[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 37 (Monday, April 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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               FRIENDS AWARE PROGRAM OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY

 Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to 
the Friends Aware Program of Cumberland County, an organization that 
for 40 years has been dedicated to promoting the worth and dignity of 
its community's mentally retarded citizens.
  Cumberland--Friends Aware Industries [FAI] has been providing 
training, employment, and residential services to individuals with 
developmental disabilities since 1954. FAI uses the unique approach of 
selecting mentally retarded trainees from the Developmental 
Disabilities Administration, teaching them viable work skills, and then 
affording each individual client an employment opportunity which best 
suits his or her talents and abilities. By providing a wide range of 
local employers with specialized, enthusiastic personnel assistance, 
Friends Aware has changed the public's attitude about persons with 
mental retardation, while instilling in each of its workers a newfound 
sense of pride, responsibility, and self-esteem.
  Because of the dedicated commitment by its founders, employees and 
clients, Friends Aware Industries has grown steadily and substantially 
in recent years and presently holds contracts with over 60 businesses 
in the Cumberland County area. To date, FAI has over 100 nondisabled 
staff members and 108 mentally disabled clients.
  Mr. President, I would like to commend everyone involved in Friends 
Aware's extraordinary efforts over the past 40 years including John and 
Margaret Long, who have dedicated untold hours to the organization. 
Service programs like this one, which allow each member of the 
community to contribute his or her own special talents, are essential 
to the diversification of our work force. Friends Aware has ensured 
that diligent, eager persons with varying skill levels will be 
integrated into their community's daily work routine as contributing, 
hard-working citizens, regardless of their developmental 
disabilities.

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