talk and Reception
Thursday, September 25
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Obscura Cincinnati lounge (625 Walnut Street, 45202)
Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival presents Rick Guidotti’s Positive Exposure, The Spirit of Difference FotoFocus exhibition – opening night reception
Friday, September 26
5:00 to 7:00 pm
Art Academy of Cincinnati Convergys Gallery (1212 Jackson Street, 45202)
Positive Exposure, The Spirit of Difference FotoFocus Exhibition
Sep. 26, 2014 – Oct. 24, 2014
Mon–Fri: 9 am–9 pm | Sat–Sun: 9 am–5 pm
Art Academy of Cincinnati Convergys Gallery (1212 Jackson Street, 45202)
The Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival organized by LADD, Inc. and presented by Macy’s is our region’s largest film festival that unites our community around world-class films and celebrities who explore and experience disability. It will be held February 27 to March 7, 2015. Guidotti’s visit is part of 2014 ReelPrograms-a series of events leading up to the Festival to connect people through shared humanity.
More about Rick Guidotti
Rick has spent the past 15 years working with advocacy/non-governmental organizations around the world, medical schools, universities and other educational institutions to inspire a sea-change in societal attitudes towards people living with differences. His work has been published in such diverse newspapers, magazines and journals as Elle, GQ, People, The American Journal of Medical Genetics, The Lancet, Spirituality and Health, The Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly and Life Magazine.
He is the founder and director of Positive Exposure, an innovative arts, education and advocacy organization working with people who have genetic, physical and behavioral conditions of all ages. Positive Exposure provides new opportunities for individuals to see people with differences as human beings first.
“As an artist what I try to do with every image is to reflect back at the viewer their best qualities. So now you have a new tool, when you see someone who has a difference you don’t stare or look away—there’s a steadying of the gaze and you see beauty, you see life and energy and then you see around that difference to what we share, which is humanity, that’s what we all have,” he told Houston Style Magazine.
About LADD
Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled was founded 40 years ago by families who dreamed of a better life for their children who had developmental disabilities. Now, LADD serves nearly 500 adults with developmental disabilities in Hamilton County with housing, teaching life skills, employment and day programs. Our mission is to integrate people we serve into our community and support adults with disabilities in achieving their dreams. Go to: www.laddinc.org for more information.
Celebrating Differences Is What ReelAbilities Is About
I was reminded the other day of how great it has been knowing that my public relations career has been focused on bringing awareness and relationships to some truly impactful causes and organization.
And a client about which I was so passionate and miss the most was an organization called the Inclusion Network. For eight years I worked with them year round promoting the message that everyone has gifts and abilities, and that bringing those unique gifts together we strengthen each other. We strengthen our community.
I was one of the lead producers of the Inclusion Leadership Awards Event responsible for the strategic messaging including hiring and working with speakers to keep their speech on target, writing the script and the videos, working on all facets of the program portion, coordinating the media relations and more. And I saw that event grow to where it was hosting more than 900 people at the end.
Business and community leaders, professionals, housewives, students, volunteers, people who walk and people who use wheelchairs, people who benefit from large print programs and open captioned video screens, sign language interpreters or cups with handles instead of glassware all came together for a two and a half hour event that was designed to somehow change the world as they knew it. They heard about stories of organizations that instinctively know how to uncover talent, and of people, whose abilities are no longer obscurities. Acceptance was no longer an abstract. Inclusion, they learned, was not about THEM, but about ME.
Actor Danny Woodburn continues to stand out to me as the speaker whose message I will always remember. Danny shared his story of an actor, comedian and activist whose talents were born in the hardships of a world unaccepting of a medical condition known as dwarfism. All too well, he knows the sting of rejection and ridicule because he has lived it his entire life. But Danny told our vast audience that through his work, he has had the ability to influence attitudes. Offensive words, he has found, are generally rooted in 
misunderstanding and he openly corrects producers, directors and other actors.
At the end of Danny’s speech I remember he told us, “Even though every script is a battle to see how much I will comprise, it is worth it as long as there is dialogue.” Then he looked into the audience and added, “It is inspiring to me as I look out at all of your faces and see that there are comrades in this battlefield.”
To this day, Danny’s words and character continue to impact me. Sure, I love the fact that every time we talk he can always make me laugh but what I love even more is Danny’s true depth of humanity. He is truly one of those unique gifts and someone who I feel so blessed to be able to call a friend.
And the reason I am bringing this all up is because it is all leading up to a new client that is allowing me to continue this path of bringing communities together through the differences that make people uniquely great.
Organized by Cincinnati nonprofit LADD (Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled), the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival is our region’s largest film festival that explores the world as experienced by people with disabilities. It will include a a star studded awards premiere luncheon, gala, and 30 film and speaking events throughout Greater Cincinnati. All of the film screenings benefit local nonprofit organizations that enhance the lives of people with disabilities.
The Festival will be February 27 to March 7, 2015 and next week I invite you to join us at our big red carpet unveiling party at the eloquent Obscura cocktail lounge in downtown Cincinnati from 7 to 9 pm. The films and venues will be announced before hundreds 
of guests by actor John Lawson and Q102’s Jenn Jordan.
Here is a link to register for the free event.
The ReelAbilities Film Festival was founded in 2007 in New York City by the Manhattan JCC and has grown to become the largest film festival in the country dedicated to sharing the stories, lives and art of people who experience disability. It is now headquartered in Cincinnati and is a division of LADD. It includes a total of 13 Festivals across the country. Cincinnati holds the second largest one.
Danny, who most recently plays the voice of Splinter in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, was recently interviewed in Soapbox Media about ReelAbilities.
“Actors with disabilities are 90 percent less likely to be seen, and many characters with disabilities aren’t actually played by actors with disabilities,” he said. “It’s important for work like this to be done, and if I have the chance to speak out and be heard because I’m recognizable from being in the public eye, then I feel it’s my responsibility to do so.”
“But this isn’t just about actors getting work,” Woodburn continues. “Two-thirds of people with disabilities are unemployed; we need to raise awareness of that fact. If we want that to change, we as a society have to create an environment for change.”
After Boston Marathon Bombing, Mery Daniel Is Living
Mery Daniel was in the right place at the wrong time.
On a beautiful day that should have been marked by victorious emotions, shouts of joy, and celebratory hugs from those
Mery Daniel
who came to participate and those who came to watch the Boston Marathon, Mery, like so many others, came to learn time is a precious gift.
The bombing spared her life, but the blast ripped apart her legs, shearing off her right calf and forcing doctors to amputate her left leg above the knee.
In a Boston Globe article, Erik Moskowitz told of Mery’s childhood dream of becoming the first physician in her family. She was 17 when she moved from Haiti to Brockton with her father whom she had not seen since childhood. She was a stand out student and role model to others. Later she went on to attend medical school, marry and have a daughter. She was preparing for her final medical licensing exams when she attended the Boston Marathon that fateful May morning. And, in one brief moment, her life as knew it would never be the same.
The next six weeks were spent in surgeries and hospitals. She was only able to see her terrified five-year-old daughter three times. Her life journey had taken a sharp turn. Extraordinary challenges faced her ahead.
Bills were mounting. She needed to learn a new way of getting around, and needed to find a new place to call home that was accessible for her new lifestyle. There were times when she forgot she was minus a leg except for the fact that her phantom pains were almost constant.
Mery craved mobility. She desperately wanted her life back. She was determined. People around her had equal resilience. She learned to get around with a prosthetic and hand-cycle. Bonnie St. John, an African-American amputee and paralympic skiing medalist helped created a fund raising site to help ease some of the burden. The day after Mery’s first steps, chi
ldren who rode the school bus her father drove participated in a walkathon to raise $8,275 for her.
Mery’s next goal? To enter an athletic race. It had been on her To Do list for a very long time but just was something she hadn’t gotten to yet. That needed to change.
And change it did. Mery recently completed her fourth race riding her hand-cycle, the longest being a 27-mile ride to help veterans…longer than the Boston Marathon.
Jackie Robinson And His Gift To Our World
Today, at Greater American Ballpark and every other major league ballpark across the nation, in homes and businesses, in schools…and in movie theatres thousands will pay a tribute to a humanitarian, a father, a baseball legend, a hero.
Sixty-six years ago, when the civil rights bill was but a distant dream, a young man with unbridled talent stepped onto the field wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey and the number 42 embellished on his back.
That man was Jackie Robinson, a former varsity athlete lettered in four sports at UCLA and a former second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He also, as we all know, happened to have been African American. And on that historic day in the office of a bold businessman, Jackie courageously stepped forward to change history books forever when he signed to become the first black athlete to play major league baseball.
All around him people were separated by the color of their skin – in schools, the military, hotels, restaurants, buses, and yes, even the entrances to ball parks. Cruel racial (and religious) antagonism ran deep.
Jackie and Brooklyn Dodgers President Branch Rickey knew if they were to be successful in integrating baseball; it had to be with dignity not fists.
Jackie: “You want a player who doesn’t have the guts to fight back?”
Branch: “No, I want a player who has the guts NOT to fight back.”
“We win if we convince the world of two things – that you are a fine gentleman and a great baseball player,” Branch told the new rookie.
Jackie’s moral compass was tested as no man should ever have to be tested. Racial epithets pelted him on and off the field. Fellow Dodgers signed a petition to have him kicked off the team. He received death threats. The manager of the Philadelphia Phillies heckled him with the N-word for five unrelenting minutes (it may have been longer in real life). Even in Cincinnati’s own Crosley Field, the stands erupted in boos and jeers as Jackie stepped onto the field.
Through it all, he stood tall. Jackie proved to the world that he was a fine gentleman AND a great baseball player. And by Branch’s definition – I’d say he resoundedly won.
In 1997, under the direction of Commissioner Bud Selig, Robinson’s No. 42 was retired across all of Major League Baseball in an unprecedented tribute. However, today and every April 15, baseball players across the country will all be wearing his number in his memory and his honor for what he has given the game – and what he has given the world.
Stories like that of Jackie are so important for us to know and talk about. They are important lessons and reminders of what we as neighbors, friends, and co-workers must always remember. Our diversity is a gift that brings us different perspectives and opens our eyes to new opportunities. And the really beautiful thing is that, if you look deeper, you will find that we all share the most basic of needs – the need to be valued, included and loved.
