This weekend, I was privileged to be part of an event that raised dollars for an important nonprofit in the region in a way that brought joy and opportunity to the very people it supports.

Let’s Dance, held Saturday night at Gateway City Arts by Pathlight, paired 10 people it serves with physical and intellectual disabilities with 10 local celebrities, and they took to the stage, one couple at a time, with unrivaled energy and danced their hearts out. As one of four judges, I had an up-close and personal view, and the unbridled joy and deep satisfaction I witnessed on the faces of those men and women will sustain me for some time to come.

The pairs worked with a dance instructor for many months in advance of the performance, learning complicated and creative choreography. Combined with equally imaginative costumes, the teams lit up the stage in a way that moved many in the audience to raucous laughter, and also to tears.

Brian Melanson, a teacher at a Pathlight program called Milestones, was partnered with a man he helps to care for, Fortune Rodriguez. I heard Brian say after the event, “I’ve known Fortune for a long time, and I have never seen him as happy as he was tonight. I watched as he interacted with people in the audience. It was amazing.”

It was a beautiful thing to watch Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and his partner Lucie Pasche, dolled up in a sleeveless gown with a head full of curls, dance to “What Makes You Beautiful,” and incredibly heartwarming to watch Anna Barre dance with Springfield College President Mary-Beth Cooper and later, in accepting their award, to hear Anna call out with glee, “Thank you judges.”

Aidan O’Donoghue (partnered with Arlene Rodriguez, the 2016 Professional Women’s Chamber Woman of the Year) and Alex Mody (paired with Debra Vega, a retired Broadway performer and Radio City Rockette) had me jumping out of my seat with the quality of their dancing and their ability to perform in character. Aidan did a spectacular rendition of “Greased Lightening” from the play “Grease,” and Alex was on fire with the intensity of his moves.

Each of the 10 couples who performed went home with an award in categories such as “Extra Expressive,” “Broadway Bound,” and “Sassiest Steps.” Matching the performers with the award was the job of us judges. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and serving with Alex Dixon, general manager at MGM Resorts International; Anne Geoffrion, a retired judge in Hampden Probate and Family Court; and Gail Perlman, also a retired Family and Probate judge. We also provided commentary after each performance. My fellow judges were both witty and expressive.

Ruth Griggs and I have been working with Pathlight for about four years. I have written stories about the life-changing benefits experienced by the people they serve, as well as press releases.

I am beyond impressed by the organization’s conception of this Let’s Dance event and its ability to pull it off with such perfection. Big kudos go to Valle Dwight, Pathlight’s director of development and communications; Lynne Saner, communications manager; and Megan Pete, development manager, for bringing this so well-imagined event to an audience, and for allowing me to play a part.

The organization surpassed its $40,000 goal with this event, and you can still give to increase the support and allow these innovative and compassionate leaders to do more good.

Bravo Valle, Lynne, and Megan. Encore. Do it again!

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LUDLOW— As part of a three-hour fundraising event called “Pathlight to Making Dreams Come True,” Pathlight will offer short documentaries highlighting relationships in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities on Sunday, March 26 from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Paul R. Baird Middle School.

The event, which will run from 1 to 4 p.m. and also feature a host of carnival activities, will raise money for the Darren FUNd in memory of Darren Harrington, a man who lived in Wilbraham with Anne Marie Corrieri and John Perrin through Pathlight’s Shared Living program. Darren, who had Down syndrome, had a perennially upbeat attitude and was dedicated to “fun.” He died in 2014 from early onset Alzheimer’s.

“We wanted to show films that focus on a broad range of relationships and highlight how important relationships are within the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Valle Dwight, Pathlight’s director of development and communications.

“We want the films to inspire meaningful conversation and to promote greater inclusion and greater understanding of people with developmental disabilities,” Dwight added. “The films help to show that people of all abilities are looking for the same types of meaningful relationships in life.”

Pathlight is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Springfield, and it has served people with developmental and intellectual disabilities throughout western Massachusetts since 1952.

Films that will be shown at the event from 2 to 3 p.m. are produced by Sprout, a nonprofit in New York City that helps people with developmental disabilities enhance socialization opportunities through various events, including its annual touring video offerings.

The “Pathlight to Making Dreams Come True” fundraiser will also feature carnival games for all ages and interests. In the school auditorium, activities from face painting to origami to storytelling and ping pong will be offered.

Sheryl Stanton, a vocal artist, will perform live, and Bax from ROCK 102 will be on site. There is a suggested donation of $5 per person.

The Darren Fund provides money to people living in Pathlight’s Shared Living program for whatever makes them happy. In the past, funds have allowed people to take vacations, go camping, purchase an iPad and take singing lessons.

For those who are unable to attend, donations can be made to the Darren FUNd at pathlightgroup.org/give or by mailing a check payable to Pathlight, 220 Brookdale Drive, Springfield, MA 01104, with Darren FUNd in the memo line.

The following are the names and descriptions of the films, which range between three and 12 minutes in duration:

• “Wayne.” A man with limited communication skills learns the harsh reality of love and romance.
• “What Would You Change?” People with intellectual and developmental disabilities answer the same question, “If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?”
• “The Best Thing We Ever Done.” Two couples from New Zealand share their personal stories of how they met and the challenges they faced.
• “Can I Call You?” Ben is a young man looking for the perfect relationship but wonders if the fact that he has autism changes the way girls relate to him.
• “I Love Grilled Cheese.” Libby provides some insight about the joys of living with her best friend, and big brother, Max, who has Down syndrome.
• “Fixing Luka.” Lucy thinks her brother, Luka, is broken; inspired from the filmmaker’s experiences of growing up with a younger brother with autism.
• “Family Life 8 mins.” A profile of Clement and Karen Lefebvre and their two children.
• “3:15 to Brunswick.” A romantic connection between two people waiting for a train that never arrives.
• “Brooklyn Love Tales.” A personal look into the lives of three couples with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
• “Be My Brother.” A young man’s charm and charisma challenges the prejudices of a stranger at a bus stop.
• “Bumblebee.” Despite being told as a child he would never speak or walk, Vance accomplished what doctors thought was impossible. But now he has a new challenge: dating.

For more information about the films, visit Sprout Film Festival, at http://gosprout.org/sprout-touring-film-festival/.

About Pathlight:

Pathlight was founded in 1952 by five mothers of young children with developmental disabilities. It was the first organization in Hampden County dedicated to serving individuals with an intellectual disability. Pathlight currently serves children, teens and adults throughout western Massachusetts with residential and employment supports, recreation classes, autism services, social skills training and performing arts programs.

Pathlight programs include Residential Supports, Shared Living, Adult Family Care, Autism Connections, Whole Children, Milestones, Valley Tees and Family Empowerment.

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AMHERST—Pathlight will offer its second annual Film Festival, featuring 11 short documentaries highlighting relationships in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, on Sunday, Feb. 26 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

“We wanted to focus on a broad range of relationships and highlight how important relationships are within the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” said Brittany Brown, development and communications coordinator for Whole Children in Hadley, a program of Pathlight.

“We would like the films to inspire meaningful conversation and to promote greater inclusion and greater understanding of people with developmental disabilities,” Brown added. “The films help to show that people of all abilities are looking for the same types of meaningful relationships in life.”

Pathlight is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Springfield, and it has served people with developmental and intellectual disabilities throughout western Massachusetts since 1952.

Brown said several Whole Children parents connected Pathlight last year to a nonprofit called Sprout in New York City, which helps people with developmental disabilities to enhance socialization opportunities through various events, including its annual touring video offerings.

Pathlight’s first offering of the Sprout films was so successful it sold out with a waiting list. “We knew it was definitely something the community responded to and something we would like to do again,” she said.

This year, in addition to the films, the event at The Carle will also include a discussion on relationships to be led by three teachers in Whole Children’s Boundaries and Relationships program: Pete Smith, Chris Harper and Liana Marks.

Maggie Rice, Whole Children’s director, will offer an introduction to the discussion.

Event tickets cost $10, and Brown recommends anyone interested in attending buy them in advance through www.wholechildren.org, given last year’s sell-out. The ticket price includes a wine and cheese reception after the films. Five College Realtors is underwriting the cost of the event.

The festival will also be showcased in Ludlow on Sunday, March 26 from 1-4 p.m. at the Paul R. Baird Middle School.

In Ludlow, the films will be offered in collaboration with an event called Pathlight Making Dreams Come True, which will have a carnival atmosphere and feature activities for people of all ages and abilities, including storytelling, games and face painting. A donation of $5 is suggested at the door.

The following are the names and descriptions of the films, which range between three and 12 minutes in duration:

• “Wayne.” A man with limited communication skills learns the harsh reality of love and romance.
• “What Would You Change?” People with intellectual and developmental disabilities answer the same question, “If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?”
• “The Best Thing We Ever Done.” Two couples from New Zealand share their personal stories of how they met and the challenges they faced.
• “Can I Call You?” Ben is a young man looking for the perfect relationship but wonders if the fact that he has autism changes the way girls relate to him.
• “I Love Grilled Cheese.” Libby provides some insight about the joys of living with her best friend, and big brother, Max, who has Down syndrome.
• “Fixing Luka.” Lucy thinks her brother, Luka, is broken; inspired from the filmmaker’s experiences of growing up with a younger brother with autism.
• “Family Life 8 mins.” A profile of Clement and Karen Lefebvre and their two children.
• “3:15 to Brunswick.” A romantic connection between two people waiting for a train that never arrives.
• “Brooklyn Love Tales.” A personal look into the lives of three couples with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
• “Be My Brother.” A young man’s charm and charisma challenges the prejudices of a stranger at a bus stop.
• “Bumblebee.” Despite being told as a child he would never speak or walk, Vance accomplished what doctors thought was impossible. But now he has a new challenge: dating.

For more information about the films, visit Sprout Film Festival, at http://gosprout.org/sprout-touring-film-festival/. For more information on the local event offering, contact Brittany Brown at Brittany.Brown@pathlightgroup.org or 413-585-8010.

About Pathlight:

Pathlight was founded in 1952 by five mothers of young children with developmental disabilities. It was the first organization in Hampden County dedicated to serving individuals with an intellectual disability. Pathlight currently serves children, teens and adults throughout western Massachusetts with residential and employment supports, recreation classes, autism services, social skills training and performing arts programs.

Pathlight programs include Residential Supports, Shared Living, Adult Family Care, Autism Connections, Whole Children, Milestones, Valley Tees and Family Empowerment.

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SPRINGFIELD—Lili Dwight, a founder of Galactic Smarties in Deerfield, has the idea to develop a fire alarm system so techno-savvy that it can tell the user—via a Smartwatch—where the fire is and the best route to safety.

Chris Landry, co-founder of Habit Stackr in Northampton, wants to develop an app that helps people leverage willpower to end their struggles with follow-through on daily health and wellness routines.

As the two entrepreneurs chosen to serve as Pathlight Fellows in Valley Venture Mentor’s four-month, intensive Accelerator Program, Dwight and Landry have the opportunity to develop their new technology, which will best serve people with intellectual disabilities but will also serve the wider population.

Pathlight, headquartered in Springfield, has served people with developmental and intellectual disabilities throughout western Massachusetts since 1952; Valley Venture Mentors offers support to business start-ups. The two nonprofits collaborated on the Pathlight Challenge to encourage entrepreneurs to consider people with disabilities when designing new products. The Pathlight Challenge is supported in part by a grant from the Westfield Bank Future Fund.

In January, Galactic Smarties and Habit Stackr were chosen by the mentor group to complete the Accelerator Program, along with 34 other entrepreneurs in a pool of 200 applicants from around the world. One key benefit to the two chosen entrepreneurs is that they will have a built-in test audience in the people served by Pathlight.

“We’re very excited about the people who applied,” said Ruth Banta, executive director of Pathlight, noting that 45 entrepreneurs applied to take part in the Pathlight Challenge specifically. “We think this process will expose a large number of entrepreneurs and innovators to people with disabilities and autism—and to Pathlight itself and the possibilities we offer. That whole awareness piece is really exciting for us.”

Banta said Pathlight has already been working to connect the entrepreneurs with Pathlight families and supporters “to help them get more information from people with disabilities and learn what their needs and potential are.”

Dwight said participants of Milestones, a movement, recreation and enrichment program in Hadley for adults with disabilities, helped her to prepare for the first weekend of work in the program.

“They will be a great resource when I design the user experience,” Dwight said. “Having Pathlight as a resource has been huge already in understanding the experience of communicating with a variety of people with a cognitive impairment.”

Dwight has a longtime background as a technology developer, and she has patented such innovations as walls with infrared devices installed within them that offer an alert when a person has fallen.  About 18 months ago, she began working on Fire Drill—as she calls it—but she said she realized “it doesn’t matter if you build a better mousetrap if you don’t have someone who knows how to build a business around it.”

Dwight is energized and challenged by the idea of developing a product with her business partner Kristin Harkness, and she expects their alarm will evolve into one that can be customized to meet specific needs and abilities. But she said the two need help with the business end of development.

Landry has spent the bulk of his career working on communications and development with nonprofits, and Bob Dolan, the other Habit Stackr co-founder, is a cognitive neuroscientist who has focused on designing and evaluating ways to support learning for people with diverse learning abilities and challenges.

They have in mind to build an app that will help people effectively apply willpower so they can take part in regular activities that promote well-being, such as meditation, exercise and journaling.

“This was an idea that I had based on my need to be really effective because I’m self-employed and trying to figure out how to get the things done and have the impact I want to have in the world,” Landry said.

“We’re trying to help people who may need some support with attention or executive function challenges or are just frustrated by their inability to establish good routines and make them a daily habit,” he added.

In addition to being grateful for the collaboration with those served by Pathlight, Landry said his duo is also appreciative of the Valley Venture Mentors experts who can offer specific advice and knowledge around building the app.

“We need help thinking it through, taking it from idea to execution,” he said. “It is critical to have people who will be able to tell us what we don’t know.”

“We feel like what we’re doing could be really helpful in terms of Pathlight’s goals because living independently means getting things done and having good healthy habits,” Landry added. “It’s also a good fit for anyone who needs to get things done.”

Valley Venture Mentors Accelerator Program connects start-ups with experts, investors and highly engaged and collaborative peers and offers the chance to win up to $50,000 in grants to develop their business or product. Participants meet for a long weekend once a month for four months, and the program began the first weekend in February.

The Pathlight Fellows will graduate from the Accelerator Program in May, when they will also unveil their new products.

About Pathlight:

Pathlight was founded in 1952 by five mothers of young children with developmental disabilities. It was the first organization in Hampden County dedicated to serving individuals with an intellectual disability. Pathlight currently serves children, teens and adults throughout western Massachusetts with residential and employment supports, recreation classes, autism services, social skills training and performing arts programs.

Pathlight programs include Residential Supports, Shared Living, Adult Family Care, Autism Connections, Whole Children, Milestones, Valley Tees and Family Empowerment.

The post Pathlight Fellows to Develop Tech Concepts through Valley Venture Mentors Accelerator Program appeared first on Beetle Press.

SPRINGFIELD—Ruth Banta, executive director of The Association for Community Living, announced today that the organization has changed its name to Pathlight to underscore the breadth and scope of the high-quality services it has offered to people with intellectual disabilities in the community since 1952.

Banta also announced that, in continuing the organization’s longstanding innovative spirit, Pathlight has partnered with Valley Venture Mentors to offer the Pathlight Challenge. The two organizations have put out a national call to start-up entrepreneurs to develop technology aimed at increasing independence for people with intellectual disabilities.

It’s expected that at least two proposals from start-ups will be accepted by Pathlight. Those entrepreneurs will be enrolled in Valley Venture Mentor’s four-month, intensive Accelerator Program in January.

“It’s a great partnership,” Banta said. “We’re tying our history of innovation and our passion for the people that we serve to entrepreneurs’ passion for innovation and breaking barriers.”

Paul Silva, chief innovation officer at Valley Venture Mentors, said what’s key in the Pathlight Challenge is that start-ups will have access to people in the populations they are hoping to serve as they produce their innovations.

“Interfacing with stakeholders is normally hard to do,” he said. “We have created a way in which companies that are worthy can get the access they need. If they want to develop something for parents, Pathlight can connect them to parents. If they want to gain access to staff, we can connect them to staff. This will allow them to troubleshoot problems as early as possible and allow their ideas to evolve more quickly.

“Pathlight is giving these start-ups a chance to be more competitive and, thus, more likely to survive,” Silva added.

Formerly vice president of administration and chief financial officer at the organization that serves people with disabilities across Western Massachusetts from infancy through end of life, Banta said the name change to Pathlight was part of a rebranding that began last fall as a means of solidifying the agency’s persona and outlining its key values.

“Our mission is to help people on their own unique journey to experience the life they want to live,” Banta said. “We weren’t being literal when we chose the new name, but we hope that it conveys that we shine a light on those journeys.”

Banta added, “What we’re hoping with the new name is that people will associate it with the breadth of the services that we offer. When people hear that a service is a Pathlight program, we want them to know that that means it is a caring, high-quality service backed by high-level expertise.”

Banta is excited about the partnership with Valley Venture Mentors as it highlights the organization’s longstanding history of innovation. She noted that Pathlight’s history of advances dates back to its roots. “We were the first to open a community residence for people with disabilities and the first to create a shared living model for families,” she said.

“We’re looking at how we serve the millennial population of people with developmental disabilities and autism and looking at how technology can give these young adults the independence that they and their families want for them,” Banta said.

The Pathlight Challenge is especially seeking solutions to issues regarding health, safety and transportation. “Transportation is often a big hindrance to the people we serve in terms of getting to jobs and recreational opportunities,” Banta said. “We’re looking to see how technology can offer assistance there.”

Silva said he is excited about the national call for proposals that will now be launched via both organizations’ databases and online connections. The selection process will continue through October.

The Accelerator Program is a four-month, intensive program held over one long weekend a month, offering start-ups connections to subject matter experts, investors and highly engaged and collaborative peers. Those competing in the program can win up to $50,000 in grants to develop their business or product.

The Pathlight Fellows will graduate from the Accelerator Program in May, when they will also unveil their new technology, Silva said.

“To our knowledge this challenge is the first of its kind,” Silva said. “There are hundreds of accelerator programs in this country running every year, but I haven’t run across any that are focused on assistive technology. Assistive technology is a new focus.”

About Pathlight:

Pathlight was founded in 1952 by five mothers of young children with developmental disabilities. It was the first organization in Hampden County dedicated to serving individuals with an intellectual disability. Pathlight currently serves children, teens and adults throughout western Massachusetts with residential and employment supports, recreation classes, autism services, social skills training and performing arts programs.

Pathlight programs include Residential Supports, Shared Living, Adult Family Care, Community Resources for People with Autism, Whole Children, Milestones, Valley Tees and Family Empowerment.

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