Tuesday, August 16, 2011

My trip to the 2011 Virginia Arc Convention!

The first night they had a party on the beach.This was at Virginia Beach. I danced with my new friends.

Here I am with my new friend Quntia Grummell. She lives in Newport News.

This is Alison Barkoff and Aaron Zisser with the U.S. Department of Justice.They fight for the rights of people with disabilities all over the country.

This is Shawn Kirk. He is the President of a great self advocate group named VAULT

This is Maggie and another new friend from the group People for People.

More people from People for People and Diana ( in red) from another great group People First.

This is Harvey, Tracy, Pascal and Larry. They showed us their movie, Wretches and Jabberers. It was really, really good. I loved it. Some parts were funny and some were sad.

Larry and (in red) is a really good artist. He uses his hands to paint.


Here Larry and Tracy are typing and what they wrote showed up on the big screens.

I got to meet the stars of the movie! It was exciting!! Tracy gave me his card and is going to stay in touch with me!!


I asked a question in front of the very big crowd. I asked, "Was it difficult to communicate at first?" Tracy said it was like climbing Mt. Everest, but it was well worth it. Above is what Larry's answer was. My mom thought I was brave to stand in up in front of some many people.
This is Jamie Liban. She is the Executive Director of the Virginia Arc. She works very hard for all the people in Virginia with intellectual and developmental disabilities!

I had a blast at the conference. I met lots of new people and I learned alot of new things. When I graduate, I want to come back and be part of the Arc. I want to start my own group of self advocates here in Gloucester!

In two weeks I will be in school in Wisconsin. I told everyone at the conference about Shepherds College. They thought it was really cool!

love, Daniela

1 comment:

  1. Daniela:

    You were a fantastic representative of Shepherds College at the Arc conference that weekend.

    Wretches and Jabberers did and does continue to change many lives.

    I wish you all success with starting a self-advocate group in Gloucester.

    Great to see the photos of your new friends.

    Virginia Beach is indeed a great and safe place to party.

    Really appreciated the opportunity to find out about various groups. People First is quite established, and I did not know a lot about VAULT before I clicked the link. People for People are very impressive.

    What a wonderful idea for Tracy and Larry to use a projector - and for Tracy to give you his card. I had known of the work of Bissonette (Larry) for some ten years now - since 2001 - through the Syracuse University Education faculty/department.

    And again, what a great opportunity and privilege!

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