Scott Hammerstrom/Gerald Homme: Overview of Success of 2025's Mary Brougher Memorial Golf Outing and Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities

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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.

Hi everyone, this is Joyce Bender on Disability Matters, and I am so happy to be here with you as I am every time I'm here with you. So a special thanks to all of you. I mean, 22 years, 1,000 episodes. Unbelievable. That only happens because of you, such great listeners. Now, I would ask you that when you talk to other people such as your friends, Spread the news about this radio show, Disability Matters with Joyce Bender, on voiceamerica.com. Several reasons. One, quality of life for people with disabilities, we must spread the news. Two, there isn't any other place you can go to hear current news with Mathis on the mic as to what's happening in this country. And number 3, there are too many people unemployed and too many people without hope, and we want to give them hope. So please take time, share this show with others, because we do have hope. Make sure you share. And to all of my listeners around the world, I'll tell you, I don't know what's going on in Germany, uh, but I want to tell you that my mother was part German. So there, I am part German. Italian took over, but thank you. I just don't know what's going on, but I really appreciate the listeners in Germany that listen to this show and the other 70+ countries. Remember what I always say, you can be that one person in a country, one person in Malta, but guess what? One person can change the world. One person can make a difference. Tell other people about this show. You heard what I said a few minutes ago, hope. We need to give hope to all people. With disabilities. And Yoshiko, I have a big smile on my face when I say shout out to Yoshiko. And I'll be introducing one of my guests in a few minutes, but Gerald, I'll let you right now join me since I know how you love Yoshiko. How about if you give her a shout out?

Yoshiko power! We love you, Yoshiko Dart! I hope all is well for you. We love you so much, Yoshiko. We love Justin. We love all that you have done for the disability community. Yoshiko power!

That's right. Lead on! Yoshiko, I know you are smiling. I know you are just chuckling, giggling about all of this, but we do love you. And I told you I would never forget you. And I have not. And thank you to Highmark, who has been the sponsor of this show the entire year, the entire year before, the entire year before that. What a great company Highmark is. Thank you so much. So what a great show today. I get phone calls all the time, especially with everything going on. And here's the question I hear. What's going on? What's going on at Bender? So guess what? We're going to talk about what's going on at Bender today. And as I said, make sure you spread the news because we do have good news. First though, Gerald, do you want to introduce yourself before we have the news today?

Sure, real quick, I had to show I still have this Gerald Power lead on sticker on my laptop stand that Yoshiko gave me years ago.

So I look at it every day.

A shako dart that you sent in the mail for me. So you're in my mind every day when I go to work. I'm Gerald Homi. I'm the manager of the talent team here at Bender, leading the work that we do placing people with disabilities into the jobs all over the U.S. I've got a nice collection of hidden disabilities, including dyslexia, dysgraphia, PTSD, anxiety disorder, migraine disorder. And I love what I do here. I've worked for Joyce for 8 15 years now. And yes, my father was the very first person with a disability that Joyce ever placed into a job, back before she even started Bender Consulting Services, back before there was an ADA. She placed him into IT where he became the first blind person on the planet to be a certified Lotus Notes developer. And because of that role, my family got to live the American dream. And now my wonderful team gets to give that same opportunity to other people with disabilities. My team that does consist of over 90% people with disabilities itself— people who are blind, people who are deaf, people with autism, people in wheelchairs— on my team doing that work of putting people with disabilities into competitive jobs in corporate America all around the U.S. Jobs that we have right now, jobs you can apply to on our website in engineering, in finance, in healthcare, in hospitals, in product management and project management, in remote roles, on-site roles, jobs with security clearances, and jobs just getting your career started. Um, so go to benderconsult.com/jobs to learn more. About how you can work with Bender to start your journey for your next opportunity where you are valued for who you are and to have the access to competitive employment.

And I want to say to all the businesses listening, if you're thinking, oh, they probably only work in one area, it's always my favorite story. Gerald when you tell them about that person that you placed out way out west there. Do you want to tell them about that?

Oh yeah, I love it when companies say, oh, you're in Pittsburgh, all right, do you— can you work other places than just Pittsburgh? Although we— sorry, my microphone muted. Although we love Pittsburgh and our guest loves Pittsburgh, um, that's going to be calling for the news break later today. We work all over the United States. We once placed a park ranger in Alaska, and we've placed engineers working on airplanes and other important pieces of machinery in Hawaii. So we've covered the gamut of the United States.

Now, this is my favorite, a park ranger with a disability in Alaska. Now, you have to admit that is quite a request. But see, we people with disabilities, We can do it. No matter what, we can do it. And you all know I'm living with epilepsy, um, and I'm hard of hearing, and I am on fire to find employment for people living with disabilities in— headquartered in this great city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Best, very best city in America. And yes, I am prejudiced, but guess what? I'm going to introduce someone, and they too love Pittsburgh. Now, not as much as their daughter loves Pittsburgh, but they do love Pittsburgh. And I love her so much. She is such a great person. I just today was looking at these little notes she sent me when I lost Mary.. And I showed it to someone that works for me. I said, see why I like Holly O'Donnell so much? I love Holly O'Donnell, the CEO of Bazelon in Washington, D.C. How are you today?

Hi, Joyce. Hi, Gerald.

She's our Mathis on the mic today, just so you all know. Mathis on the mic. Jennifer could not be on, so, but we get superstar with us also. Holly, go ahead, Holly.

Well, thanks so much. Um, I know I'm gonna see you tomorrow night at the Bazelon Center Awards, Joyce, and I had a little present for you. And now I think I'll show it because Gerald showed his sticker. Um, so I am going to show a sticker that I got from you. Enjoy Washington this summer.

That is awesome.

At the General Store. So I will give that to you, but I didn't want Gerald to just be showing his sticker. I wanted to show my stickers as well.

For all our listeners on the podcast, it's a blue sticker with a star that says General Joyce.

Uh, was there another word on there?

General Joyce Store from Joyce, Washington.

Which is, um, in, uh, on the Olympic Peninsula.

I love it.

Oh, you know that's going to be prominent right here in this office. You know it. You know it, Holly.

I'll be out in the salute when I go to the office every day now, Holly.

You know what, Holly, before you give us the news, why don't you take just a minute and tell everyone about Baselon, what Baselon is?

Sure, I'm happy to. So the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a public interest law firm. It's, you know, an easy way to understand it for folks that aren't, you know, deep in the, the work. And we do legal advocacy to protect and advance the rights of people with mental disabilities across the United States. And we have a unique set of, of tools that we use to achieve long and lasting impact, and that includes advocacy, litigation, and technical assistance. And we have been working for over 50 years., and we've made a lot of progress, and our goal is for people with mental disabilities to live in the community alongside people without disabilities, just like everybody else. And, um, you know, we got a strong team here in Washington, and we are ready for the challenges ahead.

And what, what about tomorrow night? You have a very famous person being honored tomorrow night. We do. You have all— we— you always have— you have famous people there all the time. But tell everyone, and can they still go is my—

absolutely, people can still go to the Bazelon Center's annual awards reception. We are having it here in Washington, D.C. It's at the Press Club at 6:30 PM. We are celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Tomorrow night, we will be honoring 4 people. Congressman Steny Hoyer, who was pivotal to the ADA. We are honoring Senator Blunt Rochester from Delaware. We are honoring Kara Smyrek, who is an amazing advocate that we've worked alongside with for many years. She's coming in from California and then heading right back out. So we really appreciate her making the trip. And Steve Rosenbaum, who's a leader at the Department of Justice for many, many years working on disability rights, and most recently was in the Special Litigation Section before he retired.

And if they want to go, where do they go to get a ticket?

Right to our website, which is www. Bazelon.org. And one other thing I just want to say is we're really excited that, um, Amna Nawaz from PBS will be our MC this year again. She's wonderful.

She is wonderful.

So thank you, Amna Nawaz. Um, so time for the news.

Yes, time for the news. Great.

So last week I talked to everybody about, um, appropriations on Capitol Hill, and when I was talking about the House appropriations for, um, labor HHS and Education. I was talking about the subcommittee and how they had, um, they'd passed the budget, but we couldn't see all the details. And so we were hopefully optimistic— was the term I used— um, that, um, P&As and other places would have at least level funding. So we didn't, we didn't have those line item details for, you know, particular programs and services, but we do now. So the House Appropriations Committee report came out with details. We have very encouraging news. There's level funding for PAIMI, PAVA, PAIR, the UCEDDs, the DD councils, independent living, some, um, the DD projects, and, uh, certified community health behavioral clinics. There's a slight increase for the mental health block grant, and, um, we also have learned that it maintains support on the ed side, funding for all IDEA So we're really pleased with that. And, you know, we appreciate everybody that called their members to talk about how important the P&As and other programs are. And, you know, Jennifer will be able to go into more detail., as she's the policy director, but we are pleased and we appreciate everybody's work, um, in calling their members, you know, over the past couple months.

Oh my goodness, this is so great. I mean, compared to what we thought would happen. Well, see, those calls make a difference.

There's still more process to go through, but again, It is encouraging news.

It is encouraging. But remember what Holly said about making those phone calls. We must continue making those phone calls. We have so many things going on out there, and your phone call makes a difference. Holly, you have a background, your family in politics, but I always tell people I don't want them to underestimate those phone calls. Make a difference.

Absolutely make a difference. Um, you know, I mean, because they want to hear from the people that they are representing. Um, and, you know, I think I, I don't know if I said it last week, but I've said before that my brother, who also has a disability, answered the phones for many years in Senate offices. Um, and, you know, chief of staff would say, how many calls did you get about this? Can I call this person back? Oh, I spoke to this person, it was really helpful. So I mean, I know firsthand that those calls make a difference. Another thing to remember is there's nothing wrong with calling your member and saying thank you. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for voting for this. Um, thank you for Yeah, I mean, I just think that's— that can be important as well. So that's, um, that's— it's really— it really does matter.

Yeah. And that, that is so encouraging. We haven't had encouraging, so that is very encouraging news. Yeah, because I really worried that many of those organizations would be gone. So very good, wonderful. But we got to keep fighting that fight. And I want to say again, gala tomorrow night, Baselon Gala is awesome. You don't want to— you don't want to miss that. And remember, we've got to support people with mental health disabilities. And remember that every time, sadly, something happens, that it's always blamed on mental health disabilities. And yet 1 in 4 people have depression or some type of mental health disability. So go, go support it, make a donation. Let's go! Let's go support Mathis on the Mic, and I'll give you a sticker tomorrow. I— yeah, I want my sticker. First thing I'm going to say when I see you Give me my sticker. Hey, thanks.

Thank you.

All right, thank you. Thank you. All right, Holly. Um, and she is so awesome, isn't she, everyone? I just love her. Okay, so we have another Bender person on with us today, um, Scott Hammerstrom. How about if you introduce yourself to everyone?

Well, Joyce, thank you so much. Uh, it's great to be on the show, and, uh, And Gerald, good to hear you on the radio as well. I'm Scott Hammerstrom, and I have the great honor of running the Bender Leadership Academy, a nonprofit organization that Joyce started in 2018. And what we do is we empower students with disabilities to address bullying, pursue education, and achieve their goals. And we've been working for Joyce Bender for 18 years, and Jared and I pretty much started on the same day. And I just have a passion of helping young people, especially with disabilities, achieve their goals and watch them grow. So we have a lot of different programs and different events, and I'm sure we'll be talking about that soon. But so I just want to say thank you for having me on.

Oh, of course. I love both of them. I love Gerald and Scott, and I'll never forget when someone said to me— actually, more than one time, they said— people have said to me, do you, do you have people with disabilities that work for you in your office? And I said, you're kidding, right? Of course I do. You know, what do I talk about everywhere I go? Hiring people with disabilities. So yes, we do. And my employees, my leaders, Gerald and Scott, are on the leadership team, and they speak up about their disability. They're not ashamed. Gerald, I loved, by the way, when you said, and I have this little assortment of disabilities. TSD. You went through these like, hey, I'm proud, which you are, and so am I. That sounds like me when I say, and I live with epilepsy. So as you can see here at Bender, we don't have that stigma.

This is a good time to tell you to join the better Scotts Bender Leadership Academy's hashtag Not Ashamed campaign. Learn about that more on benderleadership.org.

And Joyce, it was, we just talked about today because I had my staff in the office today and we realized that every one of us has a disability who works for Bender Leadership Academy, 100%. And it's like Gerald said, not ashamed. And I am a person with multiple disabilities as well, hidden disabilities, and not ashamed. Like I said, I'm just happy to be working for such a wonderful organization.

Yeah, thank you. Well, I'm lucky to have both of you. So, Gerald, I want to provide hope to our listeners. Many people, they're thinking, oh, there aren't any job opportunities, I'm not going to be able to find anything. But that isn't true. And by the way, if you're listening, you're going to think, Oh, these positions are all though in Pittsburgh. No, they're not. They're not all in Pittsburgh. They are different parts of the United States and some are remote. So, Gerald, I'm going to turn it over to you so you could talk about some of the positions we're working on right now.

Thanks, Joyce Bender. Well, one of the biggest things that I tell people, and I was just telling somebody who's a software developer that's struggling to find a role this today. You've got to adapt, and the world is changing. And especially in the world of IT, which is an area we've worked in for many years, you've got to adapt with how technology changes. And that means you've got to— in pretty much every job role right now, you need to be up to date with what's happening in AI. An executive told me and Joyce Bender in technology recently, don't be focused right now on, oh my God, am I going to lose my job to AI? Be worried about, am I going to lose my job to somebody who knows how to work with AI? And you need to be able to demonstrate not only that you know how to work with AI, but that you show that on your resume, that when you're applying for jobs, people can see what skills you have, what you bring to the table, what projects you've done. And if you don't have that, go get a certification online, go do some volunteer experience somewhere, Go find some opportunity that you can put concrete on your resume to get that experience. The job market changes, and there are opportunities out there, just in different areas. One of the biggest areas we're working in right now is in healthcare, and you wouldn't believe the opportunities that are out there. We just had somebody that we placed in healthcare that gotten to a hospital role, just getting started, um, in an entry-level position, and now less than a year in, they're paying for that person to go to nursing school and continue working. There's so much opportunity out there. You just have to know where to look, and you have to think differently about this market right now than a market from 5 years ago. You have to pay attention to the current world.

And that is so true, uh, Gerald, because I lived through when the steel mills closed and it seemed like, oh my God, all is lost. But it wasn't, because there was IT. And one way or another, there is going to be an opportunity. Gerald, what are you working on right now?

We are working, first of all, on those AI roles. So if you're like, hey, that's me, I'm a developer, or I'm a product manager, or I'm this or that, and I want that AI role, we've got that opportunity for you. So talk to us about that. But we've also got roles for engineers, project managers, cybersecurity specialists. We've got roles for people in healthcare and hospitals, from phlebotomists to instrument technicians to doctors and nurses. Um, you name it in a hospital, we've got those opportunities. Roles in contracting and the government in different capacities, um, to executive roles that we're working on right now with our good friend Chris Griffin. So Though, that's where a lot of our opportunities are. And if you want to dive deep into those, check out benderconsult.com/jobs to learn more. There's also a great part-time role that we're recruiting for right now for the Bender Leadership Academy. So if you're listening to this and you live in Pittsburgh, PA, and you were listening to Scott talk earlier about all the great things Bender Leadership Academy is doing, We have a current role on Scott's team.

Yes, and I just want to add to what Gerald said. You know, you may have been a nurse during COVID and you couldn't take it anymore and you stopped, or, or possibly what it is is you have some type of disability. Maybe you can no longer work at the bedside. You know, because you've hurt your back or you have an injury. Do you know we have remote roles for nurses with case management experience who have disabilities? So if you're listening, I don't care where you are in the United States, if you fit what I just said, we do have opportunities for you. We do. And As Gerald mentioned, we have other remote opportunities. We have so much going on, like in AI, for example. If you have AI skills, no matter where you are in the United States, and you're an architect or an analyst, we're going to have a remote job for you. But then we have positions in HR here in Pittsburgh. We have an opportunity. Gerald, is it that here in Pittsburgh, or is that remote? That's here in Pittsburgh for human resources admin— administrative role. If you are here in Pittsburgh, and if you are here at Pittsburgh, we have so many healthcare opportunities. And you know, when Gerald was saying you may take one job and not realize how you can move up from there. We have people with disabilities that work at a medical distribution center. And when I visited there yesterday and I was a speaker, I found out some of those people in the past moved up and on to procurement in a corporate role. I mean, wow, what an opportunity. So, I, you know, don't give up hope. We have all kinds of positions here. We have all kinds of roles. Just get in touch with us. Gerald, what's the best way to reach us?

BenderConsult.com/jobs is where you can see all those roles. You can fill out a form on our Contact Us page or send an email to info@benderconsult.com. All those will get information to us.

But if they want to apply the resume slowly, where do they go again? What's the website?

BenderConsult.com/jobs.

BenderConsult.com/jobs.

BenderConsult.com/jobs.

Okay, there it is. You heard it. You can even apply when you go there. And it's something else Gerald said, you know, about AI. Start with basics. Start with something like ChatGPT. You know, start with something basic. And you know how to do that? Read. Get on the internet and read. I was at Barnes Noble the other day. I couldn't believe how many magazines there were about ChatGPT, just going to teach you some of the basics. But you can go, you can go online, you know, you can go on the internet. And about opportunities, if you ever meet someone and they're working at a company and they're saying, yeah, we're going to be working in all these other areas, do you know what I would tell people to do from when I first started in search, IT search? I would tell them, you should say, hey, could I job shadow you? I mean, you don't have to pay me anything, but I just really am interested in this field. Because believe me, there aren't a lot of people that say that or think to say it. So keep that in mind. And Gerald, stay with us, but we're going to move over to Scott now, who runs the Bender Leadership Academy that is housed here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But guess what? We work in other parts, even all the way to Delaware. So Scott, how about if you first tell everyone what the Bender Leadership Academy is.

So the Bender Leadership Academy, we help youth with disabilities and prepare them for the world of work. So we work with students between the ages of 11 and 22 years of age, and we teach them a lot of the soft skills, confidence building, interviewing skills, speaking in front of the public, and We have different classes that we have. We just started a middle school program called Junior Leaders. We have our Student Leaders Program. Once you complete that, we have an Advanced Student Leaders Program, which will go into financial literacy, community engagement, entrepreneurship. We teach digital access to work or digital accessibility because a lot of the websites are not accessible. So this is a great way to learn about how to make things accessible, and it's a great job opportunity for students that they can go out there on their own and, and get the gig economy and get some jobs and work as much as they want to help organizations get their things accessible. The other great thing that we do is it's great that we teach them the leadership skills and the soft skills, but we also have to teach them real work experience. So we created Education to Employment where we have our students, they'll go to a worksite. We have a worksite trainer there and they get experience working in the field for, you know, 20 hours or, I'm sorry, for about 3 or 4 weeks, get that experience. We had that over the summer and 2 of our employees who went through our Education to Employment program, did such a great job that a company, CVS, in Pittsburgh hired them directly right after that. They probably would have never had that opportunity if they didn't get this training from Bender Leadership Academy. So that's what we do, and we do some job shadows. And right now we are— we just finished up our summer programs. We just did our Digital Access to Work in our Work Readiness Program for the summer. We just completed our Mary Brooker Memorial Golf Outing in August, and Joyce, you were there. It was a beautiful day, a beautiful tribute to Mary Brooker. We had over 70 golfers, and it was just a wonderful day to celebrate the life of Mary. And I wanted to get your thoughts on how that day went.

Oh, it was fantastic. First of all, everyone knows Mary was the president here at the company and my close friend, like a sister, for over 22 years. And what can I say? When we lost Mary, we lost so much. We did. Not 22, it's more than 22 as I think about it, because she was here longer than the two on the phone here. Yeah, I think she started in 19— like '92, something like that. But anyway, she ended up traveling with me around the world. Um, she was a force of nature. She was a dynamo. She was wonderful. And she had a depression for 40 years and was a big advocate of young people living with mental health disabilities. So we have this memorial golf outing to raise money to help high school students with mental health disabilities and to showcase our Not Ashamed campaign and our Slaughter Stigma, which I'll talk about that in one minute. But that day, beautiful day, just wonderful supporters, you know. I mean, it was like joyful. That's how I would describe it. It was joyful. And there were business leaders, you know, and there were students, and there were community leaders. I mean, it was, it was just fantastic. If you look, maybe starting in— when do you start advertising this, Scott?

I mean, January of, uh, the next year. So probably in January of 2026, once we've locked on the date and, uh, the course, we'll start, uh, advertising. But if you want to get on a list, you know, feel free to contact me, or you can email me, call me, or go on our website. My phone number is 412-446-4448, or shammerstrom@benderleadership.org.

You want to spell your last name?

H-A-M-M-E-R, so hammer like the tool, S-T-R-O-M, @benderleadership.org.

Um, and please, please do, because if it is just— it's wonderful, it's fantastic. Slaughter stigma. Okay, I have to, I have to say this. I have to. Because I am going to send this to Karen Slaughter. So you all, I'm sure many of you, if you are a mystery thriller reader, then you know who Karen Slaughter is. And I met her, oh, like 15 years ago. What, what I was so impressed with is that she has this character Will Trent. There's a TV show, Will Trent Tuesdays on ABC. That's the Will Trent she created in her novels. And guess what? He has dyslexia, a learning disability, and yet he is the good guy, the hero that finds all the bad people. And what Karen wanted to do is show that this disability did not limit someone to be in a role like that. And she has kept that on TV. You know, she has pieces of her as a movie that you can see on Netflix. I mean, she's just spectacular. And we are all guilty here, her new book, oh my God, it is so good. But Karen, Karen is good. Karen is a good person. And here's an example. She allowed us to use her last name, Slaughter. Stigma. So if you go to benderleadership.org, you will see Karen talking about how she wants to help high school students with disabilities. Not be bullied. She wants to help them. And Scott, I'll let you tell everyone what happened at the Bender Leadership Academy in Delaware that actually went on Karen Slaughter's Facebook page.

Yeah, we had all the, the students, uh, go up in the front of the, the class or the room, and we had them say, uh, Slaughter stigma. We had them shout out to the to the camera, and we were able to, uh, um, send that over to, uh, to Karen, and she just absolutely loved the, uh, the video and, uh, and the picture, and she put it out on her social media as well.

Yes, the one she loved the most— there were two, as Scott said— the Slaughter stigma, but then we love Will Trent.

We love Will Trent.

Yeah, those students are like shouting this so loud, we love Will Trent. Once she put that on her Facebook or her social media, I saw other people saying, well, we love Will Trent also. But that's Karen. Her new book, We Are All Guilty Here, is so good. Go buy it. But she is a supporter of what we do, and I wanted to talk about Not ashamed. Scott, exactly how does someone do that? What do they do?

So there's a pledge that all, anybody can take. So if you go on our website, which is benderleadership.org, and go under For Students, there's a thing called Slaughter Stigma. And then you could scroll down, you'll see the banner that we created. It says, we will slaughter stigma. And slaughter all the letters, they have positive words in there like hope, joy, love, strength, courage. So I wanted to make people aware of that. And then there's a little block that says click here to pledge, and it'll take you less than 30 seconds to take that pledge of slaughtering stigma. And all you have to do is pledge to treat others with love and Use language that is positive and empowering to others. Educate others about the harmful effects of stigma on our society. Be an upstander and be an ally to people with disabilities. All good things to do. Take the pledge. Go to our website, benderleadership.org.

And take that Slaughter Stigma Pledge. Just what Scott said, take the Slaughter Stigma Pledge and do that Not Ashamed video. And don't we have a national day coming up, Scott?

We sure do, Joyce. So Disability Mentoring Day happens the third Wednesday of every October. It was founded in, or started in, 1999 by Jonathan Joyce Bender and Joyce Bender Young, who was in the Clinton White House, and Bender Consulting was probably one of the first private sector companies to participate in Disability Mentoring Day. So it's a national event, but Pittsburgh has the largest Disability Mentoring Day in the country. We'll have— we're starting to max now, but between 400 and students with disabilities, probably over 60 high schools. We'll go to like 32 different locations throughout Pennsylvania or Western Pennsylvania and parts of Delaware. And we have a virtual component as well, so any students in Pennsylvania can participate. It's one of my favorite days of the year. Been coordinating this for Pennsylvania a for over 18 years. But the most exciting part, or besides the students get to learn about a business and go to a business to explore career opportunities, we have a celebration 2 days or a week before on October 6th. We have a, that we honor the kickoff of our programs. We honored all of our students who won a Linda Dickerson Scholarship. We're awarding— we awarded 9 students for this year. It's just a wonderful day where community leaders, disability leaders, business leaders all come together to celebrate Disability Mentoring Day, Bender Leadership Academy, and young people with disabilities.

Oh, it is so great. It really is. Again, you go to that Heinz History Center, You see these students when they speak, they are fantastic. And then you see companies there, families with people that have won the Linda Dickerson Scholarship. I mean, it is just fantastic. It really is. As Scott said, Jonathan Young, 1999, when he reported to President Clinton, called me and said, we need a day. And so came Disability Mentoring Day. We need a day, Joyce, about employment, and that really is what Disability Mentoring Day is. The overseer is AAPD, and I have to give a special shout out to the new chair, Veronica Villalobos, is the new chair of the board of AAPD, and AAPD is the overseer, but I've gotta tell you, Scott, where's the biggest, largest DMD chapter?

Joyce Bender would be in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, greatest city in the country.

That is right. It's right here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And yes, if you know me, you know I'm looking at pictures of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and yes, I still love them. So I'll see people, they'll say, do you really still like them? And I say, I like them since Three Rivers Stadium. So that gives you an idea how long I've been around. But, but I never got to see in person Roberto Clemente. Did you, Scott, when you were like 2 or how old?

No, I was, I was too young, so I just missed them. And I would love to have the opportunity. But I know there's a great documentary. It just came out, I think, on Roberto Clemente. So I need to go see that.

Well, you know why I brought him up also? Do you know what everyone— do you know what his special interest was? Children with mental health disabilities. How about that? I read a book the other— I— when I first read this, I just couldn't believe it that he wanted to help children that had disabilities, specifically in that area and intellectual disabilities. And I thought, wow, just fits him though, doesn't it? It just fits. It does. Uh, Gerald, I wanted to ask you about your team of recruiters. Are they like really dedicated to this cause?

I can't believe how dedicated they are. I want to talk about a few examples. You've got Johnna who comes in on Monday and says, "Thank God it's Monday," to kick off the week. You got Lee who tells you, "Welcome to today," and is out there. We call him the bulldog because he will do whatever it takes to get people on the phone. We got our newest—

Oh, excuse me, and I call him Mr. Hassinger. So, hello, Mr. Hassinger. See, you don't have to be listening to Katie Ka to hear us talk about you. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Our newest full-time member of the team, Colby, who is just so passionate about this work and just jumps into whatever new things she can find to do this. We've got John, who is helping with our career fair yesterday and brought donuts and treats for everybody and just loves a good random task to help anybody. Even outside of recruitment to do this, and we'll sit down and help you all. And of course, we've got Jill Zomp. Jill Zomp, who helps everybody. I stole her from Scott, I'll admit it, but she is just an incredible treasure who you'd be lucky if you find anyone more passionate about helping people with disabilities. Employment other than Joyce Bender. I mean, Jill is so behind this, like, you can't— won't believe it. She is incredible.

She is incredible.

And our interns and part-time staff, they all do so much. I can sit here forever, take up the rest of the show talking about all of them, um, and the whole of Bender. And then of course, not my team, but who I report to, Leanne Thomas. Incredible as well.

Customer service.

Chief of staff.

My awesome chief of staff. Yes. Uh, hey Scott, I bet you're so happy. Have you ever forgiven Gerald that he stole Jill from you?

Um, I, he, uh, she is, uh, I agree with Gerald. She is absolutely amazing, and I, I still use her for Disability Mentoring Day, so I get to work with her a lot, and she's just an amazing person.

So we have another secret weapon at Bender, and that would be PJ Balog. And I just want to tell you, Paula goes by PJ. That PJ Bailoff has worked with me— ready? Like 38 years or something. I mean, it's amazing. And she's an executive vice president here. Kelly's the CFO. She's also fantastic. And Carol, the voice of Carol, my executive assistant, just wonderful. But I want to talk to you for a minute about PJ. When she met me, And I would— I was still— I was in executive search. She used to say to me, I'll take care of all the organization and technical stuff, you just go make money. And you know what? She hasn't changed. She does it all. Gerald, does she not help you in recruitment?

She is the embodiment of servant leadership. Here she is, second most powerful person in the company, and she'll be out there making coffee for interns. I mean, and she'll do anything. She'll do an admin's job to help get people for our roles. And she finds candidates all the time. She does anything and everything it takes to help make this business successful.

We love you, Joyce Bender.

She does. Thank you very much.

She's my favorite travel buddy. That too.

Yes, that's right. She is. Scott, Paula, and I get in that car and go to Delaware, um, and Paula loves the Bender Leadership Academy. She does. She loves those, uh, young people. I mean, they are just— no words to describe how much I love. There are no words that could ever express how much I love them. So, uh, Scott One more time before you go, first, do you have any— anything else that we didn't talk about that you want to talk about? And then if you could give them your website, but don't forget, third Wednesday of every October is Disability Mentoring Day. But here in Pittsburgh, what night do we have our VIP event, Scott?

It's Monday, October 6th at the Heinz History Center. You know, we take reservations for that, so if anybody's interested, just email me or go to our website to contact us. And, you know, we're getting ready for our new school year and all our new programs coming up, so we're planning all that. So I want to say the shout out to all the teachers and educators that we work with, because without them, we're not going to get to the students and their buy-in. And we just did a nice celebration the other night, a teacher celebration, and Joyce Bender was able to attend with a nice dinner, and then we got ice cream afterwards. And so I want to say thank you to all the teachers who do all the hard work and, and for these students.

Hey, and let's give a special shout out to best ice cream, best coffee, best cookies. Where are you, Scott?

Cookie, ice cream, and McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. If you go there, meet Connie, say hi to Connie. She's just the best. Pure Pittsburgh right there and pure passion. And she hires people with disabilities and hires our students from Bender Leadership Academy. So we love her.

We do. We do love her. And how about you, Gerald? Do you have any last Comments, but you can tell them again how to send their resume.

Go to benderconsult.com/jobs, or just reach out at info@benderconsult.com. Send in your questions and your requests. And don't give up hope. Band together. And lead on.

That's right, lead on. You know what I say? Keep moving forward and communicate. We all have to be together. We all have to share and talk to one another. And that is why I'm telling you to please tell others to listen to this show. I am on YouTube and I am Just so happy to be with these two superstars today, Gerald Haume, Manager of Talent Programs, and Scott Hammerstrom, the main man running the Bender Leadership Academy. And we end every show with a quote. Now today, what did we talk about a lot? Work. Because we are preparing those high school students at the Bender Leadership Academy for the world of work and, of course, fighting bullying. And then at Bender Consulting Services, we are working to provide employment for people with disabilities at all levels in different industries because it's all about employment. You've heard me say it, I'll say it again, paychecks, not pity. That's what we want. But since that's what we've talked about today, I have to give you my quote for today. Work gives us dignity, said and says the great Tony Coelho, author of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And in the words of Mary Brooker, when you go out tomorrow Remember, when you get up, choose joy. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, on VoiceAmerica.com. Talk to you all next week.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM 4:00 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.