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AN HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY

Your stories needed for VOR’s History

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Contents

1. Overview of Project

2. More Details from Author Deb Gilbert

3. Release Form

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1. Overview of Project

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TO:             VOR Members and Advocates

FROM:       Mary McTernan, President

RE:             Your contribution to the VOR History Project

DATE:       May 5, 2006

VOR's Board of Directors has approved the writing and publication of VOR's
history. This is an exciting project that will help preserve and honor the
important work of early advocates, while also speaking to VOR's past and
future successes.

We welcome your story about your family and advocacy experiences.
Accomplished author Deb Gilbert will be writing the history. She has asked
that contributors share personal experiences from before and after VOR's
1983 incorporation. For example,

* Your families' personal story - what motivated you to go beyond caring
for your loved one to advocacy for all people with mental retardation
* When did get involved with, or even form, your local and state advocacy
organizations
* The "kitchen table" anecdotes  meetings and mailings
* The trips to state capitals and Washington, D.C.
* Key meetings with notable state and federal policymakers
* Your mentors
* Realizing there was national reach to what you were involved with  before
and after VOR was founded.
* Your work today.

I realize that what VOR is asking is a major endeavor. Please know that
there is no required format, except that Ms. Gilbert prefers any written
submission be double spaced for easier editing. You are encouraged to be
informal, relaxed and comfortable as you share your recollections. You may
share your experiences in writing or by speaking into a tape recorder
(which we will provide upon request). Consider nothing to be irrelevant; be
detailed in your account.

Within 60 days (by July 5, 2006), please send your history, as well as the
signed release form (enclosed), to:

        Deb Gilbert
        1436 Elmwood
        Lakewood, Ohio 44107-3902
        c/o Tamie327@hotmail.com

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact VOR directly.
All of us at VOR are sincerely grateful for your contribution to this
important project.
 

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2. More Details from Author Deb Gilbert

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June 8, 2006

Dear VOR members and other advocates,

Our collective purpose for the VOR History Book is two-fold: first and most obviously, the history of VOR. This will be of special interest to VOR members, and also to other families of loved ones with disabilities. A greater need, however, is to reach the general public. These are the people we need to educate in the event that our concerns could eventually end up on ballots someday. We need to help them (those who “stare” and those who “look away”) to see the people and not just the labels.

What I need from you are your loved one’s stories. No amount of detail is too small: Your first visits to school, to see the doctor, to a movie theatre, to a park, to a grocery store, to a restaurant, or to a birthday party; experienced at home, in a group home setting, or in an institution; experiences of inclusion, exclusion, segregation and/or discrimination – all the adversities, the inconveniences, the difficulties that mobilized you to become an activist: not the generalized things you obviously opposed, but the specific dated incidents you experienced with all the sequential detail you can remember. We want the readers to see and hear and feel and re-live through your eyes and memories what you went through (the good, the grey, and the bad).

We need the issues of living with and advocating for a relative with disabilities to come to life for the reader. We will be asking for as much as you can give us in written, taped, or e-mailed material – perhaps twice as much as we’ll be able to use.

VOR’s history will be told in the context of your stories as well as in a separate section that outlines the chronology and history of VOR: the meetings, the driving forces (people and events), the legislation, the political strategies, the alliances, the victories, the defeats, and the future trials looming on the horizon.

If possible, please include familial experiences relating to emotional trials regarding decisions about needs for placement, or schooling, or adaptive equipment, or social service supports, etc., etc., etc. . .

Near the end of the project, we will be asking for photographs for the book. These are not mandatory, if anyone has an objection. But some families have had their disabled relatives right alongside them for the entire history and struggle; attending meetings, lobbying, going the entire mile with their VOR advocates. Getting their picture “in lights” might be a worthwhile recognition and reward for their unique service to VOR and others who are disabled.

Everyone’s personal stories will be edited for the book, but these edited versions will be returned to all the original authors for final approval before submission for publication to make sure that all the facts, details and presentations are  correct.

Thank you all for your participation in this enterprise. We hope  that the conclusion of this work delivers to readers a vibrant living testimony for all the hard work done by all of you have labored so long on your relatives’ behalf.

Sincerely,

/s/ Deborah Wistar Gilbert

1436 Elmwood Ave.

Lakewood, OH 44107

216-221-6484

c/o Tamie327@hotmail.com 

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3. Release Form

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                                       RELEASE

I, the undersigned, agree to submit my personal story about my loved one
with mental retardation and my involvement in VOR for a book tentatively
entitled Voices for the Voiceless. As guardian of this individual, I allow
disclosure of personal and historical information regarding my loved one
for publication.

I understand that my story will be edited for grammar, mechanics, and
style. None of the facts will be changed. I will have the opportunity to
review the edited version for my comments and suggestions.

I will submit my story to Deb Gilbert at her e-mail address, by mail, or by
tape recording to:

        Deb Gilbert
        1436 Elmwood
        Lakewood, Ohio 44107-3902
        c/o Tamie327@hotmail.com


PRINT NAME

_______________________________________________


SIGNATURE

_______________________________________________

I would like my story to be told under a pen name.
Check at the following line if this is so_____.

The pen name I would like to use is --

______________________________________________________________.

VOR * 836 S. Arlington Heights Rd., #351 * Elk Grove Village, Illinois * 60007

877-399-4VOR ph. * 847-258-5273 fax * tamie327@hotmail.com