Heidi has a BS in Civil Engineering from Purdue. After the birth of her son Jacob, she elected to stay home to ensure his needs were met. Heidi is very involved in many organizations;last year she was appointed by the Governorâs office to be on 3 Medicaid Reform committees, looking at overhauling the entire Medicaid system.Heidi currently has an advocacy distribution list of over 2,500 members to promote awareness of the advocacy issues that affect children and adults w/ disabilities & empower parents. March 8, 2007
Dearest Advocates:
As many of you know, I sent out an email a few days ago expressing concerns about Alpharetta City Council’s continued partnership/support with North Metro Miracle League (NMML) and the construction of the
First of all, I want to personally thank all the families and friends that attended the City Council meeting on Monday and sent e-mails of support. We packed the court room (estimates are over 100+)! The Mayor even commented on receiving over 300+ at the meeting! I think this shows the communities concern with the issues. It was obvious from that Council meeting that more needs to be done to “help” educate our elected officials on the needs of individuals with disabilities and their families and the support of the entire community!
The city continues to talk in vague terms about a “process” that needs to be completed (citizens survey, assessment,etc) to prepare a “master plan”. Unfortunately, NMML (and the City thru Block Grants) has $47,000 to possibly lose due to the lack of support in a timely matter to support the final construction phase of the Sports Complex.
Facts:
- The partnership between NMML and the city is a win/win situation.
- Good business decisions. In past, the City invested 10% (via Community Development Block Grants) of the cost of the Sports Complex and now is worth over $2.0 million (rate of return on investment of 900%)!
- The Sports Complex has added value to the City and allowed all its citizens to benefit from this facility to date.
- Sports Court Delay…… If the City does not make timely decisions now, NMML will loose this opportunity for Alpharetta to have a
- Our families need sports programming options. NMML goal is to provide programming that offers a variety of more appropriate challenges for children and adults with disabilities. Baseball is not a “one size fits all” answer to the multitude of challenges the NMML athletes face. We are very appreciative of the work so far but we need to do more. A choice of sports programming will allow parents and coaches to find the right match between a person’s disability and an adapted sports program that will maximize the improvement in that persons physical, social and coping skills.
- The multi-use
Action Items Needed By YOU:
A. Please take a moment if you have not already done so and send an email to
+ Appreciation of the City partnering with NMML and continuing that relationships in the future. It’s a win/win!
+Question the Council on: What are the timeframes for completing the citizen’s survey and needs assessment? (The Council still has not given us any timeframes of the process and only talked in the general terms. We need answers!)
+ Overall- need for more sports programming opportunities in the community for individuals with disabilities.
+ Please make your e-mail/ phone calls are personal. Explain the impact this has on your family.
The following is a link to contact information for the Alpharetta City Council and Mayor: http://www.alpharetta.ga.us/index.php?p=29.
Please copy John (jettjock@mindspring.com) (ED for NMML) or myself (heidijmoore@comcast.net) on your emails.
B. If you are an Alpharetta Resident, please participate in the Citizens Survey when you receive it in the mail. I received mine yesterday. Specifically, Question D9: “Do you or any member your family have a disability? And Question D10: “Do you think Alpharetta meets the needs of people with disabilities?” THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM US!!!!
In addition, Revue and News Newspaper had an article in today’s newspaper entitled “Miracle League told to wait -City Council sticks to process before giving OK to
Also send an email to the reporter, Bob Pepalis, bob@northfulton.com thanking him for the coverage of the situation and why it is so important to the disability community. The article did not totally represent the facts to the situation and NMML plans on writing a letter to help clarify the true issues.
(Heidi’s Comments:......NMML has been communicating well with the Council on this issue, unfortunately, the Council has not done a good job communicating within itself! )
There was also an article on Page 2 of the Alpharetta Neighbor yesterday. Unfortunately, it is not on there website www.neighbornewspapers.com. The reporter, Amber Summers did a great job explaining the concerns of the community on this issue. Please take a moment and thank them for their coverage of the situation: nfulton@neighbornewspapers.com.
Even if you don’t live in Alpharetta, NMML works with families all over the Metro Atlanta area and needs your help. Thanks in advance for your help in this matter. UNITED…. WE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Sincerely,
Heidi
For more information on NMML go to: www.nmml.net . It truly is a wonderful organization that has helped an entire community with the acceptance of individuals with disabilities and seeing our children for their abilities NOT disabilities!
Heidi J. Moore
(Proud Mother to Jacob - 7 years old with Down syndrome & Jared - 5 years old)
For more information about how you can get involved regarding advocating for children, please visit us at www.kidshealthcarega.org
"Help The Children Now, So They Can Help Themselves Later!"
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