Fw: An Open letter to Donna Demarco, President, Weston Area Little League Division

[Guest guest]

Gordon wrote: ----- Forwarded Message ----To: demarcobcc@...Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 5:54:13 PMSubject: An Open letter to Donna Demarco, President, Weston Area Little League Division Donna Demarco President Weston Area Little League wallbaseball@... Dear Donna, I am copying in various parents and volunteers interested in issues for special needs children. I am disappointed by your response to the resignation of the Challenger Division Commissioner for Weston Area Little League. You mention you take full responsability for the actions that drove him to resign, but refuse to answer any of his or my concerns. Although, I contacted last year and in the last few days about my concerns about this program for special needs children, they have either been ignored, or phone calls have gone unanswered. Also, as you are aware I live four houses down from you, and any concerns I have raised have been dismissed. This has left you in the position of your own division Director calling your efforts inadequate. I

have asked you these four questions: 1) What are your plans to reverse the 67 per cent decline in the program?2) How many parents of special needs children do you have involved inthe decision making for the program?3) How many professionals in the special needs field do you have advising you?4) How do you plan to incorporate inclusionary programming into Challenger? Your response was that I had to go to a Board meeting if I had any concerns, and you would not offer recorded commitments to these children. Surely, these simple questions are reasonable of any special needs parent. I can come to no other conclusion tha these children will again be last in line. Here are samples of the answers that I think any parent of these great kids deserve: 1) A 67% decline is unacceptable, and we will use all the resources we have available to

build the program back up. 2) We need to do a better job and get their input 3) We need to get their input as well 4) That has not been addressed yet, but we would be open to suggestions. Even a simple acknowledgement that things needed to get better would have sufficed. Empty promises do not help these children, and only lead them to be marginilized by yet another institution that purports to want to help them. As a father of an autistic son, I would much rather you give up this enterprise than continue it in its current form and competentcy. There are a plethora of dedicated parents, volunteers and resources who could and should replace this disintegrating program. I fear that WALL continues this program out of guilt or pity, not out of any real desire to help these children, and I would ask if you not continue down this path until you embrace helping these children as a privalege, and not

some obligation that our parents don't need or want you to take on.

[Guest guest]

FYI,

The Mayor of Weston, Hersh, lives on my street. Would it help if I copied this letter and dropped it off at his home?

I have not been following this issue, so I don't know if anyone has

contacted the Mayor, but reading this letter it appears to have been

festering for quite some time.

Let me know if you think it would help.

GoldsteinTo: deniseslist From: deniseslist@...Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:31:19 -0700Subject: Fw: An Open letter to Donna Demarco, President, Weston Area Little League Division

Gordon <waybetterbaseball> wrote: ----- Forwarded Message ----From: Gordon <waybetterbaseball>To: demarcobccSent: Monday, September 22, 2008 5:54:13 PMSubject: An Open letter to Donna Demarco, President, Weston Area Little League Division Donna Demarco President Weston Area Little League wallbaseballhotmail Dear Donna, I am copying in various parents and volunteers interested in issues for special needs children. I am disappointed by your response to the resignation of the Challenger Division Commissioner for Weston Area Little League. You mention you take full responsability for the actions that drove him to resign, but refuse to answer any of his or my concerns. Although, I contacted last year and in the last few days about my concerns about this program for special needs children, they have either been ignored, or phone calls have gone unanswered. Also, as you are aware I live four houses down from you, and any concerns I have raised have been dismissed. This has left you in the position of your own division Director calling your efforts inadequate. I

have asked you these four questions: 1) What are your plans to reverse the 67 per cent decline in the program?2) How many parents of special needs children do you have involved inthe decision making for the program?3) How many professionals in the special needs field do you have advising you?4) How do you plan to incorporate inclusionary programming into Challenger? Your response was that I had to go to a Board meeting if I had any concerns, and you would not offer recorded commitments to these children. Surely, these simple questions are reasonable of any special needs parent. I can come to no other conclusion tha these children will again be last in line. Here are samples of the answers that I think any parent of these great kids deserve: 1) A 67% decline is unacceptable, and we will use all the resources we have available to

build the program back up. 2) We need to do a better job and get their input 3) We need to get their input as well 4) That has not been addressed yet, but we would be open to suggestions. Even a simple acknowledgement that things needed to get better would have sufficed. Empty promises do not help these children, and only lead them to be marginilized by yet another institution that purports to want to help them. As a father of an autistic son, I would much rather you give up this enterprise than continue it in its current form and competentcy. There are a plethora of dedicated parents, volunteers and resources who could and should replace this disintegrating program. I fear that WALL continues this program out of guilt or pity, not out of any real desire to help these children, and I would ask if you not continue down this path until you embrace helping these children as a privalege, and not

some obligation that our parents don't need or want you to take on.