Editor’s note: Access Press board members are writing guest articles to highlight the newspaper’s matching grant campaign, which goes on until year’s end. This article is by Steve Anderson, outgoing board chair at Access Press.
How on earth did we come to December already? It seems like I ask that question every time the winds of winter come around. Time just seems to fly by more quickly every year.
I have had the privilege to sit on the Access Press Board of Directors for the past nine years and the honor to serve as board chair. In the time that I have been on the board I have witnessed many changes, both on our board and with our newspaper. Like with anything change can be good, it can be difficult, it can be uncomfortable, it can also be exciting and refreshing.
Throughout my tenure on the board, we have experienced all these aspects of change. The one thing that has remained and still remains constant is the commitment Charlie Smith made so many years ago to provide news and information to our disability community and to the community as a whole.
News and information regarding disability issues that directly affect our community. Access Press has and will continue to be a source of information directly affecting hundreds of Minnesotans living with a disability. As a person with a disability of cerebral palsy and as a person with more than a few gray hairs I am keenly aware of life in our community, both before and after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In fact next year we will celebrate 30 years since its passage.
We as a disability community have made great strides in how society views persons with a disability. Those strides have not always come easy and at times have been met with resistance and yet we have continued to fight.
We continue to speak up, educate and advocate, to be seen as any other Minnesotan who contribute to our families, our cities, our state, our nation and yes, our world.
In my role as Director of Disability Resources at Hamline University I come in contact with many students with a wide range of disabilities. For many of them, especially incoming freshmen, I try to help them develop a sense of self-advocacy. Moreover I try by my words and actions to show that having
a disability is nothing to be ashamed of. It is part of who we are and part of what makes up the wonderful diversity of our society.
Access Press has and continues to share that very same message. As my time on the board comes to an end, I’d like to thank my fellow board members for their hard work and support over the years and especially Tim Benjamin for his wisdom and support; it has been a good ride Tim!
So I will end where I began, with the chilly winds ushering in the long night and cold days of a Minnesota winter. However, we are also approaching a brand new year, 2020, and with the promise of a new year anything is possible.
Challenges will always be there my friends; it is how we approach and take on these challenges that will make the difference.
Donate by year’s end
And so it is time to challenge you, Access Press readers, one more time. We are wrapping up our $10,000 challenge grant at year’s end. We need your help to continue to bring quality journalism, from a disability community point of view. We only have until the end of December to make this match.
You can click on the Donate link at the top right of any Access Press web page, or send a check to: Access Press, 161 St. Anthony Avenue, Ste 910, St. Paul, MN 55103. Thank you for all your support as readers, subscribers, and donors!
