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thanks for joining usthank you for having me so you have a special event coming up yes
we do tell us a little bit about itwere very excited about it a resource fair for persons
with disabilities the coalition for persons with disabilties coordinates that in associtation
with erinoak we bring together fifty exhibitors all of wich have products or services somehow
related to persons with disabilities how did this idea get going Umm the first event would
have been eight years ago and some representatives from erinoak got together with some people
from the coalition and decided that they would like to bring together some services to let
the people in the community know what was available to them And how long have you been
involved um Ive been involved um in the begining I was involved as an exhibitor I was working
for participation house which was an organization that provided support services to persons
with disabilities so um intially I was there as an exhibitor and um for the past couple
years Ive gotten the oportunity to ah coordinate the event so uh there are fifty exhibitors
you said thats right tell us some of the products or services that they have um as far as products
we have all sorts of adaptive equipment there is the latest in wheelchairs some types of
medical type equipment and um things people would use around the home or work so thats
the kind of adaptive equipment we have we also services such as housing support or income
support or employment support programs that help persons with disabilities find employment
so how many people would normaly attend am it varies year to year um its kinda spread
out over the course of the day so people could come and go but probably a couple hundred
people would come through there and ah so this isnt just for persons with disabilities
no no absolutley not its open to anybody who has an interest in that field works in the
field or perhaps has family that has a disability so there are hundreds of people who attend
and with different products and services what can they gain from going to the um event for
the public its a great chance to learn about whats available in your community you could
come see what housing might be available or programs that might be benifical to you even
some social and recreation programs that are out there that people might not know about
otherwise camps or sportsgroup that are all um disabilty related for people working in
the field its a great chance to see what services are out there great chance to network with
other types of programs now you mentioned sports groups what kind of sports groups Uh
hum i just recently had the sledgehockey association thats registared to be an exhibitor there
they are going to bring one of there hockey sledges with them so thats a great chance
for people to actually try it out or see what that programs about sledgehockey ive seen
that played that looks very difficult have you ever no ive never tried it myself but
it looks very interesting something to try so something new at the show this year a new
thing this year is um first of all were bringing in the erinoak home and modification day which
is a program that used to run on its own this year weve made it part of the event so it
adds a new dimension to the connections resource fair what that is on a friday its geared to
professionals that work in that kind of field but on the saturday were going to have some
seminars at ten thirty and twelve thirty for the public to come and sit in on and they
can learn about home modification as well as vehicle modifications alright well thank
you so much that is the 2007 resource fair for persons with disabilitie�