Citrus
County Chronicle July 30, 2006
By Cristy Loftis
Thank you just isn’t a big
enough phrase to thank a community for raising more than $3 million in
30 years.
Key Training Center Director
Chet Cole explained it’s the tremendous support from Citrus County
residents that ensures those with disabilities are treated with
kindness, love, dignity and respect.
On Saturday, the Key Training
Center ended its annual Run for the Money event with a community
celebration and telethon, which raised a record $165,727.
“We’ve made achievements
because of the unusual and beautiful relationship we have with the
community,” Cole said.
The Key Center is Citrus
County’s provider of services for nearly 300 developmentally disabled
citizens. Services cover a variety of areas, including pre-vocational
training, therapies, housing, recreational activities, job coaching and
basically anything that will help Key clients live and work as
independently as possible.
Run for the Money and the
annual telethon help raise money to support 40 Key clients who do not
receive financial support from their families or social services.
On Monday, Citrus County
Sheriff Jeff Dawsy began the Run for the Money by leaving the Capitol
steps in Tallahassee on foot — literally running from Tallahassee.
Deputies and volunteers from Citrus Road Runners took turns completing
the 180-mile trek.
Saturday, runners met Key
Clients in Lecanto to run the last few yards together, ending a weeklong
journey.
Lt. James Martone said the
grueling July run may be tough, but is symbolic of the daily struggle
people with disabilities encounter.
“It’s just a blessing to be
able to give back,” Martone said after meeting a cheering crowd at Key.
“I’m not in the shape I used to be in, but my pain is nothing compared
to what the clients go through on a daily basis.”
Throughout the day, people
milled through the Key Training Center’s grounds playing human foosball
and softball, riding on the RE/Max Realty One hot air balloon and
playing games and dancing in the Key Center’s new building.
Key Client Susan “Suzie”
Hammer, 64, spent the day walking around with her brother and
sister-in-law, Cliff and Wallie Hammer. Susan has lived in one of the
Key Center’s group homes for about two years.
Suzie likes to embroider and
enjoys working at her first job in the Key Training Center’s workshop.
Saturday she looked forward to spinning the “Wheel of Fortune” in the
recreational center, where the coveted prize was a Hawaiian lei.
“I’m good at anything,” Suzie
said. She’s earned many achievement certificates that hang on the wall
in her bedroom.
Cliff and Wallie both
volunteer at Key and said they feel blessed to have met so many
wonderful people who really care about Suzie.
“I think the most important
factor was that if something happened to us, Suzie would be cared for,”
Wallie said, “and happy.”
Cole wanted to stress that
while Citrus County has taken stock in the success and well-being of the
mentally and physically challenged, the fight for better conditions is
never over. Currently, about 17,000 people with disabilities are on
Florida’s Medwaiver waiting list to receive funding for critical
services.
“These people can achieve
wonderful things in their own lives if we just reach out and help,” Cole
said. “The goal is no one goes without having everything that they
need.”
