WATKINS GLEN — Beginning as the dream of a few parents around a kitchen table, The Arc of Schuyler County has become, in three decades, an integral part of the Schuyler County community, affect­ing the lives of hundreds of people with disabilities.

    The agency's 30th anniversary is a celebration of advocacy, partnership and involvement, say people who have been part of this story since the late 1970s.

    Bonnie and Merle Baker of Odessa were among a group of Schuyler

parents facing a crisis when the county legislature cut off funding to transport their children to agencies serving the disabled in Chemung and Tompkins counties.

    Finding it impossible to get the young people where they needed to be each day, the parents decided to try to establish a local chapter of the Association for Retarded Children and open a work center in Watkins Glen

    "Frankly, we didn't know what the heck we were doing," said Bonnie

Baker, who worked closely with other parents such as Tom Brown and Joyce Palmatier (Ochocki), who would become the first president of the agency's board of directors.

Baker recalled trial-and-error efforts and kitchen meetings.

Dinners, barbecues raise money

    "We had a lot of fun raising money, because we had none," Baker said from her winter home in Hernando, Fla. Efforts included simple spaghetti dinners and chicken barbecues.
   Their small successes led to seeking a professional  Wilson, who

WILSON              has  been executive director since the 1978 chartering   of the organization — now called The Arc of Schuyler County.

    "When we hired Jim, that's when things really took off," Baker said, noting that Wilson worked for several months without pay while the agency got off the ground.

    "He knew what to do, who to contact. He was familiar with it."

    Wilson came to the group from the Chemung County agency that today is known as the Southern Tier Association for the Visually Impaired, where he was its work center director. He remembers meeting with Baker and other parents in someone's house.

    "There was no building or anything else," Wilson said. There also was no money, which he found out after agree­ing to take the job offered.

    "I just had to move forward," he said.

"There are so many people

who are champions in'

helping us be part

of the community."

JEANNETTE FRANK

Assistant executive director of

The Arc of Schuyler County

Director's office was in a gym

    Wilson's first office was in the gymnasium at the former St. Anthony of Padua private boys school in Watkins Glen.

    Local Boy Scouts helped get the building ready after almost 10 years of disuse and neglect.

    In late 1978, the agency moved in with a staff of four and about 12 people ready for jobs in a new work center.

    Community response to the opening of an agency to serve people with disabilities and that would give them jobs in a work center was positive, Wil­son said.

That continues today, he said.

    "The Schuyler County com­munity has been very open to the inclusiveness," Wilson said.

    "There are so many people who are champions in helping us be part of the community," said Jeannette Frank, assistant executive director.

    People served by The Arc are actively involved with Meals on Wheels, Office for the Aging and the Chamber of Commerce, to name a few, either as volunteers or partici­pants, Frank said.

    "We've really tried to make sure that people get included in an individualized way in the community," Wilson said.

'We've made quite a difference'

    Steve Rogers of Montour Falls has been associated with The Arc since it was located at Padua. He retired a year ago, after working at Seneca Shine, a vehicle cleaning service, one of The Arc's business divisions.

    Retirement has given Rogers the opportunity to be more involved in the community.

    He is vice president of the Schuyler County Mental Health Association and a mem­ber of the county legislature's subcommittee on mental health. He also is a volunteer driver for the Rainbow Chasers Club, a support group for peo­ple served by the Elmira Psychiatric Center.

"People come up to us

to tell us what we're doing

is a good thing and that

we should keep it up."

STEVE ROGERS

Who has been associated

with The Arc for years

For the last six years, Rogers has been president of the Self-Advocacy Group, an organiza­tion he helped create.

    "We've made quite a difference throughout the community," Rogers said of the approxi­mately 20 members whose mission is to show that people with disabilities have rights as equal to anyone.

    Rogers said the group's slogan is "Nothing about us with­out us."

    The Self-Advocacy Group is a familiar participant in local parades, spreading its message.

    "People come up to us to tell us what we're doing is a good thing and that we should keep it up," Rogers said.

    He credited Wilson's and Frank's support for the group's success.

New view of people with disabilities

    Wilson said the "Nothing about us without us" slogan reflects a shift from a paternal­istic approach to people with disabilities to one of involve­ment and respect.

    "Sometimes we get surprised when we think what people want is not what they really want," he said.

    "The more  verbal individ­uals can tell you what they do want," said Denise York, services coor­dinator. "You work with them to learn what they want."

    Added Kelly Leipold, director of quality assur-   ance and corporate compliance, "You have to see everyone's positives up front. What are they good at?"

    Offering productive jobs at an on-site work center was The Arc's earliest focus.                                                              LEIPOLD

    Glen Industries, which opened in 1979, today provides jobs to 35 people. Another 30 or so work at Seneca Shine and in The Arc's janitorial and food services.

    "The jobs are still a focus, but they're more community-based," Wilson said, explaining that The Arc actively seeks job sites outside of its 12th Street facility.

Jobs shift out into community

    In 2007, The Arc placed 40 people in supported employment, jobs for which the person has a job coach who assists with training, transportation, problems at work or other issues that might come up.

  Ten people were helped in successful searches for compet­itive employment, Frank said.

    The Elmira office of the New York State Vocational and Educational Services for Individu­als with Disabilities, VESID, reports that 413 people with disabilities in the tri-county area of Schuyler, Chemung and Steuben counties found jobs in their communities last year.

    Tammy Doane is one who was aided by The Arc. She has worked at McDonald's at Wal-Mart in Watkins Glen since August, putting in 20 hours a week as a lobby hostess.

    "I love working there. I like the atmosphere. The customers are really nice," she said.

    Doane, who lives in a sup­portive residence in Burdett, went to the McDonald's posi­tion with experience in food operations from working at The Arc's Take a Break Cafe, the on-site food services operation.

    Glen Industries, perhaps the most well-known division of The Arc, provides jobs in its production center requiring a wide variety of tasks ranging from preparing and bottling Red Cat Astrophe! hot sauce for Hector's Hazlitt 1852 Vine­yards to readying lengths of tel­evision connecting cable for customers of Time-Warner Cable in Horseheads.

    Workers also prepare and shred documents, do mailings, package spices and dry mixes and assemble

product sample bags distributed on college campuses.

    "These guys are quite busy," said Janet Osborne, a job coach in the work center.

Residences start in '82

    While establishing a work center was the primary goal of The Arc's founding parents, no one foresaw in 1978 the resi­dences that would become a major component of The Arc.

    Eight are located around Schuyler County, ranging from the first opening in 1982 on Church Street in Odessa as home to 13 people, to small apartments in Watkins Glen.

    Larry Tanner and a room­mate live in one of those apart­ments. He used to live in the house in Odessa, but was the first to move out to an apartment.

    "This place has really grown,"      

he   said,                                                                TANNER

recalling the early days on Watkins Glen's west hiil at Padua. "I've met a lot of people through here."

He's still meeting a lot of people as a familiar presence at Watkins Glen and Odessa-Montour high school sports events.

    Tanner "is really the story of The Arc," Wilson said, with a job in Glen Industries' produc­tion center and an independent life outside of work that he cre­ated for himself and continues to enhance.

    Since the beginning, The Arc has been assisting adults with disabilities.

    But its scope is widening, with services now offered from birth, through extensive part­nerships with county public health providers and local schools.

Autistic kids, war vets among clients

    Needs for services are expanding, too, as The Arc staff finds itself working more and more with children with autism and adults with traumatic brain injuries, including war veterans returning to the community.

    "They don't want to be 'put into a box' any more than anyone else," Wilson said.

    About 300 people receive varying services from The Arc, a giant leap from the 12 or so in the beginning.

    And, from the initial staff of four. The Arc today has a staff of about 155, working at the 12th street facilities and in the resi­dences.

    Wilson said his agency is considered to be "small" in the range of the 49 NYSARC Inc. chapters around the state.

    Chemung County serves 630, while Steuben serves 1,000. In comparison, the chapter in Monroe County assists 2,000 people.

    Funding for the agency's pro­grams comes from various sources such as Medicaid, other government funding, fees for contracted services and its membership group. The Arc also has an endowment fund.

    "People need to realize that everything The Arc does is not covered through the funding we get," Wilson said.

    Having a variety of funding sources is Important, he said, and the endowment fund, to ensure longevity, is especially important.

    "We've made these commit­ments to these people for their lifetimes," Wilson said.

    Among those who are part of The Arc of Schuyler County today are Bonnie Baker's daughter and foster daughter, those for whom she fought 30 years ago.

    "We are thrilled to have a place for the girls. They are so happy. They are on the go con­stantly," said Baker, whose involvement with The Arc has naturally decreased from the days when she was traveling across the state learning what the Schuyler parents needed to do to successfully help their children.

     Once the agency was estab­lished, Baker spent several years on the board of directors, including terms as president. That position is now held by Shirley Kohena of Hector.

    Of all the accomplishments in her life, Baker is certain about her role in establishing The Arc: "I tell everyone that that's the one thing I'm proudest of."