Okay, and seeing that we have a form,
I will now call the regular meeting
of the CUNY on Persons with Disabilities
to order at three o'clock p.m.
Do we have any e-comments?
Okay, do we have any presentations
from members of the public?
Okay, then we will go to the first item for consideration.
Consider approval of the September 19th, 2024,
and November 21st, 2024, and January 16th, 2025 minutes.
Do we have any comments, questions,
or correction for the minutes?
- I might get lunch in the group.
- You'd like to move to the group, do we have a second?
- Second.
- Okay.
Any further discussion?
Okay, all in favor say aye.
- Aye.
- Okay, any opposed?
Ayes have it.
Okay, item B, I open the floor for nominations
and election of a chair for the CUNY
on Persons with Disabilities.
- I nominate Alison.
- You'll do it, you said?
- No, no, I'm nominating Alison.
- Oh, oh.
How about that's unusual speaking to someone like that.
(laughing)
- I approve that, or second that.
- I accept.
All in favor of accepting Alison Kelly as chair, say aye.
- Aye.
- Okay, all those opposed, say no.
Okay, the ayes have it.
Okay, thanks, guys.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- I have to advise chair and just leave it.
- We're only hosted today for a chair,
so we probably ought to do another.
- Okay, so at our next meeting,
we can nominate if you'd like a vice chair to serve
and Alison instead whenever she's here, okay?
- Okay, so moving on to item C,
can you read this for partner?
- Yes.
- Okay, that's fine.
CPD 24.037, a receiver report,
hold a discussion and give staff feedback
regarding the Parks and Recreation
Adaptive Inclusive Recreation programs.
And we'll, if possible, go over to our side.
- Yeah.
- Okay, with a clicker.
We have the podium up there if you want it,
or I can just pass you.
- Do we need it tonight, if that's fine with y'all?
- I thought you weren't here last time.
- I was.
- Thank you.
There's a presentation in the back
if you guys would like to follow,
and there are on the screen.
Hi, my name is Tiffany Thompson.
I am the certified therapy recreation,
our Recreation Coordinator
for the Adaptive Inclusive Recreation program
for city bins held at North Lake Spark.
Can we have this whole thing?
Do you want me to do the whole thing?
Okay.
So overview of the introduction,
what is the difference between
adaptive and inclusive programs,
disabilities defined,
history of adaptive recreation,
and reasonable accommodations programs offered,
which are our AirDances,
so Air is short for Adaptive Inclusive Recreation,
so we go by Air.
Social Connections, Adaptive Art and Art 2.0,
Sensory Rooms, Sensory Friendly Events,
and Volunteer Opportunities.
- Are those more attended?
- Yes, they are.
They are now.
They're starting to get more attendance
now that the community knows
that we are back up and running.
But the position was vacated, I think,
end of '23, maybe '24.
So yeah, we do have a rather large participation now.
So for tomorrow, for our event,
we have a 30 people summit for our Social Connections.
So, okay.
Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation programs
are designed to provide individuals
with physical and developmental disabilities
a chance to participate in recreation programs
with their peers while enhancing their physical,
social, and emotional well-being.
The difference between adaptive and inclusive programs,
so adaptive programs modifies activities
to meet the need of specific groups of participants,
such as those with physical, developmental,
or intellectual disabilities.
These programs may use adaptive equipment,
rules, content, structure, support, or environment.
Inclusive programs allow people with and without disabilities
to participate in the same activity.
Inclusive programs are created to provide an atmosphere
for all of us.
How do you define disability?
We define disability as a condition of the body
or mind that makes it more difficult
for the individual to do certain activities
or interact with the world around them.
The following is a list of,
but not too limited to,
disabilities that warrant adaptive
and inclusive accommodations.
So ADD, ADHD, amputation, Asperger's, autism,
cardiac rehabilitation, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome,
injury rehabilitation, muscular dystrophy, obesity,
spinal cord injury, spinal bifida,
and then stroke symptoms.
So some of the history of early physical rehabilitation.
- That's what I was looking for.
- Thank you.
For people with disabilities who are based
in a medical response,
they're based on a medical response instead of a physical.
Adaptive sports began with the need to rehabilitate veterans
from World War II, Korea, and in Vietnam War.
Before World War II,
paraplegics were considered to be a vital death,
paraplegia was considered to be a vital death sentence.
The life expectancy of soldiers
who suffered traumatic brain injuries
during World War II were estimated at 18 months of life.
Most died from sepsis or infection.
The dead-enders are no-hopers who survived
or shunned off to institutions
or hidden away from view of their families.
They were stigmatized for their disability
and considered unlikely prospects
for employment or marriage.
Some of the background of adaptive and inclusive sports
can be traced back from the 1940s to 1950s.
In 1948, the first competition of wheelchair athletes
were held at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England,
organized by Dr. Gutman,
and featured 16 injured servicemen and women
competing in archery, darts, and javelin.
1952, they opened the recreation center for the handicap,
which was one of the first self-therapy recreation centers.
Reasonable accommodations in order for individuals
with disabilities to participate as fully as possible,
reasonable accommodations are provided in accordance
with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Reasonable accommodations are individualized techniques
with resources used to enhance programs' participation
without fundamentally altering a program.
Our programs require their participants
register for age-appropriate activities
for programs based on abilities.
- When you say age, I'm sorry, can I ask a question?
- Yeah. - All right,
I was gonna make the tone.
Go ahead. - Yes.
- Go ahead. - Oh.
- Don, you said age-appropriate.
Is that numerical age or mental age when you say that?
- Numerical. - Numerical, okay.
- So some of the programs that we offer right now
is the Adapted Open Gym, Adapted Nature Walk,
our Red Dances, Art in R2.0, Social Connections,
Creating Pottery, we have a dance class,
Adapted Fitnesses in the Works, Youth Putsul,
which is like soccer.
We're practicing in the Special Olympics in Unified 5K races.
So all these are currently going on at North Lakes.
These are some of our Adapted Dance Pictures,
which we've had a rather large turnout for them.
Sorry, you need me to go back?
- No, you're fine. - Okay.
Some of the social connections,
so for our social connections, we meet once a month
and we go out to the community and do some things.
It just kind of depends on the weather.
So this is from Charcarosa, we had a picnic,
and then, are they in a park?
Our Adapted Art, we started with just one art class,
and then Denton ISD ended up bringing about 30 participants,
so we had to advance to Art 2.0.
So we have an Art 2.0, which I think today we capped at
32 people, including students and teachers.
So we held those every Thursday.
Our Sensory Room, this was held for the Halloween Harvest
over at Dina, so we provide a sensory room
for some of our bigger events.
I'm currently working on the sensory room
for the extravaganza, that's in April.
So with that, there is usually crafts.
We usually have some type of sensory path,
sensory activities, toys, fidget toys,
and different type of little coloring sheets
and activities that they could do,
just kind of help decompress.
So extravaganza, the Halloween Harvest,
and the hunted houses.
For the hunted house, we held an hour of sensory
before the regular hunted house started.
So the lights were on, we didn't have anybody moving,
and we didn't jump out and scare anybody
during the hunted house.
And then we always welcome volunteers.
If you know anybody, send them our way.
We need all the volunteers that we could possibly get.
- Are you the only staff?
- I am not, we just hired a part-time.
I actually started in August, so within August,
we had one part-time, and then she ended up leaving,
and then we just hired another part-time about a month ago.
So myself and one part-time member.
- What are the volunteer opportunities?
- Any of the events that we host.
So if they come out and they just wanna help
with the art class, they can help the participants
with the art class.
If we do like our nature walks on Friday morning,
they could come out and volunteer with,
just helping them guide throughout the nature walks.
There's limitless opportunities that we have
that they could participate in.
So if you know anybody either in high school
looking for volunteer hours as well, we've done that.
We've had some kids come out for setting up
for the Valentine's Day dance.
So they came out and helped set up the tables.
Anything that you could possibly think of,
we will find something for them to do.
- Are they background checked before?
- Yes, ma'am.
- So you couldn't just show up that day and volunteer?
- You'll have to do the background check before.
So these are people that we had already had in our system.
- Okay, so how would they go about doing that?
- They could email me, they could email,
or they could go and see any of the rec centers
and say that they wanna do volunteer work.
And then they could, any of the rec centers
can start their information
and then they'll forward their names to me
and say if they exclusively wanna work
in any of the adaptive programs.
- Okay, so like I do the volunteer at the DISD
and had the background checked,
is that forward to you at all?
Or would I have to go to a separate one to volunteer?
- I think you're gonna have to go
through the city of Denton, but once they get it,
then they'll forward it to the appropriate person
who will go, whoever needs to go to.
- Okay, so being on this committee wouldn't approve that?
This is the city of Denton?
- I'm assuming, I honestly do not know,
but I'm assuming it would.
- Okay.
- I'm assuming it.
So in conclusion, the city of Denton Parks and Recs
is committed to creating and promoting inclusion
across all public spaces, places, facilities, and programs
that the department manages.
Through the inclusion statement and supporting practice,
we aim to ensure access to the benefit of quality parks
and recreations for everyone, including individuals
with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities,
the LGBTQ+ community, racial and ethnic minorities,
and refugees and immigrants.
Any questions?
- Nobody's left out.
(laughing)
- That's great.
- Yes, that is definitely important.
- How often do the events usually?
- We host events monthly.
- Monthly? - Yes.
So as far as the art program, that is every Thursday,
we have open gym every Tuesday, every Wednesday,
and we have the nature walk every Friday.
There's an adaptive dance,
and there's a social connection to every month.
- So there's also weekly events?
- There's weekly events and monthly events, yes.
- And the funding, is that out of Parks and Recs?
- Yes, a little bit.
We are looking for sponsorships for some of our things,
but yes, out of Parks and Recs.
- As far as the, so you have the community outings,
is it separate, either like adults or children,
or how does that come together?
- So when I got here, I think they did a age of,
the age range was from 16 and up,
just depending on whoever we have.
For our summer camps, we are going to cater to the youth,
so five through 11, but typically the events
that they started with, our age range,
that they started with, our age range was 16 and up.
- 16 and up.
- I've had some call about 14,
but we just didn't have the staff to work those numbers,
but that is something that we are working on.
I am working on a youth program,
because I did get a lot of calls
for more youth programming in the city.
- Like middle school age?
- Yeah.
- And then the other question that I had,
when you're talking about your sensory rooms,
what kind of accommodations are in there?
- Usually we have, it's like a peepod for sensory stemming,
low lights, if they're at a dance,
there's obviously a farther away from the music,
we have fidget toys, there's earplugs, cotton balls,
any of the coloring sheets, we have little toys,
there's carpeted tiles that we usually lay out.
It just kind of depends on whatever the theme is,
so for Valentine's Day, everything was heart-shaped,
and red, and color-coordinated, it just really depends.
- That's great.
Yeah, okay, for volunteer hours,
you said you accepted high schoolers,
is that something that they can do
only after school activities and things like that?
- Yeah, our dances are always on a Friday,
with the exception of the Valentine's dance,
and then social connections,
but if anything that we have on the weekend,
it's usually posted, we don't really do too much
on the weekend, 'cause typically our participants
are through dance ISD, so we try to keep it through then,
but the only thing, we're gonna be like a dance
on a Friday night, from seven to nine.
- Is there any kind of training or anything
that you can volunteer to go through?
- We don't have any specific training yet,
but I'll kind of go over some things with them
before starting, kind of give them kind of feedback
on how to address some of our participants,
and how to handle some of their ticks and triggers
and things like that, but there's no specific training
anywhere yet.
- Where is the schedule posted that we can look at?
- It's posted on Civic Rec, usually I post the calendar,
usually they'll post our events there,
they'll highlight our social connections and our dances,
but I also post all of our events on the Facebook page,
and then-- - The city of Denton?
- The city of Denton, Adapted Rec Facebook page,
so it's separate from the city of Denton,
so it's the Adapted Rec Facebook page,
so our calendar is usually posted there.
I usually do a flyer for the dance,
and the social connections, and then I also put them
in North Lakes Work Center.
- And does this include, like,
vapor ball or anything like that?
- If any of those words are coming up then yeah,
we'll have those. - You do have them, okay.
- So that's like the Flitzel, so right now,
Kelsey's over the Flitzel, so she has flyers out for that,
but on that Civic Rec page,
you can find that information as well.
- We can get you those links if you want to send them
to me after the meeting.
(overlapping chatter)
- Did you shout to like Eagle Scouts or anybody like that
for volunteers?
- No, not necessarily, just because it was just me
at this moment, so trying to stay above water,
now with help, yeah, that's actually what I'm in the process
of getting some more volunteers and--
- Yeah, so you're thinking about key clubs.
- Uh-huh, yeah, yeah, that's a really great opportunity.
- We're hitting you some volunteers first.
- Okay, yeah, we're just here to help.
- Send them my way.
(overlapping chatter)
- Like the extravaganza, I'll definitely need help for that,
so if you guys have anybody that's able to come out,
I think it's April 12th, from nine to 12th,
so even just setting up the room,
or helping some of our participants find eggs,
because they're gonna be like the sensory eggs,
so some are gonna be bigger,
some will have balloons probably tied to them,
some candy's just gonna be laid out in the field,
just depending on whatever the sensory needs are.
- Okay.
(overlapping chatter)
- It's gonna be a little sick,
but I'll also send a link as well,
'cause that one's through special events,
so I just have a tiny part in that one
through special events.
- Is there any out of town excursions,
or are they all local?
- They're all local, the only out of town
that we have coming up right now
is we're getting up for Special Olympics,
that'll be on April 5th, and that's in Gainesville,
so right now we have,
oh well, actually I do need volunteers for that,
we have about 26 participants signed up for Special Olympics,
and so currently we're out of compliance with our ratio,
so it's four to one for Special Olympics,
and so if anybody would like to be a coach and sign up,
they would have to be an adult though,
so over 18.
- What's the day like?
- The day is, it's a Saturday,
just making sure that the participants know
exactly what area they need to be at.
I haven't received a schedule for Special Olympics yet,
but just making sure, it's like a coaching process,
but it's all online,
and so it basically tells you
how to be a coach for Special Olympics,
concussion protocol, they wouldn't necessarily need
to do like the full, oh I'm gonna be a one-on-one coach,
but helping us make sure that the participants
are in the right area during the time
for whatever event that they're doing.
So right now we're doing a softball throw,
and I have a couple signed up for the 100
and the 25 meter walk.
- And those volunteer opportunities
are 16 and up as well?
- Yes.
- Is it swimming, or any aquatics involved with that?
- We haven't got there yet, so swimming isn't on there yet.
I'm actually in the process of figuring out a day
to do a sensory day at the natatorium.
So with a couple of our participants,
they do wanna learn to swim,
and I have a day scheduled to be a,
learn to be an adaptive swimming coach, so.
- So I think when those, to me I think when we had those,
or when you schedule those, if the committee could know that,
then maybe show up and get, I'm more visual
to see what needs to be done than reading it on paper.
So I think if we knew maybe that might be more beneficial,
I don't know, but I know that I don't mean to be extra work
for you, maybe if we knew that schedule about April 5th,
this is what, or something like that ahead of time, you know.
- I can definitely type that out and send it over to you
to let you know what those volunteer opportunities
will look like.
Anytime you're doing a call for volunteers,
if you just wanna add me to the list,
I'll make sure to share it with the group.
- I think the more that we're involved on the inside of it,
we can see what maybe needs to be added to it,
or enhance it, or any way we can help to grow the program.
- Yeah, I had someone call the other day,
and that's what she said, she said,
"I didn't even know you guys' program was going up and running."
She's like, "I didn't know you guys had weekly events."
And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm like, we've had for a while."
So we've had a bigger turnout since there's been
word of mouth throughout town, so.
Anything to help grow it will be great.
- So if you don't have enough volunteers
to accommodate all of the participants,
you just limit the.
- For the Special Olympics?
- Yeah.
- That is what we're trying to see if we're gonna do now.
So I've reached out, so the way that the volunteer list grew,
so we originally had five, and then it kind of went to 26,
but has 29 acres signed up.
So I'm trying to see if one of their workers or employees
would like to be a volunteer,
so then that way they can help keep their participants
on schedule and things like that.
So it's just, depending on whatever community center group
home decides to go with it, you know.
But any volunteer would be appreciated, so.
- Sure.
- But we're trying not to cancel,
so I'm wrangling any volunteer that I can get
at this current moment.
- So if you didn't have the ratio, you would cancel.
- Yeah, we're trying not to cancel.
- No, we need to put you as a volunteer.
- I have a couple attempt seasonal tools, I think.
Jason said that we could possibly use
to quickly become coaches,
'cause it takes about two hours online.
So if we could get them trained to be a coach really quick,
then we should still be good to go.
- We're close.
- We're right there.
- Great, so, all right, no, that's great.
- Does anybody else have any questions?
- So you were saying, do we need to contact you?
I'm sorry. - No.
- For the approval to volunteer?
Since we're with the city already, did I misunderstand?
Is that gonna cover it,
or do we just to send you an email and ask?
- So I think if you have to do a background check
to be a volunteer, whenever you're vetted for service
on a border commission, we do not do
any sort of background checking.
So I think you would still have to go through that process.
- And I think once you do that,
it asks for your area of what you're interested in,
and then that email will be forwarded to me
once that background check is approved.
And then that way I'll reach out to you
and let you know what opportunity hours,
what volunteer hours we have available.
- So we do need to go through that then, right?
- Okay. - Through you?
- Through her. - Through her, okay.
- I want to say it is fairly quick.
I want to say we did someone for the Valentine's dance,
and I want to say it took about three days.
- Okay, that's not bad. - So I think it was fairly quick.
- Is it good for a year?
I'm sorry, is it good for a year or just that event?
- I want to say for the year.
I'm not 100% sure, but I would say for the year.
I don't, I would definitely hope not, just for one event.
- I mean, in school districts, it's five years.
- Oh, but it's probably a lot longer.
- Hopefully. - Thank you, Charles.
- We can get, I'll get the information from Tiffany,
and I'll send it out to y'all this afternoon
or first thing tomorrow morning.
So you have it in case you want to send it out.
- 'Cause I have a 22-year-old grandson that lives with me
that I want him to do volunteer things like that,
and he's helped with me at the senior center
and different things like that.
So I think the more we get young adults involved in it,
I think that's gonna be better in our future, you know?
Compassion and consideration and things like that.
So that was my goal for him to be involved in that.
- Oh, yes ma'am, I will definitely send it over
as soon as I get back to the office.
- That would be great.
Do we have anything else?
- It's nice to see so many people here.
- I know, I know. - I'm sorry, I'm very sorry.
- That's okay, that's okay.
I appreciate you guys joining us.
Thank you, Tiffany. - Yes, you're welcome.
You've hit the ground running.
Thanks, good, very good work in a very short period of time.
Thank you.
- Okay, thank you all so much.
Okay, we are moving on to item D, number CPD24-040,
hold a discussion and consider adoption
of an annual meeting schedule for 2025.
- I did just wanna open some conversation with you all
on our meeting schedule.
Our last several meetings, we haven't been able to meet
just because not enough folks are available to attend.
So I wanna make sure that this, every other month,
Thursday afternoon, still works for everyone
or if there's reminders that I can be sending out to you.
I tried to be a little bit more proactive this time.
- Text reminder, I don't know if you can do that.
'Cause it's like our personal phones,
but I'm, with all my emails addressed,
a lot of times I'll be like, oh yeah, I need to go.
- Right, absolutely, absolutely.
- And so I did end up forwarding mine
somewhere to help remind me.
And so something I was thinking was like,
man, just having a text 'cause I see those every day.
- Okay, I'll ask about that.
- And honestly, I am having trouble
getting my city of them email.
- Really, okay, we can help you with that too.
Okay, yeah, this last time around,
just 'cause I wanted to try to make sure
to get everybody here, I did,
I BCC'd y'all's personal emails.
(laughing)
So I don't know if that's kosher,
but Michael is our legal counsel on that.
So yeah, I just want to make sure
that everybody, you know, got it.
- I'm only funny with confidential information
for theirs.
- Right, yeah, right.
And really, I'm not sending confidential information.
- Yeah.
- You know, and if I am, I'll certainly just send it to you.
- That's when you send us an email,
I'll go check your email.
(laughing)
- That works too, that's great.
- That's a good, or even text us
and tell us to check your email.
- Yeah, that's fine, yeah.
- Reminder, check your email.
- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- Okay, well, I can definitely do a better job
and, you know, try to send out some more notices
and maybe text notices of our meetings.
But otherwise, does the schedule work for everyone?
- Yes. - Works.
- Works, okay, wonderful.
Okay, so the proposed schedule,
is there a motion to approve the calendar?
- Yes.
- Okay.
- I'll second.
- Okay, anybody want to discuss further?
Okay, all in favor, say aye.
- Aye.
- All opposed, say nay.
Ayes have it.
Okay.
- Thank you for stepping up to the plate, you guys.
(laughing)
- Yeah.
- Getting it going, yeah.
- Keeping it going, yeah.
- Okay, so we have our,
is there another staff update this time?
Okay, okay.
So does the board have any other business to discuss?
- Is this the complete board?
- This is currently, I think we have one vacancy left.
So there's a seven person board and we have six folks here.
Sarah is our newest member, this is her first meeting.
So I don't know, we can do kind of introductions
since we're all kind of,
we haven't been with each other in a while
and I'm new to this role as well.
So I think we can do that and then adjourn.
So I'll start.
I'm Christy Fogel.
I'm the chief of staff for the city manager.
And we did a little bit of shuffling
in the city manager's office recently.
Carlotta is now working for Capital Projects,
which is over here, but she's out this week on vacation.
Good for her.
So I'm taking over working on this committee with you all.
Some of the things I do in the city manager's office,
I manage kind of our day to day operations.
I manage our city secretary's office,
which is who manages all of the boards and commissions.
So I kind of have an outside view on boards and commissions
and then I do all of our legislative state
and federal affairs working at the state and federal level
for advocating for Denton.
So excited to join you guys and happy to be here.
- So you've been with them how long, of the city?
- A little over a year.
Born and raised in Denton, but I spent about 10 years
in Austin working for the legislature
and just moved back last year.
I'm happy to be here.
- Great.
- Yeah.
- Go ahead.
(all laughing)
- I retired from healthcare from the Denton State School,
so I'm very well acquainted with the different personalities
and adaptive equipment and things like that.
So I was excited working with Isaiah
for years trying to get on the board.
So I'm excited to move forward with it
and hopefully help make a difference in the city
and the community that we work with.
So looking forward to it.
- I'm Chelsea Clark,
and I've been a speech language pathologist for 17 years.
And so I'm a mom of two and we've lived in Denton.
- Well, I went to undergrad and grad school here,
so we've been in it for a long time.
(all laughing)
- My name is Sarah Deighton and I work for Reach Denton,
which is a local nonprofit that helps people
with all types of disabilities.
We have so many new programs that is coming on.
We partner with one of the local day haves
and they come and we do independent living skills training
with them on a weekly basis.
We do equipment loan
and give out durable medical equipment.
So it's like on a donation basis.
So it's always a revolving door.
So that has been a really good thing for the community.
I'm also the mom to two children with disabilities.
And so I've been doing this for a very, very long time.
Well, they're adults now, so I need to call them adults.
So I've been doing this for a really, really long time.
Through our organization,
we just launched the first program of its kind
called Veteran Directed Care.
So we contract with the BAMC out of Dallas.
And basically what I do is I go into veterans homes
and we help them to hire caregivers
so that they can age in place
and not have to be institutionalized.
So yeah, thank you for having me.
I'm looking forward to it.
- Do you accept donations?
- Yes, we do.
- Okay.
- Any type of DME or incontinent supplies
and everything is given back out to the community for free.
- That's amazing.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, we've had you guys come to this community before.
- Yep.
- The very, like the first year.
It was really great.
- I've never heard of it, so I'm glad to know.
- Yeah, we're just right down the road too.
- It's just called REACH?
- It's called REACH.
We have four offices.
We're located all throughout the DFW Metroplex,
Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, and Denton.
And I am the program manager
for the independent living program.
And so I travel a lot and then I kind of got thrown
into veteran directed care.
And so I'm loving it as well.
So just advocacy all around.
- So anybody can reach out for adaptive equipment?
- Yes ma'am.
- No matter the skill level or their home needs or whatever?
- No, it doesn't matter.
We don't look at insurance.
We don't need social security numbers, basic demographics.
And you can come in and we get really good equipment
and equipment.
Sometimes Medicare won't pay for a walker,
but every three years.
And sometimes walkers break and then someone needs it.
And so we were able to provide that for free.
And continence is a huge thing right now.
And we were able to provide that for free as well.
And we do independent living skills classes with everyone.
So even if, no matter what your skill level is,
if you need help, we're willing to help.
- Is there certain brands of like CPAP machines
or anything like that, that you do or do not accept?
- Nope.
- Tubing or nasal cannulas or anything like that?
- I've said everything.
The only thing I don't accept is medication,
which I've had a lot of lately.
And I'm like, I can't do that.
That's dangerous.
That's a big thing too is because we don't,
we don't have a lot of local places that we can drop off
old medication anymore.
We used to at CVS and at Walgreens,
those bins are no longer there.
That is because people were sticking their hands in
and pulling out medication.
A lot of, if you take it to the fire department,
they will tell you, just flush it down and come out.
No, we do not need to do that.
Not at all.
I'm trying to get more of it donated
through my organization.
It's a powder that you pour over into bottles of medicine
and it deactivates everything in it
so that they are not dangerous at that point.
So, but yeah, the fire station, it's,
I cannot remember what it's called,
but if you go to Kroger to the pharmacy,
they'll just give you handfuls of it.
So I know the pharmacist real well,
so she's trying to get a large shipment
so that we can give it out to people as well,
because the, unfortunately we get a lot of donations
where people have passed.
And it's just, what do we do with this?
Our loved one has just passed
and we have a trash bag full of medication.
And so it's just trying to keep it off the streets.
- Medical City and the lobby has a big machine,
or not a machine, it's just a flopped door open.
- Oh, they do now, good.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Well good, I could start using that.
- And right, just right as soon as you walk into the lobby,
not the ER, but the lobby of the hospital itself.
- Well good, I'm glad to know that, because.
- It's pretty much, I wouldn't,
I've never ever seen anybody reach in there,
but that's probably of course, 'cause we're sitting there.
- Right.
- But I've never heard of that not being monitored,
'cause we have security that goes through all the time
and all that.
- Well, the one on University,
the Walgreens on University, it looked like a trash can
and it was open on all four sides.
- Oh man, this is, this is like a band equal.
And also the police department in their lobby,
I've taken many up there, same action.
As far as I know, both of those are still available.
You know, the one in the police department
used to be right there, right there, but now you go in
through the set of second double doors
and it's right there in the lobby.
Unless they've removed it,
but you might double check with that.
So those are two big locations that take it, yeah.
- Yeah, 'cause I got a huge donation
and I started going through stuff,
'cause we clean all of our equipment, sanitize it,
make sure that it's in good working order before we even,
if it's remotely trashed at all, it goes out.
And I started pulling out baggies
of just different pills and I'm like, oh, this isn't good.
We're gonna put this back
and we're gonna figure this out.
So yeah, it's been a big thing
and insulin needles are a big thing as well.
So I've had to do a lot, a lot of training with my staff
about safety precautions
when going through medical equipment
because we also take unopened medical supplies.
So the big things of gauze and band-aids that are unopened,
that stuff is expensive, coban, any kind of tubing.
And if I don't have it, I'm gonna find it for you.
- Great, thank you so much. - That's a new idea,
this guy's new. - Yeah.
- Yes, I spent a lot of time on the website.
- So Daniel Clanton, long-time resident of Denton,
married a Dentonite.
She's been here her entire life, this is what it flowed.
That's like a distinguishing thing.
It's like, it's very few people know that.
- You have to partner with the Olympics.
- I was born in Savannah, so I can't remember.
Like I said, I've been here for a while,
very active in the community.
I'm on the police chief advisory board.
Ran for city council at one point,
very deep with Kiwanis.
We're the breakfast one, not the noon one.
So the drones were not my fault.
(all laughing)
- It's kind of scary to even mention Kiwanis at this point.
- No, we're the ones who,
the weekend before Thanksgiving,
we clogged the roads with bikers, bicycle riders.
- Yeah.
- So you know, you're like, "Yeah, that guy."
(all laughing)
That is our one and only fundraiser that we do each year,
and that is the one that we use to provide,
we provide coats to Nettie Schultz,
Yves B. Wilson, which everybody knows that one.
So we provide coats with them, we're getting with them.
We're working on, so this is a great thing for the city
to know, we are working to get together
our disaster backpacks for six to 11 years olds.
So like the tornado that came through, right, a while back.
So local deers, we're gonna create
a hundred of these backpacks.
We're gonna have a toy in there, you know, coloring books,
a blanket, you know, socks, and shirts,
and things that they need for that short period of time,
they gotta keep them on that, so we're gonna have that here.
And hopefully we're gonna pair with them
to put it all together for the city, put it all together.
So yeah, as you can see, I'm pretty active.
And then like I said, I mentioned the key clubs.
So we're active in them.
They're the ones that most of our money goes to.
Last year, we gave away $21,000 in scholarships
to some great kids, amazing kids have time to do anything.
Because I look back and I go,
"What was I doing in high school again?"
But they had some great opportunities.
- The giving back is so important,
I think, is for anybody to learn, you know?
So I think that's a good thing, yeah.
- We had one student who was going to Dallas
to teach a second language.
People were coming in from another country, he was,
and this is at 17 years old, I'm amazed at what they're doing.
So they get the time out of their day.
That's what I'm doing, so.
- I'm Isaiah Heck, I'm a software developer.
I've done a couple of, I guess,
last thing I was doing with the city
was the Southeast Denton Committee, planning committee,
that wrapped up a while ago.
I've been on this board, like a year and a half.
And then part of the Stronger Denton group,
and I'm trying to get some adopted prairie stuff
going through the parks and rec stuff, so.
- Adopted prairie?
- Like prairie, native grasses, plants.
- Native plants, yeah, I love that.
- There's a lot of people out there I see on Facebook
that want to volunteer, but don't have the plots
of places to do it.
So it's the idea of maybe taking some of that
and opening it up to public for them to come
and maintain spots, you know?
So right now, I talked to Parks and Rec,
and they said they have something like that in the works,
but they haven't committed to it.
So now I'm kind of like a shark in with blood.
So I'm like, all right, let's push it out.
Let me see how I can get that going.
- Is that like the Blackland Prairie restoration?
Same sort of thing?
- Kind of same thing, yeah.
It's just like, you know, we have so many lawns.
The lawns actually aren't native.
It's all about moving stuff to collect native grasses,
plants, and stuff like that, so.
- You want to go?
- Yeah.
- Kind of gave you guys my spiel about everything I did.
My background, I was for heavy health for nine years.
So I came from lockpick facilities.
I did two and a half years for spinal cord,
sorry, for rehab.
So dealing with TBI, spinal cord injuries, strokes,
and then the wonderful position opened here,
so I figured why not, and you guys like me, so I'm here.
(audience laughs)
So that's a branch out and try something new.
Like I said, I started in August,
so this has been different from dealing with rehab
or even behavioral health, but it is a breath of fresh air.
So I love it, love the participants, so.
Looking to grow the program.
So hopefully five days a week, we're at four,
so looking to get something within five days.
Five days a week is for the participants to do,
and then work on the youth program right now, so.
- Okay, great.
Well, I am Alison Kelly,
and I am an administrative coordinator at Cohen School,
which is a nonprofit private school that helps kids
with different kinds of abilities and needs.
I recently opened a new higher needs classroom
specifically for kids with higher support needs.
- For kids with what?
- With higher support needs either.
Or it's basically like a transition room,
so I think that you probably know a little bit more about that,
but, or you transition to school.
So it's a little strange.
It's a little bit more like an inclusion room
as opposed to an isolation room,
which you would see in a district.
So yeah, it's just a lot of fun.
We have donkeys in the class.
I like donkeys the most,
but we have black line period, that's why I asked that.
There's a lot of, maybe I might say,
we do a lot of exploration with our kids.
So it's a lot of fun,
and then I've been on this committee since the beginning,
so it's an honor to be here with you guys.
Thank you guys for everything, yeah.
- What happened to Joe?
Did he phase out his term?
- Yeah, he phased out, his term ended,
and I think he decided to take a break, so.
- I can see it in the market.
- Yeah, send him our regards.
(laughing)
Yeah, absolutely, so.
We did a proclamation from the mayor,
recognizing him for his service,
and then also Sally Austin who rolled off as well, so.
- Yeah.
Okay, well, does anybody else have anything else to add?
Okay, well then we are going to call the meeting at 3 42.
Anybody have a wonderful time?
- Thank you. - Thank you very much.
- Thank you guys, thank you so much.
- Thank you all.
- I do have to find you a call with the R.A. in the house.