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Helping special children become part of our community
As a child, Dee Carney watched her mother teach in a one-room school, where the class included children of all ages, abilities and capacities. She would talk to Dee about how the children with special needs faced enormous challenges, not the least of which was name-calling. "She was my inspiration," says Dee. By the time she was 10 years old, Dee realized that she wanted to do what she could to help these children at her own school, where the students with physical disabilities had their own classroom. "I always thought that was the most special room in the building."
Dee went on to become an occupational therapist and a teacher herself and settled in Kalamazoo. She taught the educable mentally impaired and became an elementary level resource consultant, working one-on-one with students with special needs and their parents, helping them identify resources and strategies to prepare for the future. In 1996, she established the Dolores A. Carney Children's Respite Fund, an Advised Fund at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, primarily to provide respite support to families with children who have special needs.
Her fund also is helping to provide a teacher's aid for Michelle, who is a happy second-grader at St. Augustine Elementary School. Michelle is just like any other child, interacting with her classmates, playing at recess and attending friends' birthday parties. "At the end of her first grade year, Michelle's teacher called me to tell me what a blessing she was to have in class," says Dee. "Little things like that are big successes."
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Becoming a catalyst for neighborhood improvement
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Celebrating commitment to love, art and community
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Inclusiveness Statement
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Field-of-Interest Grant Opportunities
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The Community Foundation's Diversity Policy
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