On Wednesday, Feb. 8th, David Gauthier, a Jobs participant, and I had the honor to participate in 2012 Capitol Hill Day, a one-day advocacy blitz organized jointly by Special Olympics Inc. and Best Buddies International. Representatives from both organizations came to Washington DC from 40 states to participate in over 300 meetings on the Hill with Senators and Congresspeople to advocate for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Our focus this year was two-fold: 1) securing co-sponsors of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Act which would provide funding for both SO and BB to sustain our respective programs, including global initiatives; and, 2) to argue against cuts in the annual budget which provides discretionary funding for SO, particularly their Project Unify program.
BBCA was lucky enough to partner up with Jan Palchikoff, VP of Programs for Special Olympics/Southern California and an incredibly impressive young woman, Nicole Nelson, a multi-sport athlete and medal winner. As a group, we visited the offices of Reps Laura Richardson, Lois Capps, David Dreier, Joe Baca, Darrell Issa, Maxine Waters, Duncan Hunter, Ed Royce and Lucille Roybal-Allard. While our meetings covered both sides of the aisle, we were welcomed everywhere with cordiality, organizational recognition and a promise to look into the specifics of our requests. We secured four commitments to co-sponsor the EKS Act from the offices of Cong. Richardson, Waters, Baca and Roybal-Allard. While funding commitments are always more problematic, everyone was grateful to hear how the annual funding supported programs in the field and how they’d be affected by further cuts.
Two bright spots of the day: We got to meet with Cong. Laura Richardson herself. When her aide heard that our own David Gauthier knew her personally from his work in Long Beach, she asked us to come over to the Capitol where she was tied up with votes. We were able to spend a good 20 minutes with her. When she heard that Nicole’s favorite sport was basketball, Cong. Richardson challenged her to a one on one match! More to come on that! She also personally invited us to take a tour of the capitol when our meetings ended. Although we ended too late for a tour, Devin Benavidez, her aide, was able to secure passes for the four of us to get into the visitors’ gallery at the Capitol. We watched about 20 minutes of House debate. Although it was hard to tell, it sounded like they were debating the extension of unemployment benefits. It was a thrill for all of us to be able to see our government in action – something in all my years of living and working in, and traveling to DC, I’d never been able to do before.
The long day ended with a moving candlelight vigil at the Reflecting Pool by the Capitol where Timothy Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics Inc., spoke to about 100 of us (in the rain). He reminded us how important our work was and thanked everyone for making the trip.
David and I were so grateful to be able participate in this important exercise in self-advocacy and education. I used to work for someone who said that one call or visit from a constituent is worth 10 from a lobbyist. If that’s true, we from Best Buddies and Special Olympics from all over the country, made a huge impact on Wednesday. We spoke for you and for all the wonderful young people, jobs participants and athletes whom we serve – we made our voices heard.
Patty Evans, State Director
Best Buddies CA
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