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Our teacher in high school was still friends with a lot of us who had graduated and she
met Leigh Ann Rusche, who was from Nebraska. She had come down to the Illinois and talk
about why wasn't there a self-advocacy movement in Illinois. She asked us to come to UIC and
meet People First of Canada and talk about the self-advocacy movement there and meet
Leigh Ann. And so we went to Chicago to meet her. But actually when I first met her I didn't
want to talk to her because she was another authority figure and I didn't want her telling
me what to do with my life. I was like, “Another person going to tell me what to do with my
life.” I am not gonna say too much to her. So basically I just answered "yes" and "no"
questions. She thought I didn't know how to speak. Even then we didn't know what it was.
We just knew they had great stuff we wanted: t-shirts, jackets, and that kind of stuff.
They had t-shirts and jackets –advocacy t-shirts that said People First. We wanted
their stuff so we wanted to join. They did a little bit and then Leigh Ann brought in
Nancy and this other girl, Mary Lou, from Nebraska. So we mostly got a lot of other
stuff from Nebraska. Leigh Ann lived in Nebraska and worked for Shirley Dean who was another
person who was involved in advocacy movement. In Nebraska people were treated a lot different
in the disability movement. So Leanne was surprised when she moved here about how different
it was in how people were treated. Here it was like a whole new world. People with disabilities
were more respected there. When you first start out I think it is always important to
get to know the people and do things together where we would get to know each other and
work with each other a little bit –learning to work as a team. Dr. Braddock asked her
to come work at the University of Illinois. And she said she wouldn't work without someone
who had a disability with her because she didn't believe in taking that kind of job
without a person with a disability. If you're showing how to make a movement in Illinois,
or how to make a movement wherever you are, and showing the relationship between people
with and without disabilities, you should set the example of how you are going to do
that at the place you’re starting. So we started a self-advocacy support project. That
is what it was called at the University of Illinois at Chicago. And that is what Dr.
Braddock basically agreed to commit to develop the self-advocacy movement there, along with
Cathy Ficker-Terrell, who was at that time part of the DD Council. Then people were asking
to come together and talk about forming a state organization. So we met a long time
with them to learn about incorporation, what it would take to incorporate and all the stuff
that went along with that. So we had to do stuff like sell t-shirts to raise money to
incorporate. And one of the things that Leanne did where she wanted to make sure we learn
all the steps instead of doing it for us. You know, some group's support people just
fill out all the forms and send it in, but she wanted to make sure people understood
what it was and so it was really our group.