Thank You, Volunteers!

Two of ABLE Youth’s volunteers were recently recognized at the Franklin Tomorrow Exemplary Community Volunteer Awards. Will Bell was a winner of the Emerging Leader Award for starting ABLE Youth’s alumni volunteer group, having alumni volunteers at every Super Sports Saturday since its founding, giving our current kids the opportunity to see successful adults with disabilities to emulate along their journeys and to learn sports and independence skills from other people who live life with a disability, too. The alumni volunteer group is also active in attending community events where they speak to attendees about ABLE Youth and their own personal growth as a participant. Mary Jackson Tatum was a winner of the Youth Initiative Award for creating a volunteer group for high schoolers where they come to Super Sports Saturdays and teach our kids new sports to our program that they themselves play. Not only do our kids learn new sports, but also, often because of accessibility issues, kids with and without disabilities don’t get as many opportunities to get to know one another in school. This program creates bonds between kids with and without disabilities and has the power to change the opportunities kids with disabilities get in the future, as some of the volunteers learn about the capabilities of people with disabilities for the first time, opening the door for things like those same kids being eager to hire people with disabilities as future adults when often people with disabilities have a difficult time getting a job. We are so proud and grateful for Will and Mary Jackson. Mary Jackson is picture with ABLE Youth’s Executive Director, Amy Saffell, and Franklin Tomorrow’s Executive Director, Mindy Tate. Will was unable to attend because he is graduating from law school in a few short weeks and had class to attend. When that was announced from the Master of Ceremonies and the acknowledgement that missing a day of law school isn’t something he would advise, the crowd acknowledged Will’s dedication with a rousing round of applause.