 |
Heartland
Independent Living Center (HILC)
representatives address Nike Elementary School
class
regarding Disability Awareness Education. Pictured
from left are HILC’s Laura Willhite, Mark Hulsey,
Maggie
Brooks, and Marcie Wallace with her guide
dog Porter.
|
Heartland
Independent Living Center (HILC) recently introduced students at the Nike
Elementary School in Catawissa to Marcie Wallace, her service dog Porter, and
Mark Hulsey. Wallace and Hulsey are individuals
with disabilities, Marcie is blind and Mark is a paraplegic. Both agree that their disability doesn’t make
them invalids, just different from other people. Both navigated the winding halls of Nike
Elementary, Mark with his electric wheelchair, and Marcie with Porter, who acts
as her eyes. Both have learned to adapt
to their disability in order to live independent lifestyles.
HILC is endeavoring
to get an important message across to children.
Disabled individuals are not to be scorned or bullied, but respected for
their ability to overcome whatever obstacles they may have. “They
have a heart, a brain, and feelings
just like you and I do,” explains HILC’s Laura Willhite. “Their disability
doesn’t make them any less of a person.”
To increase
awareness of people with disabilities, HILC has developed a Disability
 |
As a demonstration
of how one would function without the use of your right hand,
Nike Elementary School students try to unwrap
a piece of
candy with an oven mitt on one hand. Pictured from left
are Malia
Gall, Blake Gammill, Natalie Adams, MacKenzie
Collins, Shelby Kelemen, and Dasia Smith.
|
Awareness Education program, which makes presentations to area school children.
Research shows that understanding a disability can help a child identify and
empathize with others, and help prevent bullying and harassment in schools. Disability
awareness can also empower children with disabilities so they are more likely
to finish school, find a job,
and contribute to their community.
and contribute to their community.
A Robertsville
native, Mark attended
grade school in Lonedell. At St. Clair
High School, he became a
basketball celebrity lettering all four years at the
varsity level. Some years later, a fall resulted in a broken
neck leaving him with partial paralysis.
Mark didn’t let that stop him. He
sought assistance from Vocational Rehabilitation and HILC and learned how to
adapt his lifestyle to accommodate his disability. Mark continued to pursue his ambitions
graduating from East Central College and Missouri Baptist University. With adaptive equipment, he is able to use
his computer and telephone to communicate, and his electric wheelchair to get
around. He also drives his own van, equipped
with adaptive operating controls. Mark currently sits as President of the Board
of Heartland Independent Living Center.
 |
Heartland Independent Living Center representatives Mark Hulsey and
Marcie Wallace, along with her guide dog Porter, talk with Nike Elementary
School students about disability awareness.Pictured from left are Guidance
Counselor Melinda Maylee, Julia Thomas, Principal Lisa Weirich, Dalton
Roth, Trevor Hill, and Tristin Herrin.
|
Although blind
since birth, Marcie is also no couch potato. A graduate of the Missouri School
for the Blind in St. Louis, Marcie continued her education at St. Louis College
of Business and Vanderschmitt School of Business in St. Louis. Her loyal
companion and service dog, Porter, guides her through daily living activities. Marcie and Porter come to work daily at HILC where,
along with other office duties, she translates written materials into Braille. When asked if there’s anything that she can’t
do, Marcie replies, “It’s a nuisance not to be able to drive a car, but I don’t
let that stand in the way of my life’s goals.”