JFActivist

ABC Nightline Covers Torture of People with Disabilities Tonight

MDRI to be featured on ABC Nightline scheduled to air tonight

Washington, DC – June 30, 2010 - Mental Disability Rights International’s (MDRI) latest report and “urgent appeal” to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, demanding the United States government end the torture of people with disabilities immediately, will be the topic of tonight’s ABC Nightline at 11:30 PM (EST).

Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), documents the use of electric shocks on the legs, arms, torsos and soles of feet of children and adults with disabilities – for weeks, months and sometimes years. JRC uses punishments as treatment and US advocates have been trying for decades to close the school and end these practices.

Nightline host, Cynthia McFadden, interviewed MDRI Executive Director Eric Rosenthal, JD and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak for the piece.

Laurie Ahern, President of MDRI and author of the report, states, “The cruelty perpetrated against children and adults at JRC is psychological and physical abuse, couched in the name of ‘treatment.’ The severe pain and suffering leveled against residents there violates the United Nations Convention against Torture.”

MDRI documents torture against children and adults with disabilities living at a Massachusetts residential school and files “urgent appeal” to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture

MDRI is an international human rights organization dedicated to the rights protection and full participation in society of people with disabilities worldwide. See www.mdri.org.

ABC Nightline airs at 11:30 pm EST, following your local news. Be sure and check your local listings.

Disability Leader from Uganda Meets with AAPD

Founder of People with Disabilites Uganda visits AAPD Headquaters

By Jennifer Simpson, Senior Director of Government Affairs

 
(l-r) Jenifer Simpson, Richard Mugisha, Andrea Shettle, Zoe Levenson

On June 16, 2010, Jenifer Simpson and AAPD Policy Interns Zoe Levenson and Charla Wright met with Richard Mugisha, Director of the national disability organization “People with Disabilities Uganda”, located in Kampala, Uganda, Africa. The meeting was organized and coordinated by Andrea Shettle of the United States International Council on Disabilities (USICD).

Murgisha said that his organization is a national, nonprofit, peace and disability rights organization founded in 1994 and based in Kampala, Uganda, a nation located in the central part of Africa. His board is made of seven people, most of whom have disabilities and that the organization relies much on volunteers and donations from individuals. He said their “mission is peace and accessible living for all.” They work to foster awareness and provide services that will help improve the status of people with disabilities. Murgisha said the organization’s objective is “to be a voice and force for people with disabilities” in Uganda and “to empower ourselves economically.”

He said there is no census count of people with disabilities in Uganda but that the United Nations has estimated that 10 % of the country’s 30 million people have disabilities, or at least 3 million people. Murgisha also said that disability has been created by a decade of instability, especially in the north, and therefore the real number of people with disabilities is much higher. He stated that small arms violence created disability, such as maiming, and led to homelessness for many, adding that “a person with a disability is nowhere in such a situation.”  

Mugisha told us that there remains extensive discrimination and stigmatization against people with disabilities in all sectors, ostracization of their families, and isolation of people with disabilities based on a belief system that disability a curse.  He told us that when he was born the clansmen in his village expected his father to kill him but his mother rescued and protected him, causing the family to break up. He and his three siblings therefore lived solely on his mother’s earnings, which were minimal. He said that he went to high school and university, a rare occurrence for any student in Uganda and even rarer for people with disabilities. He said that while Uganda has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, there are few resources for implementation.

Mugisha’s organization has created a Children's Resource Library Project, to help families of children with disabilities learn about disability and to find positive role models of people with disabilities.  They have also set up some income generating activities for people with disabilities. According to Mugisha, people with disabilities have “a powerful voice, a powerful message we can deliver to the world.”  He said they are looking to the international community of people with disabilities to build relationships with them and invite us all to travel to Uganda and take a tour, such as to see the unique mountain gorillas and other sights.

Contact information: Richard Mugisha, People with Disabilities Uganda, 20 Bukoto street, PO Box 5460, Kampala, Uganda. Tel/Fax +256-312-262-134. Skype Richard Mugisha. Email mugisha@pwd-u.org. Website http://www.pwd-u.org

Statement to the United Nations, July 2001 by Richard Mugisha, on Small Arms Violence and Creation of Disability, at http://www.pwd-u.org/articles/article_SmallArms.asp

Photos from People with Disabilities Uganda, website at http://www.pwd-u.org/pictures/pictures.asp

Website for the USICD: http://www.usicd.org/template/index.cfm , contact Andrea Shettle, Email ashettle@usicd.org

Chicago Website Rates Business Accessibility

By Brad Spirrison, Chicago Sun-Times Columnist (7.28.2010):

Website Hopes to Make Businessess Aware of Consumer Base with Disabilites     
 

Few restaurants or retail businesses can afford to shy away from nearly 20 percent of their potential customers, particularly in this economy. Yet consumers with physical or developmental disabilities -- who spend an estimated $175 billion a year -- aren't always served with respect or understanding.

"A lot of businesses don't look at people with disabilities as a marketplace," said JJ Hanley, founder of jjslist, a website that rates how local businesses accommodate what is the fastest-growing minority in the country. "There is true value in making their workplaces flexible and respectful of people with disabilities."

A volunteer-driven organization, jjslist is funded by donors with additional assistance from Hanley's savings account. A former securities trader and veteran documentary producer for Chicago-based Kartemquin Films, Hanley, 50, has a teenage son with autism.

While the original plan for jjslist involved professionally produced content, Hanley believes its current user-generated platform (like Yelp) is superior because businesses can communicate directly with their constituents. Pace suburban bus, for instance, is incorporating conversations with customers on jjslist within its overall marketing campaign to reach out to people with disabilities.

Hanley hopes to raise enough money in the coming years to take the service national.

"There is so much for neighborhood businesses to learn about people with disabilities," she said. "By doing so, there is almost nothing to be lost and everything to be gained."

>>> To Read Full Article

Remembering Smithsonian Exhibit from ADA's 10th Anniversary

By Kimberly Shearer Palmer, Washington Post Staff Writer (7.14.2000):

 

The Struggle for a Curbless World  

Around the corner from the massive American flag, symbol of the struggle for independence, and just next to the Greensboro lunch counter, from the first civil-rights sit-in, is a tombstone, which represents the thousands of unmarked graves of people with disabilities. It's part of a new exhibit that showcases the struggles of the disability rights movement.

"I don't know of any place in the country or world that has assembled an exhibit focusing on the disability movement as a coherent entity," said Jonathan Young, the White House liaison to the disabled community.

..."I can't even get to the back of the bus," reads a poster attached to a wheelchair in one of the photos. In another, showing a neatly mowed suburban street, a sign mandates, "No wheelchairs beyond this point." Personal objects include a letter from a school nurse encouraging a parents' group to help a disabled child, and a T-shirt that says, "Same struggle, different difference."

One of her respondents, disability rights leader Justin Dart, contributed his trademark cowboy hat and boots, as well as the pen President Bush used to sign the ADA into law. Visitors "will receive the strong message that people with disabilities are full citizens of the United States . . . because they are in the world's greatest history museum with artifacts of some of the greatest history makers in the world," Dart said. He called the exhibit a "landmark in the fulfillment of the American dream."

 

 

>>> To Read Full Article

 

 

Microsoft Helps Smithsonian Showcase History of Disability Rights Movement      

 

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 6, 2000 — When Katherine Ott, the Smithsonian Institution's curator for its new exhibition about the disability rights movement, wanted an object that would capture the importance of computers and technology for people with disabilities, she turned to Microsoft.
"The role of technology is really critical to the disability rights movement," Ott said.

 

Objects on view in the exhibition include the pen President George Bush used to sign the ADA into law, a Microsoft Windows 2000 CD and user manual, and one of the first ultra-light wheelchairs. Also included is a grave marker for a young woman with epilepsy who died while institutionalized and was buried, as were thousands of other people who died in institutions, with just a number on her marker. Her family has since replaced the original marker with one that has her name and the date of her death. In the Smithsonian's exhibit, the label identifying the original grave marker reads, "For some people, the struggle is simply to be seen as human."

..."Everyone can benefit from technology, but only if accessible and universal designs prevail," said Gary Moulton, group product manager at Microsoft. "Microsoft is defining, promoting and implementing accessible design to improve our own products and services and those throughout the high-tech industry."

 

In a speech to the Sensory Access Foundation in March, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates described a less visible "digital divide" that confronts people with disabilities. He said that one way of helping to narrow this digital divide is "to make sure that people with disabilities can be empowered through technology."

 

...Ott thinks that the Smithsonian show will be very powerful, as most museum visitors don't see disability as a civil rights issue, but as a medical problem. She feels that putting it in a civil rights context will educate people about the history of this important issue and movement.

 

>>> To Read Full Article

 

NY To Remove "Retardation" From Agency Name

By Cara Matthews,  Albany Watch (6.18.2010):

 

Legislation To Remove “Retardation” From Agency Name On Its Way To The Governor

 

The state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities will become the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities if Gov. David Paterson signs legislation that passed the Senate today and was previously approved in the Assembly. The name change would make it clear the agency serves people with all kinds of developmental disabilities and conditions, not just individuals with mental retardation.

 

The name was chosen with input from people with developmental disabilities, parents, providers and others, according to Senate Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Committee Chairman Thomas Morahan, R-New City, Rockland County.

 

“It is important that state and local laws, regulations, as well as future publications, be revised so that the use of the term ‘mental retardation and mentally retarded’ are removed except for clinical purposes as defined in the mental hygiene law.”

 

 

>>> To Read Full Article

 

 

Name Change at Agency to Remove ‘Retardation’
 
 

By Jane Gottlieb - New York Times  (6.7.2010):

 

ALBANY — For the second time in a year, New York legislators are considering changing the name of one of the only state agencies in the country with “retardation” still in its title.

The term, once viewed as clinical and neutral, is now considered so demeaning that leading advocacy groups in the state have promoted a campaign against it and have dropped the word from their own titles.

...“It really is upsetting to me because it’s not just a word anymore; it’s identifying who I am,” said David Liscomb, 63, a consultant and president of the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State, who has developmental disabilities. “I want to be identified as a person, and I don’t want the label on buildings and I don’t want the state calling me that.”

...The agency has worked since then to assuage fears that a new name would hinder services. “Our name may be changing, but who we are and what we do stays the same,” it said in a written statement.
...Some advocates say their hesitation to change the name is giving way. “Many years ago people weren’t speaking for themselves and now they are,” Mrs. Messier said. “We’ve worked very hard to give them that right, and they are saying they don’t like the denigrating language. To oppose this would be like clipping their wings.”

 

>>> To Read Full Article

Forced Institutionalization of People With Disabilities Is Illegal

By Gail Zoppo - Jun 25, 2010 from DiversityInc.

 

Forced Institutional of People with Disabilties is Illegal - DOJ and Federal

Court Ruling    

 

The U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., ruled this week that Michele Haddad must be provided with services that will allow her to stay in her home.

Although the 49-year-old woman has been on the waiting list for Medicaid community-based waiver services for two years and had alerted the state of her need, she was told that the requested services would only be available if she was admitted to a nursing home for 60 days.

In Haddad v. Arnold, the plaintiff argued that she would suffer irreparable harm if forced to enter a nursing home.

The court agreed, ordering the state to offer Haddad community-based services. The reason: Segregating people with disabilities is a form of discrimination, as found in Olmstead v. L.C.

"By supporting Ms. Haddad in this case, we seek to ensure that individuals with disabilities can receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate, where they can participate in their communities, interact with individuals who do not have disabilities and make their own day-to-day choices."

The Department of Justice's involvement in these cases reinforce the Obama administration's national efforts to protect the rights of all people.

"But our work is only one piece of a larger, administration-wide effort to make the promise of Olmstead a reality for individuals with disabilities nationwide.

>>> To Read Full Article

 

An Update on the Oil Spill: How Will this Affect our Health?

By Zoe Levenson, AAPD Policy Intern:

 

Health Effects of Oil Spill are Hard to Estimate   

 On June 16, 2010, AAPD attended a Congressional Hearing conducted by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health that addressed actions of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to identify and address potential health effects of the spill.  Panelists included John Howard, director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Mike Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Lisa Kaplowitz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and Aubrey Miller, Senior Medical Advisor for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

As we wrote previously, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is affecting hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities living and working along the Gulf Coast.  As BP, the federal government, and thousands of volunteers continue their efforts to clean up the spill, they are exposing themselves not only to the oil and natural gas but to the dispersant and other agents being used to clean up the spill.  The health of the over 13,000 BP and contracted workers, as well as that of the National Guard and volunteer responders, and others, may be at risk.

 Oil Spill off the Coast of Lousiana

Many of the hearing panelists made comparisons between the oil spill cleanup and the relief efforts after the attacks of September 11, 2001.  In both cases, responders arrived at the scene as part of their jobs or as volunteers, unsure what the acute and long-term health effects would be.  This comparison also covered the residents of the Gulf states, whose proximity to the disaster would also expose them to potential health risks.  The panel discussed concerns such as health surveillance, training for workers and volunteers, food safety, exposure to oil and volatile chemical agents used in cleanup efforts, psychological risks from experiencing trauma, and long-term monitoring. The panelists agreed that although HHS is taking extensive action across its departments, the health effects the spill will have on responders and residents are largely unknown.  Because there has never been a spill of this magnitude before, the effects of such large amounts of oil, dispersants, and other cleaning agents are difficult to estimate.

According to panelist John Howard, this could be especially problematic for children in the area: “Children tend to be more sensitive than adults to oil and other forms of pollution.  What might be annoying to an adult could be a real problem for a child, particularly if the child is an infant or toddler, or has a preexisting condition.”

Chances are, this statement also applies to the disability community.  People with physical disabilities or chronic health conditions may be more adversely affected by exposure to the oil spill, and some people with sensory or intellectual disabilities may have difficulty accessing crucial safety information if this information is not provided in alternative formats that are easy to understand.  The potential impact on the mental health of affected populations is another concern.  Panelist Aubrey Miller cited studies from comparable environmental catastrophes, explaining that many workers and residents affected by those incidents experienced mental health impairments such as depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Such research findings remind us of the importance of keeping longer-term, less obvious sequelae in mind, not just the immediate toxicity effects, when considering the overall human health impact of this type of disaster,” Miller said in his testimony.  The mental health effects may be more severe for those already living with psychiatric disabilities, just as the physical impact may specifically affect those with physical disabilities.  Overall, HHS must make specific efforts to protect and provide information to vulnerable populations, particularly those with disabilities. 

For JFA’s June 10 article about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: http://http://bit.ly/9FDJHF

To read more about the hearing and to see the panelists’ written statements: http://bit.ly/c0gQFs

For the official Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Unified Response site: http://bit.ly/bHo8be

For the FDA’s response: http://bit.ly/atqzNf

Smartphones Leave Behind the Blind Community

From The Bay Citizen (6.22.2010):

Smart Phones Flunk for Blind Users     

By JESSICA PORTNER

Smartphones can be pretty clueless when it comes to blind or visually impaired users.

For millions of consumers with normal vision, smartphones offer almost effortless conference calling, e-mailing and Internet browsing. They make it easy to find a gas station, a rental car or a recipe. Vast music libraries and video games are expected features for a device with a $200 to $600 price tag.

But for many in the blind and visually impaired community, the absence of physical buttons on most smartphones makes interactions with some devices virtually impossible.

Nowhere is the digital divide in the smartphone market more pronounced than between Apple and Google products.

Blind and visually impaired smartphone users offer near universal praise for the iPhone, whose 3GS has a built-in VoiceOver screen reader that enables all functions with a few taps, swipes or other gestures on the touch screen. On Google's Android phone, blind users can't e-mail or navigate the Internet.

Many consumers with visual impairments say they are being held back from equal participation in the digital revolution, denied tools their colleagues and competitors enjoy. Smartphones, they argue, are public accommodations, no different from building ramps or Braille on elevators.

“Our electronic, digital universe is changing so rapidly that these phones are as essential to our daily life as a curb cut would be,” said Brian Bashin, the CEO of the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco, an advocacy organization for the blind and visually impaired. “We shouldn’t have to play catch up with expensive modifications when it all should have been there right out of the box.”

...Jenifer Simpson, a former FCC official who is now the senior director of government affairs at the American Association of People with Disabilities, is frustrated that more companies are creating communications products that the FCC doesn’t currently regulate.

The question she wants companies to ask is, “Can Grandma give you a phone call on the smartphone you want to buy her for Christmas?”

>>> To Read Full Article and Watch a Video on this Topic

Come Celebrate: A Night to Remember

Disability Power & Pride (6.23.2010):

20TH Anniversery ADA GALA

National Press Club

Washington, DC

July 26, 2010 7 – 11 pm

Come celebrate

“A Night to Remember”

 

Join Disability Power & Pride, lead

sponsor AT&T, and other sponsors at our

Gala Celebration commemorating the

20th anniversary of the Americans with

Disabilities Act. This special evening

salutes the disability community’s

crowning achievement. Representatives

from Congress and the Administration

will attend the Gala, along with featured

performing artists. Fine food, great

company, good laughs, and lively dancing—

they’re all yours to enjoy as we come

together to celebrate our diversity and

showcase our Power & Pride.

 

Business attire.

 

Individual tickets are $100 and are available on a first-come first-served basis.

 

You can purchase them online at

www.mypowerandpride.com or call 1-877-693-7702

 

The National Press Club is located at 529 14^th Street NW and is easily accessible via Metrorail.

 

Sign language interpreters and CART will be available.

 

 Sponsors

Disability Power & Pride ($50,000)

AT&T

Disability Power ($25,000)

Esquire Bank

Disability Pride ($10,000)

NIB

Unifund

Gala Power & Pride ($5,000)

Bender Consulting

UCP

Gala Power ($2,500)

Disability Opportunity Fund

Gala Pride ($1,000)

AAPD

Gala Supporter ($500)

DREDF

Gallaudet University

Maggie & Larry Roffee

WID

 

In Kind Donors

NIB (Marketing Communications,

Merchandising, e-commerce Customer

Support and Event Planning)

Luis Hurtado (Web Development)

BNA Communications (Communications

and Graphic Design)

Joel Snyder (Audio Description)

VSA (Entertainment)

 

Sponsorships are available from

$50,000 to $1,000.

Supporter contributions are welcome

and start at $500.

For more information on becoming a

sponsor or supporter, please contact:

Nellie Wild

Disability Power & Pride

750 17th Street, NW. Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20006

Phone: 202-778-2306 or 202-61

org Or visit www.mypowerandpride.org

White House Appoints Deaf Fellow and Deaf Fitness Council Member

From THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (6.22.2010):

WHITE HOUSE APPOINTS 2010-2011 CLASS OF WHITE HOUSE FELLOWS 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the White House announced the appointment of 13 outstanding men and women to serve as White House Fellows. The White House Fellows come from diverse backgrounds, varied professions and all of the 2010-2011 Fellows have shown a strong commitment to public service and leadership. The 2010-2011 class of Fellows and their biographies are included below.
 
“This year’s White House Fellows are comprised of some of the best and brightest leaders in our country,” said First Lady Michelle Obama. “I applaud their unyielding commitment to public service and dedication to serving their community.”
 
The White House Fellows Program was created in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to give promising American leaders “first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the Federal government, and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs.” This unique position in our nation’s government encourages active citizenship and service to the nation. The Fellows also take part in an education program designed to broaden their knowledge of leadership, policy formulation, military operations, and current affairs. Community service is another important component of the program, and Fellows participate in service projects throughout the year in the Washington, D.C. area.
 
Selection as a White House Fellow is highly competitive and based on a record of remarkable early career professional achievement, evidence of leadership potential, a proven commitment to public service, and the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute successfully at the highest levels of the Federal government. Throughout its history, the program has fostered leaders in many fields including leaders in government, business, media, medicine, diplomacy and the military. Additional information about the White House Fellows program is available at http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/fellows..
 
2010-2011 Class of White House Fellows
 
...
 
Kubby Rashid, Jessup, MD. Kubby Rashid has been a member of the Gallaudet faculty since 1994, including a stint as Chair of the Department of Business <http://business.gallaudet.edu> . In addition to teaching, Dr. Rashid was active in faculty leadership and administration, and was co chair of a major initiative to reconfigure all academic programs at the University. Dr. Rashid served on the board of the World Deaf Leadership Program, guiding development projects for the deaf communities in South Africa and Thailand. She has also worked with individuals from many developing countries, helping deaf people learned to develop leadership skills and advocate for themselves. Dr. Rashid has previously been involved with the National Deaf Business Institute and taught several years for NDBI and Merrill Lynch's summer program for Deaf Business owners and would-be entrepreneurs. She was the first coordinator of the Bernstein Leadership Institute's Deaf Women's Leadership Program, and implemented the program and curriculum that form the core of the DWLP today. In 2008 she was appointed by Governor Martin O’Malley to a six year term on the Board of the Maryland School for the Deaf and also serves as a Board member of Discovering Deaf Worlds, an NGO dedicated to helping deaf people in developing countries.
 
....

>>> For the Original Release with a Full list of the Fellows

From THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary (June 23, 2010):

First Lady Launches President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition

Mrs. Obama joins Washington, DC-area kids to unveil expanded mission of Council, introduce 2010 Council Co-Chairs and Members

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, First Lady Michelle Obama joined kids from the Washington, DC area to launch the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and introduce the 2010 Council co-chairs and members. In conjunction with the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative, this year President Obama has broadened the scope of the Council, formerly known as the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, to include a focus on healthy eating as well as active lifestyles. Yesterday, the President signed an Executive Order outlining the Council’s new emphasis on both good nutrition and physical fitness...

“This year we’re expanding the work of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition to include not just a focus on active lifestyles, but on healthy eating, too,” Mrs. Obama said. “The Council will play an important role in our effort to help combat childhood obesity in this country and I am grateful to the athletes, chefs, doctors and nutrition experts who are volunteering their time on the Council to help make a difference.”

The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition is a committee of volunteer citizens who advise the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services about opportunities to develop accessible, affordable and sustainable physical activity, fitness, sports and nutrition programs for all Americans regardless of age, background or ability. The Council’s mission is to engage, educate and empower all Americans to adopt a healthy lifestyle that includes regular physical activity and good nutrition. For more information about the Council and its members, visit www.fitness.gov

In addition to its presidential advisory role, the Council promotes and maintains the President’s Challenge Physical Activity and Fitness Awards program (President’s Challenge) which encourages all Americans to include physical activity – 30 minutes per day for adults and 60 minutes per day for youth – in their daily lives. For more information about the President’s Challenge programs, visit www.presidentschallenge.org.

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition:...

Curtis Pride, Appointee for Member, President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition

Curtis Pride is the head baseball coach at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, and a retired Major League Baseball player. In 1996 as a member of the Detroit Tigers, Mr. Pride became the first regular full-season deaf player in the modern history of major league baseball. At the close of his career in 2008, he had played 421 games, achieved a .250 career batting average, 20 home runs, and 82 runs batted in. Prior to his professional career, his athletic proficiency spanned several sports. In high school he was a member of the U.S. soccer team that participated in the Junior World Cup in Beijing. In college he played part-time professional baseball for the Mets organization while also attending the College of William and Mary as a four-year starting point guard in basketball. In addition to coaching, Mr. Pride is active in the community, particularly with his Together With Pride foundation which aids hearing impaired children....

>>> For the Full Release