This month we learned about Matthias Academy from our fellow Rotarian Ray Mullen. Ray has been a Rotarian for over 30 years, serving as President of the Mundelein Vernon Hills club 3 times and a Paul Harris Fellow +3. He is currently a member of the Antioch Club. He is the father of 6 and grandfather of 15. Ray spent most of his career as a Sales Executive in the lithographic press industry and currently is manager of compliance and community engagement for Matthias, a non profit serving the needs of profoundly disabled adults. Matthias Academy was the brain child of founder, Liz Kumala. After teaching special education for 17 years, she worried about her students after they aged out at age 22- it was either a nursing home for some of them if they couldn't get a job at a grocery store. Much like NSSD True North, Matthias focuses on job skills, education, and the physical therapy many of them need. Many have mobility issues and are non-verbal. He's become part of the Matthias Academy board and shared with us a video about the program. He shared a video with us, this one is about 10 minutes. https://youtu.be/BYoOLLa39Ek?si=j91zgBb7ufrashUI This video really gives you a great understanding of all the things they do for these people. Illinois families have no state aid when it comes to this kind of help for developmentally disadvantaged adults like Wisconsin does. There are 4 current site - one in Twin Lakes, one in Salman Lakes and 2 in Pleasant Prairie. Ray shared that they currently could use help with the replacement of a lengthy sidewalk what spans one building from another. On a personal note - good friends of mine who live in Kenosha have an adult non-verbal daughter who goes to Matthias every day and thrives there. It has been a wonderful source for that family to provide their daughter with the best life she can have - and that is the mission statement of Matthias - to give each student their best life. Emily can be seen in one of the opening scenes smiling as her bus approaches the academy. If anyone else has ideas, has some time on their hands, or has a friend they think would love to know more about Rotary, please respond to this email.
|
