Dawn Scott - Children and Youth Program |
Meet Dawn Scott; a mother of five and an imperative part of the Lighthouse Team since January 2020. Dawn works in the Children and Youth Program as head of the Babies and Toddlers services. Due to the Pandemic, the Babies and Toddlers program was put on hold and the Children and Youth program began prioritizing summer camps, online challenges and additional ways for the children involved to be (virtually) active in their communities during the pandemic. Dawn quickly jumped to action and began creating new and exciting challenges and activities, resulting in the busiest summer the Children and Youth program has ever seen. As her ideas became reality, she says “The most exciting part of the job is to see all my ideas from conception all the way through to completion.”
After earning her associates in Early Childhood and a Bachelors in Families and Human Development, Dawn learned about the Lighthouse and began keeping an eye out for jobs specific to her talents. When a position finally opened and she applied, she received a call from Cindy to discuss the opportunity. At the end of the call, Dawn expressed “I am visually impaired” to which Cindy replied saying “So? A lot of people here are!”
Dawn enjoys helping the children in the program be able to have access to assistive technology, since she did not have access to those technologies when she was a child and in school. When asking Dawn about her experience with working at the Lighthouse, she expresses with a large smile “best place to work in the city. No kidding! Best job in the city.” Dawn says her job is empowering, exciting and creative. She has experienced mindset of “defeating challenges” as a blind person, but explains how the Lighthouse has “…The opposite attitude. Blind people can do anything. There is no more “I cant’s.”
Dawn has gone from scouting jobs at the Lighthouse, making waves for our Children and Youth Programs. Thank you for all of your hard work and excellent service Dawn, the Lighthouse wouldn’t be the same without you.
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Some time ago I read a short article about teamwork - by Don Mattingly (former NY Yankee baseball hero). As a NY Yankee, Don won baseball’s Golden Glove Award in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994. By any account, you’d consider him a superstar, seemingly standing alone in the winner’s circle. But read what Don has to say about teamwork. |
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“Team sports are really difficult things. Sometimes your team wins because of you – and sometimes in spite of you…
and sometimes it’s like you’re not even there.
I don’t know why or how, but I eventually came to understand what ‘team’ meant.
It meant that although I didn’t get a hit, or make a great defensive play,
I could impact my team in other ways.
I could impact my team by caring, first and foremost,
about the team’s success and not my own.
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I don’t mean rooting for us like a typical fan. Fans are fickle.
I mean CARE – really care about the team…about ‘us’.
And in doing so, I became less selfish, less lazy and less sensitive to negative comments.
When I gave up me, I became more.
I became a captain, a leader and a better person.
I came to understand that life is a team game.
Most people don’t realize this.
Someone should tell them.
It has made all the difference in the world to me.
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COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS SPOTLIGHT |
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Orientation and Mobility Helps in Guadalajara |
As the pandemic hit, there was a brief moment of panic, but quickly the Lighthouse programs and services staff leaped into action. With that they discovered that taking things virtual opened a whole new world of opportunity for helping individuals who are blind and vision impaired.
During this time, Ms. Barragan was a stay at home mom in Guadalajara, Mexico and had dedicated her life to taking care of her son, 3 year old Luis Carlos, who is blind. Unfortunately, there aren't many resources available for the visually impaired in Mexico. Although they have an amazing school for the blind in Guadalajara, there are no resources available to equip families with low vision aids. At the start of the pandemic, Luis Carlos worked with a counselor and a therapist regularly, but due to COVID there wasn't much help being offered other than counseling. Ms. Barragan expressed concern with Luis Carlos’ mobility and began searching for help from organizations. Ms. Barragan’s aunt, who lives in San Antonio, connected her with the Lighthouse’s Children’s and Orientation & Mobility Programs.
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Ms. Barragan did not give up hope and came up with her own nursery rhymes and different activities to be able to engage her son and asses his vision. She created her own tactile toys and exercises to promote fun, awareness, and self-exploration. Improving his mobility was also a big focus of daily activities. Once connected with the Lighthouse, Daisy Garcia from the Children’s Program and Rene Perez with the O&M Program, they worked collaboratively to assess Luis Carlos’ current vision and mobility all through ZOOM technology! A low vision mobility aid (seen in the picture) was purchased by the Lighthouse to help motivate movement and mobility for Luis Carlos. Working with Ms. Barragan and Luis Carlos was a true joy for both Daisy and Rene! She mentioned several times that she couldn't wait to be able to visit us in San Antonio and bring Luis Carlos to work with the O&M Team once he gets older. Due to the help of the Lighthouse, Ms. Barragan hopes to one day move to San Antonio so she can give her son more opportunity to become an independent and thriving member of our community.
Distance did not stop the Lighthouse teams from reaching our mission….serving those who need us most!
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