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I got involved with Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM) and Disability Advocacy in 1977
when Deborah Nebel, who was at that time our church deaconess, who had been involved with LMM because of her father
who was disabled. *** Sering (LMM Fmr. Exec. Dir.) contacted Deborah to find out if there was any other people
who might be interested in getting involved in a task force to help churches become more accessible.
And the way that came about was, there was a gentleman whose son was a gymnast at Cleveland Heights High School
and one day he was practicing in the gym on the trampoline unsupervised.
And he was jumping and he came down... hit the side rail of the trampoline in the neck area
and became an instant quadriplegic. Well his father contacted LMM to see if *** Sering or LMM had any programs
to go about helping churches, looking for churches, predominantly Lutheran churches, that were accessible.
So *** Sering contacted Deborah Nebel and other people he knew that had involvement with disabilities.
And at the time I was still working for the school system so I couldn't attend the first few meetings,
so my mother sat in on the first two meetings and then I was able to sit in on the rest of them.
The group became known as the Disabled Ministry Task Force, and that group basically worked with churches
to help them make them bemore accessible, to more involve people with disabilities
in the church service and in the life of the congregations.
The one big thing that the Disabled Ministry Task Force did
they started what was known as an Ecumenical Worship Service by and with persons with disabilities.
And this was in conjunction with the Catholic Diocese. And every year, there would be a service
either at a Lutheran accessible church or at an accessible Roman Catholic Church,
and it would be totally done by people with disabilities. They would do the readings, they would do the singing.
In fact there was a choir group which I was a member of, and we called ourselves "Three Blind Mice Plus One."
Since I'm not the "Blind" I was the "Plus One." So we did that,
and it went for about six, seven years. It was very popular and very well attended.