FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: “Dare to Dream” Event
Local Disability Organization’s “Dare to Dream” Fund Provides Area Resident Opportunity to Achieve a Life-Long Dream
Three Rivers Center for Independent Living provides financial support for participant in the Living Well With A Disability program to skydive!
PITTSBURGH – Bill Tatters, a forty-seven year old Armstrong County resident and consumer of TRCIL’s Living Well With A Disability program, after two rain delays, will realize his childhood dream of skydiving on Friday, September 16, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. at Skydive Pennsylvania, Grove City Airport, 496 Old Ash Road, Mercer, PA 16137 (weather permitting).
Bill Tatters fondly recalls watching war movies with his father as a child and always desiring to become a paratrooper for the U.S. Military. However, twenty-two years ago Bill sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as a result of an accident which shattered his military aspirations. Now, with the financial support of TRCIL’s “Dare to Dream” fund, Bill will be taking a tandem jump which provides the first-time jumper the chance to skydive with little training. Bill and his instructor will freefall together for 45 to 60 seconds then fly the canopy to landing. This “ultimate rush”, according to Bill, is a “life goal and shows persons with disabilities can do whatever they want.” TRCIL’s “Dare to Dream” fund will assist Bill in this endeavor as his family and friends gather to witness the event.
Three Rivers Center for Independent Living was the second Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Pennsylvania to offer the innovative Living Well With A Disability program. The concept was first developed by the Center for Independent Living of Central Pennsylvania (CILCP) in 2007 as a resource for anyone with any type of disability to reach short-term and long-term goals, beyond the realm that service providers generally offer, ranging from the achievement of dreams and aspirations to enhancing the quality of life. TRCIL launched Living Well With A Disability in Western PA in September 2008. The “Dare to Dream” campaign is unique to TRCIL and was introduced in November 2009 as a fundraising effort to provide financial support to qualified individuals who need assistance in making their own Living Well With A Disability goals a reality. The proceeds from all of TRCIL’s fundraising events benefit “Dare to Dream”.
Three Rivers Center for Independent Living, with its headquarters located at 900 Rebecca Avenue, Pittsburgh, is a federally-funded, consumer-controlled, community-based, cross-disability, non-residential, private non-profit organization designed and operated by individuals with disabilities and provides an array of independent living services. TRCIL’s mission is “to empower people with disabilities to enjoy self-directed, personally meaningful lives by providing outstanding consumer-controlled services and by advocating for effective community change.” TRCIL’s vision “is a world in which all physical, attitudinal, communication and systems barriers are eliminated and people with disabilities have equal opportunities and the right to full participation in society.” TRCIL is the federally-designated CIL for Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties and also provides an array of additional services throughout Western Pennsylvania, with satellite offices in Greensburg, Washington and New Castle.
For more information about this event or the “Dare to Dream” fund, contact TRCIL at 412.371.7700 ext. 147, TTY 412.371.6230 or email sholbrook@trcil.org. For more information about the Living Well With A Disability program, contact Cindy Williams or visit www.LivingWellWithADisability.org.
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