If you don’t know about Citizen Advocacy, the description at Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy tells you just about everything you need to know:
Citizen advocacy is built on one-to-one, freely-given personal relationships between two people. One is a person with a disability who has been excluded from typical community life and the other is a person living a good, ordinary life here in our community. Friendship, spokesmanship, social support, and social change can all emerge from these intentional relationships.
I’ve been involved with Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy in various capacities for over a decade, including now as a member of the program committee
On Thursday night, CSCA hosted its 34th Annual Covered Dish Supper with something over 300 guests — surely one of the biggest potlucks you’ll find anywhere. For a number of years now, the event has been at Savannah Station.
As usual, the evening’s focus was on community. There was music by Soap beforehand, and the supper itself was bookended as usual by group singings of “Imagine” and “Lean On Me”.
After dinner, four citizen advocates and two of their proteges shared a little of their stories.
Coincidentally, one of the most compelling stories to come out of the local Citizen Advocacy office will be premiered on stage later today (Saturday). Click here for a little bit about the Cincinnati production of Welcome Home, the story of Waddie Welcome.
I took my camera on Thursday. I haven’t taken the time to identify all the people in the following pics, but this is a case where the names are less important than the visuals. You’ll see here the band Soap, as well as photos that include the following: Tom Kohler, Robin Gunn, Stephanie and Garner Mobley, David Acuff and Jerome Meadows, Ariel Janzen, Zim, Lyle Mackenzie and Brad Baugh, Carmela Aliffi, Beth Mount, Wade Herring, Boston Derst, Ann Curry and Enoch Hendry, Tom Lamar and Preston Hodges, Jamie Marie Smith, Delores Wilson and Richard Lane, Regina Thomas, plus other assorted people and group shots during the singing. There were a couple of official photographers there too, so I’m sure there are a lot of great images on the way.
This is what our community looks like when everyone is welcome.
