Bender Leadership Academy/Mary Brougher Mental Health Initiative

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

And everyone, hi! Happy New Year! Happy New Year 2022! Welcome, welcome! You know, thank you so much for 18 years on this show, 18, and I have had really great followers, and I just want to thank you. Uh, it means so much to me because you're helping me spread the news and educate the world on our world, people living with disabilities. As you all know, I live with epilepsy and I'm hard of hearing, and I am on a crusade at Bender Consulting Services to find employment for people people with disabilities, but in a little bit, we'll be talking about the Bender Leadership Academy. But before we do that, all my listeners around the world, thank you, thank you, thank you. China is getting bigger every week. You know, I get the data on the company countries. A new country that start— that has a listener is Spain. And I always say, I don't care if it's one person in that country. You're making a difference. China, all of you listening, you just got to keep spreading that because, you know, you are going to help. Let other people know that people with disabilities count. No matter where they are in the world, they count. And I always have a shout out to Richard Roberts, who I was with in South Korea and Okinawa. Gangyang, who is in— Gangyang Cho, who is in South Korea. Cheryl Harris in Tunisia. Venyamin, who I love so much, also in Kazakhstan. And now, you know, my listeners from all these other countries that we've done shows for— Libya, Nigeria, Austria, Thank you so much. But all of you with the State Department, my hat's off to you for all you're doing to help me. And here we go. First one of the year already. Special shout out to Yoshiko Dart. Here we go, Yoshiko. We're starting that year together. And I'm telling you, when she hears me say this, do you know what she does? She shouts out back to me. Yes, she does. And I love her and I will always bring her up. And you all know why. She is the widow of Justin Dart, one of the greatest leaders in the disability community, someone involved in getting the ADA signed and everything from that point on. And I'm not going to let anyone forget about him. So That's how I'm reminding you with Yoshiko, who is also a great disability rights leader. And I know she has such a following in Japan. I really want to get more news out through that country. Yoshiko, but I love you so much. And our sponsor, the lead sponsor for the past 6 years, Highmark. Can you believe that? They're not the first quarter, half year, they're the whole year, the lead sponsor. No surprise with David Holmberg, CEO, who will be on the show next month. What a great company they are. But I must tell you, I'm so excited today because I have two people on who work for me but are very involved in the Bender Leadership Academy. LeeAnn Thomas, who is my Chief of Staff and Account Director, as you'll hear in a few minutes, really was the one who got this started, even though now she works for me, you know, at Bender Consulting Services, but involved with eye disability and, you know, just so many things at, at Bender. But as I said, you'll get the history here in a little bit. And Scott Hammerstrom, Manager of Programs and Partnerships and the man running the show at the Bender Leadership Academy. I decided, folks, that this is so important to me that we were going to start off the year and kick it off with the Bender Leadership Academy because doesn't it matter so much what's happening to high school students and middle school students with disabilities. So Scott, welcome to the show.

Happy New Year, Joyce, and happy New Year, Leigh Ann, and thank you so much for having me.

Oh, it's wonderful to have you. Now Scott, you know that last year we lost Mary Brocker, the president at Bender and my friend, close friend for 22 years, in a tragic hiking accident. And it took me this long to even be able to say this much without, you know, losing it. But Mary was just phenomenal. She lived with clinical depression for 40 years and yet known internationally, built the company with me and Paula at Bender Consulting Services and She is such an advocate, always has been, for high school students living with disabilities. As a matter of fact, 1 in 6 high school students live with a mental health disability, but there was a 44% increase since 2009. This is terrible in in students with mental health disabilities who prepared a suicide plan. So, you know, you get it, everyone, why this is so extremely important. So, Scott, why don't you tell our listeners about the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative and at the end also how they can contribute to what we're doing.

Absolutely, Joyce. And I have worked with Mary for 15 years, and I loved her. She was a very special person, and she just touched so many people. And this is one thing that we wanted to do in honor of her. So, at the Bender Leadership Academy, with what you just said, with the students who are struggling with mental health, and especially the last 2 years with COVID-19, we knew we had to address this. And so we are doing the mental— or Mary Brooker Mental Health Initiative. And topics will include— will be incorporated in our existing programs that will prepare youth with disabilities in the world of work, as well as offering learning independently. So we're doing a couple different components. So we're going to do a mental fitness curriculum component, and that will teach students mental fitness as part of their overall wellness routines and provide the tools for engaging in healthy mind habits for a group, again, that is facing a shortage of access to trained mental health professionals out there, and who can support them with overcoming society stressors. So we are going to help with that. And the other thing that we are going to be doing is we are going to do a mental health advocacy curriculum. And that is going to offer students the opportunity to engage in messaging from the mental health disability civil rights and business communities while learning about what it means to be an advocate. So those are two important programs or components in the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative. But I would be remiss if I don't say thank you to a lot of different organizations and individuals who helped donate to the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative, including the Highmark Foundation, PNC, Pfizer Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and so many individual donors. It's overwhelming. And if you are interested in contributing to the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative, you can go to our website, which is benderleadership.org/donate. And then on there you can choose the Mary Brackford Mental Health Initiative in the dropdown menu. And we appreciate that. And again, we appreciate all the donations that we got in for this. Looking forward to bringing this to life in 2022.

And very recently, I just want to mention this because it was very recent, I wanted to add, and this really is a result of just friends at these two companies, that CareerEco and Comcast made a very generous contribution, and that is because of friends there that knew Mary, but I'll never be able, or Scott, to remember everyone because people are continuing to, uh, yeah, to make donations. You notice he said hundreds. I don't care, it's $50, I would love it if it's $10,000, but It doesn't have to be that. It can be whatever you can donate. Even $25 makes a difference. But when you do contribute, make sure you know that you are in that Mary Brooker Mental Health Initiative working to help us help those students. And it goes on beyond even what we just talked about. Scott, why don't you tell everyone about the Not ashamed campaign we will be launching this year.

Oh, absolutely, Joyce. And before I even go there, I want to talk about a quote that Mary said. And she says, "We must create a world where mental fitness conversations are as commonplace as those about nutrition and exercise. It is only by sharing the message that both mental and physical fitness are a part of the quality of life that we can break down stigma. So we decided to start a Not Ashamed mental health awareness campaign component to this initiative. And it will be focusing on spreading the message that we are not ashamed. It takes the power away from the centuries-old stigma and misconceptions about mental health and promotes knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of mental health as part of an overall wellness, just like physical fitness. And this campaign is designed to reach key influencers and organizations as force multipliers as we expand the awareness of the Not Is Same message. And we are going to be kicking this off in 2022, and we are very excited about this.

Yes, we are. We are very excited. And I, I just wanted to tell you, if you are listening right now, about and you're interested in this, we're going to have short, and I mean like 30-second, it can even be from the cell phone, videos where you're saying, you know, my name is, I live with bipolar disorder, I live with depression, I live with post-traumatic stress disorder, I live with anxiety, whatever it is, not ashamed. And if you're interested in doing that, because it doesn't matter if you are a high school student, an advocate, a business person, I don't care who it is. We wanna reach celebrities, but we wanna reach high school students and just people, people who are advocates who care about the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative. So remember, if you're living with a mental health disability and you're not ashamed to talk about it, If you would get in touch with us, go to benderleadership.org. There's a Contact Us page, and Scott will get back to you. benderleadership.org. And I am telling you that my good friend Eve Hill, who is the chair of the board of the Baselon Center on Mental Health and just renowned in the world for her work in mental health, she said number one problem, coming out of the shadows, telling people you live with a mental health disability, not being ashamed to talk about it. High school, high school students with disabilities, they don't even tell anyone in their family because they're ashamed. And that's what we want to get to, stigma, stigma. That's what we have to break down, stigma. So once again, Not Ashamed. And if you're interested, get in touch with benderleadership.org and Scott will get back in touch with you. Hey, Leanne, we are so excited to have you with us today. You are not only my great chief of staff and, uh, my manager of accounts— I'm sorry, my director of accounts— I I just think you're tremendous. But here's what a lot of people don't know. They don't know that in addition to being Chief of Staff, Account Director, and everything else you do, they don't know the history with the Bender Leadership Academy, how it actually came to be. Uh, would you mind sharing that with us?

Thank you, Joyce, and thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. And it's so great to have the opportunity to talk about how it started here in the state of Delaware. So before I came to work for Bender, I actually worked in corporate America for over 36 years, and I was working at what used to be Computer Sciences Corporation, which is now DXC Technology, in Delaware. And I was on an advisory board, which was the local schools in Delaware, it was the Department of Education and local businesses. We were trying to figure out How can we help students with disabilities get jobs? And there was a big conversation at one of the meetings about that, and, you know, we were asked, the businesses were asked, so what is keeping you from hiring these students? And as Joyce knows and the team knows, I spoke up and said, you know what, it's you teach them what we call technical skills, you know, all these other things that they're learning, but you don't teach what we call the soft skills. You're not teaching the students how do they prepare for an interview, how they should dress, you know, what's expected of them. So they're not prepared to do that at all. And none of the schools were teaching that, and I don't even know if today many do. But they said, so what can we do about that? Well, previous to that, I had met Bender. I met Joyce and Mary and Paula, and we had started working with them and hiring people with disabilities at our company in Delaware. So I said, you know what, I happen to know someone that I think this would be a great opportunity to introduce you to. So I had Joyce come and meet with some of the teachers from our local schools. So it was— CSC was sponsoring it. We had some local schools there and Joyce to talk about what could we do to help our students. So at that meeting, which was over 20 years ago, we sat down and Joyce developed a program for the students. We wanted to make a difference, and this was at no cost to the schools. Joyce did this for these schools because she wanted to get the message out to the students and help them. So that's where it started in Delaware. Joyce would come each year and teach the students at 4 sessions. We'd have a big graduation, and that's what it started years ago. And one of the teachers that was there told the students, because teachers will be a part of the class and talk to the students and help them, understand what it means to have someone like Joyce come and speak to them because usually they're left out. But Joyce came and talked to them and one of the teachers, Joyce Kaufman— and Joyce, you'll remember all of this— told the students, "Show me your friends and I'll show you your future." And that has stuck through every class and that is so true.

Yeah, I'll never forget that. Yeah, and Joyce Kaufman, because I'm going to make sure one way or another we're going to make sure you hear this show, I steal I will say that today so you know that show me your friends, I'll show you your future. That started with LeeAnn in Newark, Delaware. Who were the schools originally, LeeAnn? Do you remember that?

Yeah, it was, we had the Christiana School District, Brandywine School District, Red Clay School District, and actually the, um, Delcastle Vo-Tech. Were the first school districts and vocational areas that participated.

And a tremendous person, Miss Debbie Scott. Oh, what a great teacher she is. And do you know that she still— was she with Christiana? Who was she with, Leanne?

She was with Del Castle Vo-Tech.

Del Castle Vo-Tech. She still comes, still, and does volunteer work when we're in Delaware. She is such an awesome, wonderful human being. And Deanna Harris, oh my God, she, she just rocks it. She has been with us for almost all— oh gee, what, we started like 20 years ago, Leanne, in Delaware, something like that. She's been with us 20 years, almost the entire time. And she just— those kids come in, they know who I am. She has— does a little Joyce Bender class before they come, and they are all just awesome, awesome, awesome. Now, we also do this same thing in Pittsburgh, where I started doing it on a volunteer basis, and I still teach that class in Delaware. But my 3 original in Pittsburgh, Beaver Valley School District, Pittsburgh Public School District, and Fox Chapel. And we would have Fox Chapel at Covestro, we teach it there. I always teach it at a company so the kids get the idea, oh, this is what it's like to go to work. And then we would have a class at Lanxess, now it's at Calgon. For Beaver, and Pittsburgh Public School District at Highmark. But now, Scott, we've added other schools, right?

We have, and we definitely have expanded because in the last 2 years we had to go to a virtual environment. So we have multiple schools who participate. We had more this year than ever before, not only in Allegheny County but in the surrounding areas of Western Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania who participate and different companies. We added on a few different classes, so other host sites are participating as well, like Peoples Gas and a few others.

Yeah. And if you're listening to the show and you're interested in getting involved, once again— I mean the school— once again, go to benderleadership.org, or if you're a company hearing this saying, "Oh, I'd be really interested. You know, I can't think of a better way with all these jobs that aren't being filled than to consider high school students with disabilities when they graduate or while they're in school, internships or apprentices." LeeAnn, what's that program in Delaware where Deanna has the students work during the year? What is that called?

It's Networks. It's network.

Network. Yeah. And am I right, they go work at different times?

Yes, they go to school for a portion of the day and they work for a portion of the day with the local businesses. But when they're in the school, they're actually learning business skills. So they're learning how to do printing. They might be doing, you know, flower works, making food. So they're also learning within the class to be prepared for work.

And then they actually do get to work part of the day. Yes. Yeah, I mean, I think that is so great that they do that because that really prepares people for the world of work. And Scott, speaking of preparing people for the world of work, which is what it's all about, would you explain to our listeners what we do at the Bender Leadership Academy to prepare students, high school students with disabilities for the world of work.

Absolutely. And you mentioned, you know, you've been doing some of these programs for over 20 years. But the Bender Leadership Academy, we put it all together and we created a nonprofit organization back in 2018. And basically, the goal is to increase long-term competitive employment for youth with disabilities. And we celebrate their successes, and we set and achieve career journey goals for our students. We have multiple programs that we do, and the first one I want to talk about is Disability Mentor Day because I have been working on that one for 15 years now being the project coordinator for that. That is just for students in high school, maybe 9th through 12th grade. We have that every, the third Wednesday of every October where students get to go to a business to do one-on-one mentoring, learn a little bit about the different types of positions at a company. It's a great way to learn about, you know, the work environment. And that's been going on. We had— last year we had over 500 students who participated and went to like 29 different companies in Western Pennsylvania. That continues to be strong and we'll probably have more students this year. Another one that we started about 8 or 9 years ago, I believe, is our Work Readiness Program. And typically we have been doing that in the summer and that prepares students with disabilities, maybe a little bit younger students, and just to get them about the idea of getting a job and, you know, maybe talking in front of a group for the first time and and learning about what their strengths are. They do a vision board. Like I said, we typically do that in summer, but we are going to be having our first work readiness class in January with Norwin High School. So we are very excited about that. And we will be having a lot more of these work readiness programs. I think last year we had about 5 during the summer. We may have 6 or 7 this year. So we are very excited. And if there are any students or school districts out there who are listening, who have an interest to learning more about that, like I said, please go to our website and contact us, and I will get back to you because we are looking to expand that program. And then you mentioned, Joyce Bender, our Student Leaders Program. Started out in Delaware, and then we did 3 or 4 different— 3, I think, in the Pittsburgh area. This year I think we have 5 or 6 student leader programs that are going on, and I will a whole bunch of different school districts. And we have, we have over 113 students who are participating this year, which is the most ever. So that is an incredible program. And again, we are going to be adding, incorporating the Mary Brooker mental health component into this. Mental health is very important. And we are also going to be adding in here Jarett Community Engagement, which is— students get to learn a little bit about, you know, how to vote or who to vote for. Not who to vote for, but how to vote and how to register for voting and to be an advocate, being a self-advocate for yourself. So that is very important. Other programs that we have, you know, we have a certification program where students get to learn about customer service and Basic computer skills. That has been going on for many years as well. We have about 15, 16 students participating. And we have a newer program called Digital Access at Work. We did our pilot program last year. We're going to be doing another one or two this year in 2022. And that teaches students digital accessibility with understanding and testing skills to students with disabilities. And that and we think that program is going to grow as well.

Wow.

A lot of great things are going on, Joyce.

They are. They, you know, just hearing how many students, wow, we've come a long way, I'll tell you that. That is really so exciting. And by the way, Scott, you work with Maria Towne at AAPD with Disability Mentoring Day, the CEO, because they are the overseer of the program, and they have been also outstanding to work with. Speaking of that Valerie Jarrett Community Engagement named after Valerie Jarrett, what— you're going to be participating in Rev Up, so who knows, some of those students that we're teaching to vote might want to be involved with that.

Absolutely. That's another initiative of ours is to get a rev-up campaign started here in the Pittsburgh area. And that is something that we are going to be doing in 2022. Just, again, to get engaged and to be advocates out there and to know your rights.

Amen to all of that. So, Leigh Ann, I wanted to ask you a couple questions. But first, you saw the Academy at work in Delaware, and of course you still do. What do you see when students present their speeches, and what do you think that does for them? I mean, from the first class to graduation, uh, and then I have another question after that, but what, what difference do you see?

You know, this class is just so amazing for these students. From the first class that they come, they're very nervous. They're not sure, you know, here we have a big CEO that's coming to meet with us and do some training. They've never really— most of them have never even spoken in public. So they're kind of nervous to get started. You know, they all have an assignment to do when they come to the first class. And Joyce Bender will always say, hey, who wants to go first? In most cases, the students don't want to raise their hand to go first. So they're, you know, they're not sure what to expect. By the end of the program, you cannot believe the change in these students. This is a safe environment for them. They're all students with disabilities, so they can share information with each other. It's a safe area for them to practice speeches and to share information. When we get towards the last class and Joyce Bender says, "Who wants to go first?" all the hands are going up. When they get ready for graduation, "Who would like to be Who wants to be class speaker? The students pick the class speaker and they're so excited to have that opportunity. Everyone wants to be a part. So you can see from the very beginning how they're very timid, not sure, am I going to learn anything out of this? By the end they just love the class, they love Joyce Bender because Joyce Bender does such fabulous work with these students and they keep in touch with her. And many of the students at the end will share with us they might be the first student from their family graduating high school or going on to do— they have this job. They're so excited to share that information that they actually gain confidence by doing this class. And I've had parents actually tell me when they come to the graduation, is this actually my child that's up there speaking? They just can't imagine the change and do share that and love that their child had the chance to participate.

Oh, it is amazing. The first class, before they even meet me, they have an assignment before their first class, which is, what does it take to be a good employee? And everyone has to give the speech, everyone, because we are not about pity. We're about preparing students to be successful in the world of work. So no, no getting out of it. Everyone gives this 2-minute speech. But, and they give, and then we teach them about initiative, independence, you know, preparing for work, dealing with bullying, which I'll talk about in a little bit. But they are so good by the end of this. Scott, how about how they are when they speak at Disability Mentoring Day?

Oh, absolutely. You know, we see the students again from week 1 to when they graduate.— it's night and day, the confidence that they build. And then we pick 4 or 5 students from all those classes, and they get to speak at our Disability Mentoring Day reception that we have every year. And our students are speaking in front of 100 to 150 people. And these are VIPs. These are business leaders, disability leaders, teachers, students, peers, everybody. And they speak, and every year our students are always the highlight of the reception. Every single year they do such an incredible job speaking. It's amazing.

Yeah. Now, you all have to understand, this is at the Heinz History Center this year, and last year, of course, it was virtual due to COVID. But there are senators, CEOs. I mean, you cannot imagine the level of people that we have speak.

Mayors, county executives.

Yeah, yeah. Prominent national disability rights leaders. And yet the highlight is always, and always will be, when the students speak. I mean, that's the, that's the thing that blows this whole thing out the door. And I always tell people You know, do you know how hard that is to speak publicly? I mean, that's hard. And yet they get up there and they do it and they have no problem. And it's at the beginning, yes, but by the end their confidence is built up and it is such an awesome thing. And you know, Leanne, I was mentioning about the bullying. Do you remember in our first classes when I asked them, now how many of you have been bullied? Do you remember how many hands went up, Leanne?

I do. Every student in the class raised their hand.

Every one.

That is so, so sad.

It is. And to be honest with you, in almost all of them since then, I would go down, "How many of you have been bullied?" All the hands go up. All the hands. In case you don't know, you know, high school students with disabilities are brutally bullied, and I see it. And hear it live because they tell me at all these classes, that's the thing that got to me the most is when they told me how terribly they're bullied and made fun of. And that's why when LeeAnn said about it being a safe place, it is a safe place when, when they're all together, they can talk about this because guess what? They've all been through it. They've all been through this. And Scott, you see that also at the classes.

I do see it at the classes. And the other nice thing is, you know, with virtual, we have different school districts. The students will, you know, from different school districts be in one class, and they talk about the bullying. And other school districts or students will say, "I got your back. Contact me." It is just amazing to see. It is sad that you see so many people who raise their hands who are getting bullied, but there are some good advocates out there who will help them, too.

Yeah. And they do. They all help one another. They reach out and they help one another, which is— well, it is wonderful. It is just absolutely wonderful to see that. And I know, Leigh Ann, that you remember how people were so afraid at the beginning and then how they changed at the end. And the same thing with the clothing attire. And you know, Leanne, when I gave them a hard time at these, you know, tucking your shirt, you don't look— come on, what's wrong with you? How did— do you ever see them get mad at me, Leanne?

No one ever got mad. They understand Joyce cares about them. And that she's doing that to help them be successful. Because she asked them, "You don't want me to pity you, do you?" And the nice thing about the group is they all cheer each other on. That's what I thought was amazing, Joyce and Scott, was as the students do their speeches or if they are afraid to get up, the kids will clap, say, "You can do it. I'm here for you." And they just cheer each other on. But no matter what Joyce gives, to help them grow, they never talk back, say anything bad. They do it because they know she's there, she cares about them. And a lot of times they don't have others that do care. They might not have that at home, and they might not have that from some of the other areas within the schools. So they really do come to rely on that class and the friendships that they get through that class.

And Scott, you've seen that. I've been— I mean, remember that one class you had where it was all different, uh, students, different students, I mean different schools, and yet they were all trying to help each other?

Yes, it happens all the time. Then, um, they make that connection because they're all, you know, they find their people, they find their connection, and they're all in that together. And and they got each other's back. It's amazing to see.

Yeah, and some of the students, by the way, that speak at these events, these high school students at, for example, the Heinz History Center, what we were talking about, I'll never forget when Ted Kennedy Jr. spoke at one of them and he said, Joyce, where are you going to see a 15-year-old girl that goes up on stage and says to a whole crowd of people, "Oh, by the way, I have depression. People used to make fun of me. I'm not ashamed that I live with a mental health disability." And that is true in so many of them where they talk about it. And then as Leanne was talking about parents getting back in touch, God, how many times have people get back in touch with you, parents?

Yeah, and one thing I want to mention with the parents, and I have— this happened many times where the parents do not think at the beginning of the class that it is going to be right for their kid. They are not going to be able to speak in front of the class or whatever it may be. There is no way that their student or their kid can do it. And then we say give them Let them go in there, and if it doesn't work in a couple classes, we can remove them, and they finally agree. And by the end, they are doing everything that all the other students are doing. They are giving their final speeches, and the parents are just in shock that their student, their kids were able to do those things. They were never taught how to do this, and they are getting these skills that they think they never couldn't get before.

Yeah, Leanne, when we were talking before, uh, about Mary, I know that always got to her, how these kids change from beginning, uh, to end. And remember in the classes how Mary would go find someone with a mental health disability and spend time with them?

Yeah, and they actually would seek her out in the classes, different ones. But she would always, you know, one of the students would come over and they'd be over there talking about different things, and she, she helped many of those students through that. But part of it too, Joyce, is remember you never lowered the bar. I think too often we do that with our students. You don't lower the bar, you help them be successful in what they're doing.

Yeah, right, because it won't work if you lower the bar You are not going to help these students at all. And once again, if you're listening to the show right now, benderleadership.org, if you wanna make a donation today, or if you have any questions, I know you all care about high school and middle school students living with disabilities. You heard me tell you before about these kids that make suicide plans over a year. So this is really serious, and this is a great thing that we're doing. Benderleadership.org. And speaking of fundraisers, I think we have Steve Wagner on the line. Steve, are you there?

Yes, I am. Good afternoon, everyone.

Hi, Steve, how are you?

I'm doing great, thank you so much. It's a privilege joining you today.

Well, it's, it's an honor having you with us. Just so everyone knows, Steve was very well acquainted with Mary Brocker, and his whole family and friends are behind this Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative. You knew Mary for quite a while, right, Steve?

Yes, uh, 30-plus years. Um, very close friends with her husband Kevin. Um, grew up in the best neighborhood in the world, and Mary was adopted in as, uh, as another sister with us.

Yeah, and you were all devastated the way we were when we lost her. I know that.

Yeah.

It was a very tragic, very difficult loss for all of us. We're all still trying to cope, you know, in different ways. And as all of you know, and I've had the privilege of listening throughout today's discussion, that there really was nobody like Mary Brocker. You know, she's touched so many people's lives. We looked at it from a personal nature, you know, from, from being a friend, um, but her friendship, her professional, her business, uh, she touched everybody's lives the same exact way, which is truly a tremendous thing that she always did.

Oh, that is so true, Steve. You know, when people say anyone can be replaced, no, they can't. Not if they're Mary. Mary cannot, nor will she ever be replaced, ever. She wasn't just the president at my company. Mary and I went everywhere together, traveled together, uh, for 22 years. But my entire staff is still grieving since she left. The reason— I have awesome leaders at my company. We had a great year and we're moving forward and one of the reasons is in honor of Mary and this Mary Brooker Mental Health Initiative. Never ever will Mary be replaced and never ever will she be forgotten. It was unfathomable grief for me and so many people and it will be. I'll miss Mary forever, but what has helped me so much is honoring her through this initiative. So Steve is a wonderful man, and he came up with a great idea. So Steve, do you want to talk about that for a few minutes?

Yeah, absolutely, and thank you, Joyce Bender. You know, Mary, the person that she is, and you know, the way she has touched so many people's lives, you know, we just wanted to find a way to constantly celebrate what her beliefs were and, you know, the initiatives that she was pushing towards, as you and Scott have been talking about all day, all afternoon during your presentation. So, one of the things that we wanted to do as a collective group, and, you know, it is a host of many friends and, you know, family members that you know, wants to push this fundraising event forward is to do an outing in, in her name, the, uh, Mary Brocker Memorial Golf Outing that will benefit the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative. And this is a first-year event, so there's a lot of legwork, uh, that will be taking place trying to figure things out. Um, but I am surrounded by a a ton of really helpful friends, family members between my wife Dawn, my brother Dave, George and Carol Ross, Tim Davis, you know, and there's not enough time for me to recognize everybody. But, you know, what we are planning is to do a golf outing on August 13th at Meadowwink Golf Course. It will be a scramble event starting at 9 o'clock. It's located in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. Followed by, after the golf event, we will do a buffet dinner and awards ceremony and donations for the fundraising event coming over to Joyce Bender Leadership Academy. And, you know, if you are not a golfer, we strongly encourage you to sign up and participate. Come out to the dinner, spend some time with your friends, and for a great cause. The way we look at things is if we can impact one person's life by raising a couple dollars in a fun-filled event Mary's name, it will serve the purpose on what the initiative is brought for.

And it's going to be awesome. Uh, and it is a whole group of people, uh, that he's all mentioned, including the Saunders, right? Are they involved too?

Yeah. Um, yes, the Saunders, you know, Carol's brothers. There's just a tremendous family and support system between the Saunders and, you know, Katonkas and so many people that have been close, close friends with Mary for so many years that we want to keep this thing moving forward and do something to just touch somebody's life in Mary's name.

Which means the world to all of us. So important, Steve. And I'm going to tell you, if you're listening right now, you know what you have to do. Go to Spotify and subscribe to this show, Disability Matters with Joyce Bender, and share this with other people. You've got to share this show so we can keep spreading the news about this initiative, the Mary Brocker Memorial memorial. That will be when again, Steve?

It will be August 13th at Meadowwink Golf Course. We will be completing a registration form. A save the date will be going out shortly. So if there's anybody that is interested, please notify Joyce Bender or anybody at Bender Leadership, or you can pass along my information. To get me your name and email address, whether you would like to be a golf participant, come for dinner only, donations, sponsorships, gift baskets. We're looking for anything and everything that people are willing to contribute to make this the greatest event out there.

And it will be. August 13th. And we will get this on our website. Also, because it's so important to me, and I think it's going to do so many great things. Benderleadership.org. And thank you for calling in, Steve.

Thank you, and God bless everyone.

God bless you too. And I know this is going to be very successful, Scott. I know it is. I'm so excited about it.

Absolutely.

I am so excited about it. And Scott, I just want to take a few minutes before we get too close to the show ending, but first, how do you contribute to the Mary Brock Mental Health Initiative if you want to right now?

Go to our website, which is benderleadership.org, and there's a donate button there, and then right there's a drop-down box and it'll say Mary Brooker Mental Health Initiative. You just click on that and you can donate. Any amount would be deeply appreciated. It does not matter.

Any amount, that is true. And we have a couple other things. Scott, I wanted you to tell them about our scholarships, including the Linda Dickerson Scholarship, and it's so exciting we'll also be working with the CLO.

Absolutely. So we started a scholarship program in October of 2020. We came up with this idea, and Linda Dickerson, a good friend of yours, recently passed away, and we decided to name the scholarship after her. And this scholarship is designed to help students with disabilities achieve their educational and career goals. The Linda Dickerson Scholarship benefits students who are positively impacted through one of our Bendiro Leadership Academy programs. As I mentioned before, the work readiness, the student leaders, Digital Access at Work, our certifications programs. And, and this year we're so excited that we are going to be offering 15 $1,000 scholarships to our students who participate in one of our programs. Last year we were, we gave away 10 scholarships of $1,000. So we are increasing it this year to 15. And anybody who participates in our programs, they have to fill out an application. And there is a little essay question. And we have a nice panel who reviews all the applications that we get in. And we determine the winners. And it's exciting. And I know some of the winners last year, you know, we get the— one's going to Robert Morris and for nursing, and the other one is going to community college. And it's going to help them. They're learning, they're getting ready for the world of work through our programs. Now they're getting additional education through the scholarship, and then they're going to be successful. So we're very, very excited about that, and we hope and we hope this grows as we move forward. Another thing that we are very excited about is we at Bender Leadership Academy are partnering up with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera this year, and we are going to be offering scholarships to our students who participate in Bender Leadership Academy to attend the CLO's New Horizons program. Now, this is a program that is It's been around for 25 years, and the program has been teaching performing arts to people with disabilities. And we're very, very excited to be launching that in 2022.

Oh, yes. So great. So exciting.

We got a lot of great things, Joyce, for 2022.

We do. We do have a lot of great things for 2022. And LeeAnn, we talked earlier how, oh my goodness, in November, November, 4 million people resigned from their jobs or quit, which is unbelievable. But as you were pointing out, many, many reasons, including retirement. But what that brings to my mind, especially people that have, you know, left— maybe they work, as you were pointing out earlier, at a print shop or a restaurant, whatever it is. Now these jobs are And wouldn't it be a great idea, Leanne, to consider high school students with disabilities?

That would be awesome. And that's the thing. You need to give these students a chance. You know, there's a lot of opportunities out for them. And that's where the Bender Leadership Academy can help with that is as they're going through their programs for us to help them look at some of these great opportunities or have companies that might be listening to also reach out. To us. Do use that contact form on the benderleadership.org and say, hey, I have an opportunity here. I'd love to have a student work here at the company. We'd be more than happy to help with that. But give these students an opportunity. They're great, and we know that they will be ones that will be very appreciative of the opportunity to get out there and work and show you what they can do.

Yeah, there is this untapped labor pool that you are not seeing. It's bad enough that 70% of people with disabilities are not counted in the workforce, but what about all these students that could be doing internships for you? And we have internships at our company, and I can tell you that these students are awesome. And I don't know the process. Is there a process Scott, that if someone is listening right now and thinking, hey, that's a great idea, should they get in touch with you and then you could contact the school? What would be the best way to handle that?

Yeah, the easiest way to do it is email me, contact me. So my name is Scott Hammerstrom and my email address is shammerstrom@ @benderleadership.org.

One more time, Scott.

S. Hammerstrom, H-A-M-M-E-R-S-T-R-O-M, @benderleadership.org.

And, you know, as I said, you won't be disappointed if you give an opportunity to a high school student with a Disability. You won't be disappointed. And I hope you will go to benderleadership.org, go to the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative or Linda Dickerson or just a general donation. I, I— you're, you're changing a life. You're helping us change or save a life. Benderleadership.org. So Scott and Leanne, thank you so much for being with me on the show today. Um, I end every show with a quote, and it can be none other than Mary Brooker, who said, "Choose joy." This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters, at Voice of VoiceAmerica.com. Talk to you all next week with Peter Blank. Talk to you then.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.