Earlier in the news, we told you about Stella Maris School's continued celebration of Disability Awareness Week. Well, at the Inspiration Center this morning, Kim Simplis Barrow, the Special Envoy for Women and Children, teamed up with McNab Visual Strategies to launch the 8th Annual Inspiration Calendar for 2019.
It's an initiative to help raise funds for the Center so that it can continue to provide services for children living with disabilities. And, in turn, the children with diverse abilities who use the Center were the ones who created the drawings and paintings which are featured in the calendar itself.
We stopped by today to see the new calendar, and Barrow spoke with us about the accompanying campaign to reduce the stigma and discrimination against person with disabilities. Here's what she had to say:
Kim Simpliss-Barrow - Special Envoy, Women and Children
"Today, we had the 8th annual launch of our Inspiration Center Calendar, where we have 12 of our clients who painted, or made drawing over the summer. And so, we made them into a calendar for 2019. And really, it's truly a demonstration of how talented our children with disabilities are. And that's exactly how we should be seeing them. It also gives us an opportunity to break down barriers about children with disabilities. So, for me, this even is very important. It was also to launch the 2019 agenda, and again, through partnership with McNab Designs, and through various companies purchasing the agenda, McNab was able to hand over 19,000 dollars to the inspiration center. We continue to encourage companies, government departments, or event private citizens to buy these agendas because the money really comes - at least a portion of the money really comes back to the Inspiration Center."
Tanya McNab - Creative Director, McNab Visual Strategies
"The donation is based on the sale of the agendas that we produced every year, and that is a 365-day planner that we sell to private companies. We sell to individuals; we sell to government, and basically, it's a planner that you use all year long. And so, basically, we take out all of the costs, and we share the profits with the Inspiration Center. They play a very important role in helping us with the sales. So, it's a joint of the McNab team doing sales, as well as the Special Envoy team doing sales as well."
"The most important thing is that the proceeds go directly to the Inspiration Center, and we can see every day here, the difference that it's making. It was a really touching story today by Mrs. Butler and her son, who were having such difficulty before the center was opened, and the difference that it has made. And so, I always urge people that they're like, I don't really use a planner; I don't use an agenda - well, you can gift it to somebody who does, and your purchases is really making a difference. The more we sell, the more we can give, and we are seeing some challenges due to the digital era in some companies that used to support us in the past, who are no longer doing so. But we urge you not to look at it in that way, and we urge the public to look at it as something that is really making a donation or making a help, and also receiving something in return."
As you heard, the McNab Visual Strategies handed over a cheque for $19,000 to the center. The funds were part of the proceeds of sales from last year's agenda.
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