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Dakota Communities Honored with Boggs Mitchell Award
for Inclusive Recreation
October 2009
Dakota Communities was honored to receive the Boggs Mitchell Award during the Arc of Minnesota’s Annual Awards Banquet on October 24th, 2009. The award recognizes a chapter or community organization providing year-round, challenging and inclusive recreational/leisure-time programs for people with disabilities. The Arc of Minnesota is an advocacy organization supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
Toni O'Brien, Director of Community Life, accepted the award on behalf of Dakota Communities as a founding member of its Therapeutic Recreation Department in 1997. During her 18 years with the organization, she has worked to put into practice the idea that people with disabilities should live, work, volunteer and play alongside their families and neighbors. “Therapeutic Recreation is more than bingo and bowling,” said O'Brien. “It’s creating opportunities for people to become active participants in their own lives and communities through volunteerism, sports, gardening, wellness initiatives, and the arts.”
Dakota Communities has created a host of inclusion initiatives in collaboration with groups such as The University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum, The Boy Scouts of America, Wilderness Inquiry, St. Paul Jewish Community Center, and the YMCA.
“We are proud and honored to be recognized with this award from Arc,” said Dakota Communities President and CEO Paula Hart. “This is yet another indication of our commitment to creating challenging and rewarding opportunities for people with disabilities to be full members of their communities.”
More about the Boggs Mitchell Award... Formerly two separate awards, this award is named for two strong advocates for people with disabilities and long-time supporters of inclusive recreation, Fitzhugh Boggs and Charles Mitchell.
Visit The Arc of Minnesota’s website at www.arcmn.org |
