A new Program Director came in a few months ago, name of Phil. Walking around the Ranch, Phil discovered an out-of-the-way garden, neglected and umkempt, much like the garden in the well known book The Secret Garden. He asked me about it and I told him, shamefaced, the story of Sara’s Garden–that it’s a memorial…
But There’s Nothing There!
That’s what the people in charge of the MARC Center in Rockdale reported in 1995 after a scouting expedition to Down Home Ranch as we prepared for the first ever Ranch Camp. The Marc Center is an activity center/workshop for adults with intellectual disabilities. We became acquainted with them through board members and volunteers in Rockdale,…
Of Praise and Promise
Friday I attended a reception given by the Chaparral Women’s Club of Round Rock to award grants to a number of local non-profits. It was fun meeting the other grantees, and I had one of those moments so satisfying and wonderful they go beyond any emotion you can pin a name on. At my table,…
Going to Hell in a Wheelbarrow
“The world is going to hell in a wheelbarrow, and this is not going to do retarded people any good.” Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger, Mental Retardation, February 1994. I was skimming the current (April 2010) issue of Intellectual and Development al Disabilities: A Journal of Policy, Practices, and Perspectives, the official publication of the American Association on…