JCC Red Carpet Event raises funds for the Special Advocacy Coalition

The Friedberg Jewish Community Center was a spotlight of positive change on April 26 at their Red Carpet Event to help celebrate and advocate for adults with disabilities. Those with disabilities shined through their art, music, and other talents on display while raising money for the Special Advocacy Coalition, known as SPEAC. In addition, the fundraising will go towards helping provide scholarships for members to attend a reginal self-advocacy conference presented by the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State.

Ashley Gazes, the Special Advocacy Coalition president and founder, started SPEAC six years ago after having troubling experiences being bullied in high school because of her disability. “I wanted a place where people can advocate for themselves,” Gazes said, “So, I turned to the JCC, and I said, ‘can you help me out’ and that’s how it got started.” Her goal is to work together with the JCC on issues like transportation, housing, employment and overall advocacy.

The JCC gladly opened their doors to help Gazes host the SPEAC group and have workshopped together community classes for cooking, music, art, fitness, dating, relationships, and childcare for those with disabilities.

“We’re just looking at where the needs are with the experiences that they want to get and we have planning around there,” said Marcy Hallerman, the senior program director at the JCC, “we’re excited to host this and showcase the talents and the voice of our individuals with disabilities.”

Town of Hempstead councilwoman Melissa Miller was one of the guest speakers at the event and is a special needs mother who had a daughter with a genetic disease who died at seven years old. During Miller’s motherhood she found that it was hard to find the essential complex special healthcare her child needed as well as help for her child’s additional developmental disabilities. She then had a son who had a stroke in utero and also needed specialized health care services.

“Here we went again,” Miller said, “I had a child with very different special health care needs and once again, if possible, it was even more complicated. I had to fight for everything, I had to fight the health insurance industry for the care that they need, I had to fight the school systems, government, transportation, no matter what we were trying to do in a day seemed there was always a battle ahead of us. And that made me really upset, made me want to figure out a way that I could help the people who are coming behind me, who are going to face the same kind of obstacles that I had to face, I was really determined that it shouldn’t be like this.”

As a legislator, it made more of an impact on policymakers to see and meet those with disabilities who face these problems every day Miller explained. And that is why SPEAC, and self-advocacy are so important, because it’s encouraging to bring power to themselves. Eventually, she needed to step down as state assemblywoman to care for her special needs son full time, who’s now a special needs adult.

Harvey Weisenberg, a former New York State assemblyman, was also a guest speaker who has a special needs adult who is mentally disabled, having cerebral palsy and being unable to speak. “When you have a special child who loves you dearly it’s stronger than any other love experience you can imagine,” said Weisenberg, “My Richard can’t speak or cry, he went through a terrible terrible life, very difficult, he almost starved to death, almost burnt to death, Covid, been abused and it’s going to make you smile, he’s going to be 65 years old.”

Weisenberg has been a lifelong advocate for those with disabilities, firstly as a special education teacher for 20 years and then through his time as an assemblyman, where he highlighted the need for services at a memorable Florida State Assembly on March 28, 2013. He received a standing ovation for the floor speech on the state budget’s big cut to the Office of People with Development Disabilities. He also wrote a book called “The Love of a Child” to also help make people aware.

The event also featured a musical performance by Mayhem Long Island, a talent show, raffle drawings, an art exhibit, buffet with dessert and a group song.