Recently, I was thrilled to be the recipient of the "Ray Brien Agency Leadership Award" presented to me by Caroline Burns at  Berkshire United Way's 80^th Annual Meeting and named in honor of Ray Brien.  Ray taught us that things can be done; he was a man of great vision.    The following are some of the remarks that I shared at the Annual Meeting:

It is extremely meaningful to me that our Administrative Staff nominated me for this award.  We have a fantastic team that has worked so hard together to develop the agency.  Our 450 staff that are highly dedicated and  generally underpaid make me look good every day;  they are the reason that I have received this award.
I would like to share with you a few of my heroes.  Fred (not his real name), lived at Belchertown State School for 29 years.  That's longer than Nelson Mandela was in jail.  At Belchertown, he had few choices in his life.  He was told what he would wear, what he would eat, who he would live with, and how he would spend his time, usually in a workshop, putting things together and then taking them apart again.  In the 1970's Fred moved to Pittsfield into the first group home in western Massachusetts.  It was run by Berkshire County Arc.  Fred did so well, he was then moved to our Co-Ops Apartment Program when it was opened.  He had his own apartment with a staff on duty 24 hours a day to support him.  A few years later, Fred was able to move to his own independent apartment, with support only on a once or twice a week basis.  Today, Fred could tell you he has been employed by a local hotel for over 25 years and lives independently in his own apartment.  His present life is a long way from his days at Belchertown.  Now that's a hero!
I can also tell you about Gene, who is deaf, and was moved from institution to institution before coming to Berkshire County Arc in 1987.  Prior to arriving, Gene had experienced very few successes.  Today, Gene lives in a beautiful home in Lanesboro that he is very proud of.  He works full time at Zip 'N Sort Mail Services and is gifted artist, taking lessons from Community Access to the Arts.  I could go on with story after story.  Our agency has over 100 individuals with disabilities working in the community.  We also run 32 community residences and Zip 'N Sort Mail Services.  These successes are what make me love my job and makes leading our agency so wonderful.  I am as motivated and passionate for my work today as I was 24 years ago when I began working at Berkshire County Arc.  This is thanks to those that we serve and our dedicated staff and Board.
I truly appreciate this great recognition by the United Way.  For those that we serve to be successful, they must be accepted as part of this community.  For that to happen, our agency also needs to be accepted as part of this community.  The United Way has helped us reach this goal. I appreciate the support that Dan Dillon and the United Way have given our agency.  Thank you all so very much for this wonderful honor.