A Special Evening with the Pointer Sisters “Jumps” at the Winspear Opera House and Reveals Many Surprise Announcements
Event was hosted by Alliance Data and benefited Special Care & Career Services Which Announced Name Change to LaunchAbility
Walgreens Received Awards Honoring Partnership with Special Care & Career Services’- Now LaunchAbility - Work Readiness Program
(March 26, 2010) It was an evening of exciting announcements at A Special Evening with the Pointer Sisters hosted by Alliance Data at the Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performance Center recently. The event benefited Special Care & Career Services – which announced their name change to LaunchAbility.
As guests entered the Winspear, they were greeted with an opportunity to video their Happy Birthday wishes to Ebby Halliday, the evening’s honorary chair, who was celebrating her 99th birthday the next day.
After the birthday cake celebration back stage, the crowd took their seats in the sold-out concert hall. Jody Dean, from the morning team of KLUV 98.7 FM, presenting sponsor and emcee, welcomed all and served as auctioneer in the live auction.
Walgreens corporate local and national were chosen to receive two awards from LaunchAbility in 2010 for their outstanding support in advancing the opportunities for people with disabilities to find employment that will provide them real opportunities to be self-sufficient.
The Milton P. Levy Jr. Award recipient was Randy Lewis, Senior Vice President Supply Chain and Logistics for Walgreens corporate and the Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award went to Walgreens’ leadership team at the Distribution Center in Waxahachie. Randy is an example of one man making a difference for many by implementing Walgreens' corporate-wide initiative to hire 100 people with developmental disabilities at their distribution centers.
In working with Scott Tisdall and his team at Walgreens Distribution Center in Waxahachie on this initiative, they have shown us that the spirit of this initiative is corporate-wide.
The Work Readiness program includes groundbreaking training that includes occupational therapists to improve ability for hires with disabilities to perform in a 40 hour/week job. And now, they are expanding to retail training from warehouse jobs.
Sharon Herrin, President, Board of Trustees, LaunchAbility, presented the Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award to Walgreens. Accepting on their behalf were Erv Siemoneit, Marketing Vice President and Randy Lewis, Senior Vice President Supply Chain and Logistics for Walgreens corporate.
LaunchAbility created the Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award in 2008 to recognize Alliance Data’s years of outstanding multi-dimensional support, for their generous financial support as well as their long-time commitment to the agency through volunteer hours and employment of our Supported Employment clients.
Alan Utay of Alliance Data presented the Milton P. Levy, Jr. Award to Randy Lewis, individually. The award was specially designed for LaunchAbility by Brad Oldham.
Since 2002 Special Care & Career Services – now LaunchAbility - has named an individual as the Milton P. Levy, Jr. Award recipient. This award is presented to someone who has shown leadership in the community in support of our mission to build independence for children and adults with disabilities.
It was exciting to hear Randy speak about Walgreens’ commitment to LaunchAbility’s programs.
“So far out of the 10,000 who work in our distribution centers across the U.S., 750 have disabilities (vs goal of 1,000 by end of 2010). We’ll set a goal of 3,000 by 2015. All earn the same pay, perform same jobs, are held to same standards and work side-by-side with those without disabilities – a completely inclusive workplace. In our Waxahachie center almost 10% of our 700 employees have disabilities.
“We’ve just initiated a pilot in the Dallas-Fort Worth market to train and hire people with disabilities in our stores, too. This is only in the initial stages but we selected the DFW area because of the Texas can-do attitude amongst our 200 area stores. Once we get it right in DFW, we’ll move it out to our remaining 7,000 stores across the country. A big idea and big goal for sure. But that’s what Texas has always thrived on.”
The video “Launching Into a New Era” told the audience about LaunchAbility and its mission and just afterwards, Cathy Packard announced the name change from Special Care & Career Services to LaunchAbility.
“Our new name is designed to reinforce our agency focus on the unique abilities of our clients and our commitment to helping each of them reach their maximum potential to lead independent, fulfilling and TRULY self-sufficient lives,” she said. “I’d like to update you on what our Board and Staff are planning for the future. We’ve proven that we can make an impact as an independent non-profit. We cherish the fact that we have the flexibility to be innovative and strive always to look for new ways to improve the options for successful lives for our uniquely able clients. We also look for opportunities to collaborate with sister agencies, the government and business because it’s the best way to maximize resources and build a stronger community.
“Examples of our innovation and collaborative spirit are:
Our new Child Care ChampionsTM program that we developed in partnership with Texas Association of Infant Mental Health, Brookhaven College, and ChildCareGroup, and
Our Work Readiness Training for adults with disabilities that was designed at the request of the Texas Department of Rehabilitative Services (DARS) and Walgreens.
“Both of these new programs are self–funding, meaning we don’t need to raise community dollars to run them. This underscores our belief that in order to continue to expand and offer best of breed programs we must strive to reduce our dependence on fundraising. Watch for our newest venture for 2010, The Academy, providing job skills training to adults with cognitive disabilities hosted at a large hospital.”
Event co-chairs, Elizabeth and Eric Gambrell welcomed everyone and worked with Jody Dean to draw for the raffle prize winners. Then the Pointer Sisters took the stage and rocked the audience with such favorites as “He’s So Shy,” “Automatic,” “Fire,” and more, capping it off with an encore of “Jump,” that brought the entire audience to its feet.
A fun, exciting evening for all!
About A Special Evening with the Pointer Sisters and LaunchAbility:
This was the 9th annual fundraising event benefiting LaunchAbility. In addition to raising community awareness about the agency, the event raises proceeds to assist LaunchAbility in continuing its 46 year mission to build independence for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Over the past eight years A Special Evening has raised more than $1.8 million and allowed us to continually expand our programs. Our programs are setting new growth records every year and we continue to gain state and national recognition for our innovative programming and training. The proceeds from A Special Evening directly benefit LaunchAbility’s Supported Employment Services (SES) and Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) programs.
SES helps capable people with cognitive disabilities (such as Down syndrome, Cerebral palsy, Autism, and others) train for, find and keep good jobs.
Our ECI program provides teams of specialists to work with babies and toddlers with developmental disabilities and delays to give them a greater chance for success in school. A new program, Child Care ChampionsTM was launched in Fall 2009.
This is a collaborative program designed to fill a gap in childcare training. This program will improve the quality of child care across Dallas County by teaching child care workers how to identify and effectively interact with babies and toddlers with both typical and atypical development.
For more information, please visit the website at http://www.launchability.org.
Alliance Data: Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) is a leading provider of transaction services, credit services and marketing services, managing over 105 million consumer relationships for some of North America's most recognizable companies. Alliance Data creates and manages customized solutions that change consumer behavior and that enable its clients to build stronger, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers.
The company is an active corporate citizen through its "Neighbor of Choice" Program and is committed to initiatives that support education, health and welfare and civic enrichment. For more information about the company, visit its web site, http://www.AllianceData.com.
Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2009 sales of $63 billion. The company operates 7,105 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and services and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness division includes Take Care Health Systems, the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
Event was hosted by Alliance Data and benefited Special Care & Career Services Which Announced Name Change to LaunchAbility
Walgreens Received Awards Honoring Partnership with Special Care & Career Services’- Now LaunchAbility - Work Readiness Program
(March 26, 2010) It was an evening of exciting announcements at A Special Evening with the Pointer Sisters hosted by Alliance Data at the Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performance Center recently. The event benefited Special Care & Career Services – which announced their name change to LaunchAbility.
As guests entered the Winspear, they were greeted with an opportunity to video their Happy Birthday wishes to Ebby Halliday, the evening’s honorary chair, who was celebrating her 99th birthday the next day.
After the birthday cake celebration back stage, the crowd took their seats in the sold-out concert hall. Jody Dean, from the morning team of KLUV 98.7 FM, presenting sponsor and emcee, welcomed all and served as auctioneer in the live auction.
Walgreens corporate local and national were chosen to receive two awards from LaunchAbility in 2010 for their outstanding support in advancing the opportunities for people with disabilities to find employment that will provide them real opportunities to be self-sufficient.
The Milton P. Levy Jr. Award recipient was Randy Lewis, Senior Vice President Supply Chain and Logistics for Walgreens corporate and the Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award went to Walgreens’ leadership team at the Distribution Center in Waxahachie. Randy is an example of one man making a difference for many by implementing Walgreens' corporate-wide initiative to hire 100 people with developmental disabilities at their distribution centers.
In working with Scott Tisdall and his team at Walgreens Distribution Center in Waxahachie on this initiative, they have shown us that the spirit of this initiative is corporate-wide.
The Work Readiness program includes groundbreaking training that includes occupational therapists to improve ability for hires with disabilities to perform in a 40 hour/week job. And now, they are expanding to retail training from warehouse jobs.
Sharon Herrin, President, Board of Trustees, LaunchAbility, presented the Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award to Walgreens. Accepting on their behalf were Erv Siemoneit, Marketing Vice President and Randy Lewis, Senior Vice President Supply Chain and Logistics for Walgreens corporate.
LaunchAbility created the Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award in 2008 to recognize Alliance Data’s years of outstanding multi-dimensional support, for their generous financial support as well as their long-time commitment to the agency through volunteer hours and employment of our Supported Employment clients.
Alan Utay of Alliance Data presented the Milton P. Levy, Jr. Award to Randy Lewis, individually. The award was specially designed for LaunchAbility by Brad Oldham.
Since 2002 Special Care & Career Services – now LaunchAbility - has named an individual as the Milton P. Levy, Jr. Award recipient. This award is presented to someone who has shown leadership in the community in support of our mission to build independence for children and adults with disabilities.
It was exciting to hear Randy speak about Walgreens’ commitment to LaunchAbility’s programs.
“So far out of the 10,000 who work in our distribution centers across the U.S., 750 have disabilities (vs goal of 1,000 by end of 2010). We’ll set a goal of 3,000 by 2015. All earn the same pay, perform same jobs, are held to same standards and work side-by-side with those without disabilities – a completely inclusive workplace. In our Waxahachie center almost 10% of our 700 employees have disabilities.
“We’ve just initiated a pilot in the Dallas-Fort Worth market to train and hire people with disabilities in our stores, too. This is only in the initial stages but we selected the DFW area because of the Texas can-do attitude amongst our 200 area stores. Once we get it right in DFW, we’ll move it out to our remaining 7,000 stores across the country. A big idea and big goal for sure. But that’s what Texas has always thrived on.”
The video “Launching Into a New Era” told the audience about LaunchAbility and its mission and just afterwards, Cathy Packard announced the name change from Special Care & Career Services to LaunchAbility.
“Our new name is designed to reinforce our agency focus on the unique abilities of our clients and our commitment to helping each of them reach their maximum potential to lead independent, fulfilling and TRULY self-sufficient lives,” she said. “I’d like to update you on what our Board and Staff are planning for the future. We’ve proven that we can make an impact as an independent non-profit. We cherish the fact that we have the flexibility to be innovative and strive always to look for new ways to improve the options for successful lives for our uniquely able clients. We also look for opportunities to collaborate with sister agencies, the government and business because it’s the best way to maximize resources and build a stronger community.
“Examples of our innovation and collaborative spirit are:
Our new Child Care ChampionsTM program that we developed in partnership with Texas Association of Infant Mental Health, Brookhaven College, and ChildCareGroup, and
Our Work Readiness Training for adults with disabilities that was designed at the request of the Texas Department of Rehabilitative Services (DARS) and Walgreens.
“Both of these new programs are self–funding, meaning we don’t need to raise community dollars to run them. This underscores our belief that in order to continue to expand and offer best of breed programs we must strive to reduce our dependence on fundraising. Watch for our newest venture for 2010, The Academy, providing job skills training to adults with cognitive disabilities hosted at a large hospital.”
Event co-chairs, Elizabeth and Eric Gambrell welcomed everyone and worked with Jody Dean to draw for the raffle prize winners. Then the Pointer Sisters took the stage and rocked the audience with such favorites as “He’s So Shy,” “Automatic,” “Fire,” and more, capping it off with an encore of “Jump,” that brought the entire audience to its feet.
A fun, exciting evening for all!
About A Special Evening with the Pointer Sisters and LaunchAbility:
This was the 9th annual fundraising event benefiting LaunchAbility. In addition to raising community awareness about the agency, the event raises proceeds to assist LaunchAbility in continuing its 46 year mission to build independence for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Over the past eight years A Special Evening has raised more than $1.8 million and allowed us to continually expand our programs. Our programs are setting new growth records every year and we continue to gain state and national recognition for our innovative programming and training. The proceeds from A Special Evening directly benefit LaunchAbility’s Supported Employment Services (SES) and Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) programs.
SES helps capable people with cognitive disabilities (such as Down syndrome, Cerebral palsy, Autism, and others) train for, find and keep good jobs.
Our ECI program provides teams of specialists to work with babies and toddlers with developmental disabilities and delays to give them a greater chance for success in school. A new program, Child Care ChampionsTM was launched in Fall 2009.
This is a collaborative program designed to fill a gap in childcare training. This program will improve the quality of child care across Dallas County by teaching child care workers how to identify and effectively interact with babies and toddlers with both typical and atypical development.
For more information, please visit the website at http://www.launchability.org.
Alliance Data: Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) is a leading provider of transaction services, credit services and marketing services, managing over 105 million consumer relationships for some of North America's most recognizable companies. Alliance Data creates and manages customized solutions that change consumer behavior and that enable its clients to build stronger, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers.
The company is an active corporate citizen through its "Neighbor of Choice" Program and is committed to initiatives that support education, health and welfare and civic enrichment. For more information about the company, visit its web site, http://www.AllianceData.com.
Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2009 sales of $63 billion. The company operates 7,105 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and services and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness division includes Take Care Health Systems, the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
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