"Newsletter – October 2013" table of contents
NEWSLETTER UPDATE – OCTOBER, 2013
FROM PHYLLIS F. RESNICK, PRESIDENT
HELLO, EVERYBODY! This is a very difficult newsletter for me to write. However, after much thought and a great deal of angst, I have come to the conclusion that write it I must.
In 1998 my dear, late husband, Edward, and I founded Access Now, Inc.® These past fifteen years have been dedicated to a mission and a cause and have been a labor of love, as well. You so kindly and generously agreed to join with us in our mission of helping to bring about as much accessibility as possible to as many members of the handicapped community as possible and we are eternally grateful for your support.
Together we have accomplished much!
However, I must now hand over this legacy to others. Although I remain, thankfully, quite active in my daily life, I do find that I need to husband my energies somewhat more than was the case in the past. Accordingly, as I wish Access Now to continue and to thrive, I have determined that it needs to be carried on by a younger group of people at its helm, as there is still more to be done.
To that end, I have chosen to place this precious organization into the hands of David New. For those of you who do not know David, let me hasten to assure you that there could be no more capable an individual to continue our efforts. David is a young man of forty-three, blind since the age of thirty, who has been extremely active in the furtherance of accessibility for the handicapped community. He succeeded Edward as the Chairperson of the Disability Committee of the City of Miami Beach and continues to serve in that capacity. He is the founder of the Ability Explosion organization, which has mounted several stellar events in the general community in terms of raising consciousness about the issues facing the disabled and about their rights.
David is extremely bright, articulate, knowledgeable, experienced and dedicated and is possessed of abundant integrity. In the four years that we have known each other and worked together I have been deeply impressed by him and his abilities, energy and work ethic. Recently, he received an award from the Sunflower Society for his work. We are indeed very fortunate to have someone as accomplished and as effective as he agree to take on this new endeavor and I am grateful to him for enthusiastically agreeing to do so. I have no doubt that he will give it his
all, which is considerable!
My inimitable “right arm” in this work has been Thomas Miller, a brilliant retired attorney, who has been extraordinarily over-qualified to be my assistant, but who has functioned in that capacity with grace, ardor and expertise. David and I are both delighted to say that Thomas has agreed to stay on in the same capacity! Soon after the turnover is officially finalized, David and Thomas will continue with the Newsletters every six months or so, as has been done in the past.
Both David and I fervently hope that YOU choose to continue as a valued member of Access Now.
“Thank you” feels hardly sufficient to express our appreciation and our gratitude. Your support and encouragement have made our work possible, and your continued membership will enable us to continue breaking down barriers of all kinds wherever we find them.