Page 38 - Abilene Living

non proft that celebrates independence every day. Disability Resources Inc, is a local organization that has called Abilene home for the last twenty-four years. Since 1987, they have welcomed residents of the Big Country with various kinds of disabilities into their program.

“Being a non proft, we do seven or eight special fundraising events every year,” explained Dickie Greenwood, president and CEO of Disability Resources Inc. “And each one of those we have to plan, we have to organize, we have to work, we have to spend our own money, we have to risk our own resources to do that. The reason this has been such a blessing to us, is these guys Mark and Kevin, came to me and just asked if we would be interested in being the recipient of the proceeds of this event. For us, that is a fantastic blessing, not to have to work our fngers to the bone and risking our own resources to make it work.”

“All these individuals (in the program) have a developmental disability. This could be Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, or autism, but it’s typically something they were born with or manifested in their early developmental stages of their life,” said Greenwood. “For some, once their parents get older it becomes harder to care for them, but the majority recognizes that they are better served in a setting where they have a lot of structure, additional activities and are around other people who have similar issues.