Week of March 29nd, 2021
(Happy April Fool's Day! Make it a great one!)
"I have great faith in fools-- self-confidence my friends will call it."

-- Edgar Allan Poe
Ironically, in CLI's new "Get-to-know-me" segment, we picked Jimmy Johnson right before he was offered a cool, full-time gig working for Cedar Point Amazement Park. While we have really appreciated all that Jimmy has brought to CLI-- and we are going to miss him-- we're excited for Jimmy and hope he stays in touch with all the friends he made during his years with CLI!
Jimmy finished his tenure with CLI strong -- here are a few Jimmy-assisted yoga action shots with Amber, Andy & Alan...
Speaking of CLI's Therapeutic Day Program-- we have been blessed this spring to get 2 significant donations from the Estate of Bill Pietz of West Seneca, New York. One of these was specifically earmarked for the Therapeutic Day Program. We are forming an advisory committee to guide the use of this donation to expand meaningful, community-forward day programming.
Anyone interested in being part of this should
contact Holly Binkley at 419-541-6304.

CLI is going to use the other donation towards our goal of making Kenilee Lanes 100% wheelchair accessible. This has been a goal for 2 years and thanks to this generous gift, we are 20% of the way there. We will kick off a targeted fundraising campaign later this spring. Stay tuned!
Usual Excuses & Apologies:

We've talked before about the 2 DODD grants that CLI was awarded this past fall, and that we are being guided by NEXIS4change' Executive Director Theodor Forde-Stiegler. Theo encourages mindful actions throughout the day to refocus and be present for each moment. We've appreciated the push to be mindful, mostly because life at CLI is so go, go, go! We often feel too busy to breathe.

A significant memory from my childhood was living directly underneath a migratory path of large numbers of birds. The patterns of flight, the sheer number, and just the cacophony of it all was something that has stuck with me lo these many years.

Theo shared this video and I thought it worth sharing. Thanks Theo.
Just a reminder-- CLI regular day programs are closed this (Good)
Friday 4/2 & the following Monday 4/5.

The GoodWorks Cafe will be pushing out Good Friday lunches though-- so if you're scheduled for a volunteer shift on Friday, plan on getting your soup on!
Finally, CLI is looking for 4 Summer Youth Job Coaches (seasonal) and 1 full-time Recreational Therapist. Obviously Rec Therapy is a pretty specific specialty, but the Summer Job Coach positions are a bit more general. Qualifications are likely more along the lines of "school of life" vs. the classroom. We're looking for 2 things. The first is for people that know how to provide value to their employer. That means that they work hard when nobody is watching AND they try to understand the best way to accomplish each task. The second thing we're looking for is the ability to teach. That means someone who likes people and is willing to try to figure out what other people need in order to learn work skills.

These are good opportunities and we're absolutely trying to pay as much as we can. I apparently am working on a "2 things theme" this week. Well, the 2 reasons that CLI is paying up are:
  1. while you don't always get what you pay for, you get even less of what you don't. CLI has been blessed with top-notch staff who often sacrifice higher pay elsewhere because of our mission. This is too important to hope that lightening keeps hitting the same spot;
  2. the only way we're going to make things better for people with disabilities is to make the jobs that support people with disabilities worth having. This is bigger than $, but it also definitely includes $.

You can find both of these postings at CLIsupport.com.

Thanks (and wash your hands).
John
S.T.E.P. Services
Tabitha Wilkens coordinates client vocational services for CLI. Many of these services are funded through STEPS.

Sometimes these are just old-fashioned fun, community-integrated leisure activities.

This week's picture features Tim volunteering to make food for the Good Works Cafe. Julie says he jumped right in on his first day and was enthusiastic to learn & do all the tasks that go with this volunteer role.
Kenilee Lanes
Wednesday Night Ladies' League Champs!
The CLI Wednesday night ladies team (Mary, Jill & Britt) were paid out $300 this week for winning the whole league. It was a tough season. During the height of the pandemic that Huron County was in the red, CLI insisted that anyone that we help, "bowl out" at alternate times when bowling alley was empty until we got back in the yellow. All of the teams were really missed by the other league bowlers. This was especially true for these three.

Transportation is always the hard part, so if there is anyone that would like to bowl and be 100% sponsored by CLI (and has a clean driver's license) next fall-- let us know!
"We all have ability. The difference is how we use it."

-- Charlotte Whitton
Would you like to join CLI for some fun virtual activities?
It's a bunch of loud fun!
Firelands Local LLC Update:
James Johnson
419-921-6400
Our annual shred day is over. We had a very good day. Unfortunately the final results were not ready at the time of this release. We will have them for you next week.
 
It can be funny sometimes how production work goes for us. We had our normal work this week, then Thursday came.

I was contacted by a company we have not done work for since the start of the pandemic to complete just under 10,000 units. A truck showed up with another bucket order. Instead of the usual 10 ish pallets we normally get, it was a load of 24 pallets.
Our normal nozzle order is 10,000 units, they brought 14,000 this week. I was responding to an email about a 864 unit job when another email popped up with a 10,000 unit order. This will keep us quite busy over the next few weeks.
 
Most of you know that we have a work crew that goes to MTD in Willard. MTD has a boot truck comes for the employees to select a pair of boots that MTD pays for. We found out Friday that they have extended that offer to our group as well.
 
Have a wonderful week!
The FREE Good Works Cafe runs every Friday at 11:30 am until they run out of food.


*Donations are accepted & 100% go to
future Fridays.*
Just a few videos to put a wrap on March, Developmental Disabilities Awareness month, 2021:
The video link featured here is one by Dr. Laura discussing the importance of Vitamin D in relation to COVID-19.

You can find more videos by clicking on either the youtube or the DODD website buttons below.
www.CLIsupports.com