FARMINGTON – LEAP is an apt moniker for an organization that works to empower people with disabilities to lead joyful lives with dignity and autonomy.
Life Enrichment Advancing People, or LEAP, marked its 25th year over the weekend with a celebration dinner. At the dinner, two volunteers and two staff members were honored for more than two decades each of service. The agency itself was also recognized by state authorities.
“What started out as the Western Maine Association for Retarded Citizens evolved,” Executive Director Rick Dorian said Wednesday. “About 13 years ago, LEAP changed its mission to better focus on life enrichment with individualized support.”
He said state Rep. Janet Mills spoke at the event about the importance of community-based programs and services that keep people close to their families and their roots.
About 140 family members, clients, staff and state officials attended the dinner at the Farmington Elks Club. The honorees were board members Deborah Smith of Weld and Roslyn Kerr of Farmington and staffers Kathy Cordes of Strong and Marjorie Taylor of Farmington. Dorian commended all of them for their dedicated and tireless work.
A graduate of University of Maine at Farmington, Smith has worked for more than 25 years in special education.
“Debbie has been a great source of strength and energy to see services created in this area,” Dorian said. In his remarks about Smith’s service as a volunteer for more than 23 years, he wrote, “Debbie has made a personal commitment to seeing increased community living opportunities developed in the greater Farmington area.”
A retired professor at UMF and former owner of the County Seat Inn, Kerr used her community connections to assist the organization at a variety of critical times, he said.
“She is a very gracious and active community member,” Dorian said about the board member of more than 22 years. “She’s somebody who’s really fought to see opportunities created for people.”
Cordes, a UMF graduate, “has been a leading staff member and manager at LEAP Inc. for more than 23 years,” according to Dorian.
“She is somebody who has been very involved with every aspect of the services we provide,” he said. “She’s a great teacher, mentor and builder of services,” he added.
Taylor has held many different jobs in the agency in her 22-year tenure, Dorian said.
“She’s just a tremendous positive influence for everybody,” he said, calling her a modest, hard worker who does a great job.
Funded by federal and state capital and grants, private fees and donations, LEAP provides services to challenge people “to develop their physical well-being, self-expression and experiences of joy,” according the agency’s Web site.
More than 80 people benefit from LEAP’s programs of assisted living or personal support in about a dozen residences throughout western and central Maine, family support and referrals, a weekend respite program, horseback riding, art, dance and community-based agricultural programs and substance-abuse services.
Many of the agency’s programs are available 24 hours a day, year-round. In addition to providing services to its customers, LEAP provides learning opportunities and internships for UMF students.
Dorian said at least 30 students graduate from area high schools each year that need the sort of support his group provides. For more information on LEAP, people may visit www.leapcommunity.org or call 778-3443.
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