Morningside Ride – 2010 Road Challenge

The Morningside Ride event held on Sunday, Sept. 19th was a big success. We had 48 cars run the route a big increase over last year’s 33 teams. At the finish, held at Lucky Eagle, the event room was filled with about 150 persons this year so that was very exciting. The Ride has grown quite a bit from last year and a lot more than the first year.


We want to thank our sponsors - Presenting Sponsor, Lucky Eagle Casino; Media Sponsor, 94.5 ROXY and the many additional corporate sponsors: Heritage Bank, Olympia Federal Savings, Titus-Will Cars, Coffee News, Color Graphics, The Law Offices of Harold D. Carr, First Citizens Bank, Chicago Title, McDonald’s, Olympics West Retirement Inn, Twin Start Credit Union, Wayne’s Ground Maintenance, West Coast Bank and Starbucks. We really appreciate the support of these companies without them our event wouldn’t be a success. I would also like to thank the many persons and companies who provided raffle prizes – too numerous to mention here.

A special thanks goes to Mike Marohn who wore many hats as a sponsor, awards MC and committee member. Also a big shout-out to Peggy Rogers our event Chair who did an outstanding job this year. I know I can’t mention everyone by name here but I appreciate all the work done by our army of volunteers – thank you very much.

If you haven’t participated in this event please consider it next year. It’s easy, fun and you are helping a great cause.

What ARRA you Buying? The folly continues……

I thought I would give you an update on the state’s use of ARRA funds in the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation that chose to use the 8.8 million dollars “to provide services to 1,000 new DVR customers with disabilities and assist them in finding jobs in high demand, high wage occupations and new green economy jobs”. The program is called Project H.I.R.E (Hiring Individuals with disabilities who are Ready for Employment). “The Goal: full-time jobs (35+ hours per week) with benefits earning mid-to-high wages ($15/per hour depending on the area) in demand occupations – such as health care, information technology, green jobs, energy, manufacturing, aerospace, international trade, other stimulus projects”.

In my May 20th blog, I pointed out the $15.00/hour has been lowered substantially as has the placement expectations and the target job areas and also reported out the abysmal results.

So where are we at? So let’s look at the current scorecard.

Goal                                                                                 Results

June-December 2009 – 200 persons placed in jobs          Outcome 6 people placed – 93 clients in plan

January – June 2010 – 200 persons placed in jobs            Total 93 persons placed

July-December 2010 – 300 persons placed in jobs

January – June 2011 – 300 persons placed in jobs

Let’s see they spent the first $2.0 million (on the initial 6 people placed) and then another $1.5 million or a total of $3.5 million for the 90 or so clients. That’s running about $38,000 per case. Oh the folly doesn’t stop there they want to add an additional $50,000 per contractor and keep the program running adding to the already bloated program costs.

Keep it going? Are you kidding me? 93 people placed out of the 400 expected at an average case cost of $38,000 what is going on there?

Who is keeping an eye on this? The State Rehabilitation Council asked for an independent review of the plan – not happening. I wonder why?

According to my records Morningside placed 88 individuals into jobs vs. the 93 these other contractors placed and these were individuals who happen to be substantially more disabled than the Project HIRE folks. Given adequate resources and the same level of clients targeted in this program we could have placed substantially more than 93 at far far less money.  Our reimbursement rate would have been approximatly 10% of what it costs the state and Federal government in Project HIRE.

Where would you place your money if given the choice?

Like I said this past spring I am certain that President Barack Obama isn’t a follower of my blog and has no idea that these funds are being squandered but I would bet that he would be disappointed in how “Obama bucks” as the press terms these funds are not being utilized to the maximum extent possible and that the dream of 1,000 jobs being secured in demand occupations such as health care, information technology, green jobs, energy, manufacturing, aerospace, international trade, other stimulus projects was just that a dream.

Sad News

We just learned that Mike Balcom passed away unexpectedly and while we don’t usually publish such news I felt that since Mike was the face of a Morningside client, we should let our community know of this news. Mike was on the cover of the Voice, the Thurston County Chamber’s monthly newsletter. When the Chamber wanted someone personifying working I thought of Mike with his great 100 watt smile and had to take his picture. Mike loved working at Red Robin (see picture), in part I believe, is the fact that he could get a hamburger, one of his basic food groups. Many of us remember Mike showing up at our old location off 14th avenue after his shift at Red Robin with a huge burger in hand and plunking in change or sliding dollars into the pop machine retrieving his favorite soda – his other basic food group, and smiling broadly showing off his gastronomical bounty. Mike will be missed but he will be long remembered.

Disability Fraud

At Morningside we work mostly with the 15% - that is the majority of those we serve were born with or their disability occurred before age 18 verses acquiring it through trauma, disease, etc. at a later age. So when I read or see reports that show someone “claiming” to be disabled to work the system it annoys me. No it does more than merely annoy me it totally ticks me off.


Twice in the past month, I have either read or viewed video of individuals taking advantage of the system, claiming they have a disability and can’t do anything to gain a higher pension or not work and live off whatever they fraudulently gained through insurance claims or suing the government. I actually read that in one municipality back east over 30 percent of employees getting ready to retire claim to be disabled to garner a bigger retirement check. Apparently the workgroup that is the biggest abuser are the fireman which leads me to the second story I saw.

I regularly peruse online newspapers and recently clicked on a video of a “disabled” fireman who had won a huge settlement with a municipality claiming to be severely injured on the job and was filmed doing some pretty amazing physical things unbeknownst to him by a hidden camera.

What’s with firemen and civil employees and claiming disability? What is in their subculture that permits this type of behavior is acceptable and is an appropriate thing to do? If we want to reform government why don’t we start here?

Happy 20th anniversary ADA

Like many laws the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) has been both cursed and praised as well as abused. How rights are exercised and averted can yield fairly strong emotions from both sides of the issue. But why should rights be averted or challenged is and will be a lingering question in the minds of many who were raised to believe the all men (and by inference women) have certain God given unalienable rights. Our own Declaration of Independence states,


“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Life (read security), liberty (freedom to believe and to move freely in our society) and the pursuit of happiness are not rights individuals with disabilities had enjoyed until the ADA and as with any minority group its citizens still don’t partake of fully.

But I am not here to debate the issues nor explain how the law is being implemented etc. I am here to recount in part the movement. Like any radical movement there were leaders and followers who felt passionately about the subject and the ADA is no different. I think the person I remember most was Justin Dart. He is called the father of the ADA and I suspect deserves the title as I believe he threw himself wheelchair and all into the movement. I believe he traveled to all 50 states garnering support and urging the passage of the ADA. I had the opportunity to hear Justin in person at Seattle Community College in 1996 when he was stumping the country urging individuals with disabilities into greater political involvement, as he was gathering ideas for a national-policy summit in Dallas later in the month. I remember that he exhorted the audience to campaign and vote for candidates and initiatives that empower the individuals with disabilities because the work wasn’t done with just the passage of the ADA. I was in awe of him as I am sure African-Americans and others were in awe of Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement or those of Hispanic origin in awe of Cesar Chavez the Latino civil rights and farm worker activist and like Dr. King, Mr. Dart was a moving orator. He wore his signature white Stetson and had a very smooth eastern accent. He reminded me of FDR in the way he talked and delivered his message. I could have listened to him for hours. He threw himself into his passion – civil rights for individuals with disabilities. What impressed me most is that he was a lifelong Republican. His Republican roots ran deep and he out of conscience switched parties since at that time couldn’t agree with their platform planks that weren’t accessible to people with disabilities (pardon the pun). But for a person who had national recognition in a political organization to switch parties is well huge in my opinion and brought greater respect for the man. He was very clear on his message –advance the principle that people with disabilities and disability issues should be fully-integrated into all national political and policy discussions and decision-making. Justice for All means to defend and advance disability rights as the central issue. You can read a bit about Justin in the link to Ability Magazine:http://www.abilitymagazine.com/JustinDart_remembered.html

Mission Possible

Our video, Morningside Ride 2010, debut was last Wednesday at the Thurston County Chamber of Commerce lunch Forum. It was well received by those present. Watch and let me know what you think.

Here is the link to our video.  http://vimeo.com/13318661

Mission Impossible

I just got done viewing the third rough cut of the Morningside Ride video, a spoof on the Mission Impossible opening theme. It’s pretty funny if you know the script – the cast did an outstanding job. I would like to thank our cast: Tamara Schaffert, Betsy Pozzanghera, (agents Turbo and Cabriolet) Michael Cade, Celia Nightingale (dynamic duo), Brian Salva and Ben Howeiler from Heritage Bank (pushing a car and hauling a huge king salmon) along with Jerry Farmer, guest star who is from ROXY one of our sponsors. We have some very creative minds in this organization and those who we tapped to star in this epic production. Jonathan Pleger and Tamara did an outstanding job of working on the script and working with the videographer. Yours truly has a cameo appearance. The purpose is to generate interest in the ride and explain in a humorous way what the Ride is all about. We will be presenting this at the Thurston County Chamber Forum this Wednesday (7/14/2010). Look for the video on our web page and on Youtube when it comes out - soon. I don’t think this is going to go viral but you never know.