Hope House News

Announcing the 2008 Chesapeake Arts Show Award Winners

NORFOLK, Va.— Hope House Foundation, Chesapeake Department of Parks and Recreation, and The Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission are pleased to announce the award winners of the 2008 Chesapeake Arts Show, held in Chesapeake on April 26 & 27, 2008. During this festival, Hope House Foundation awarded over $1,000 in prizes thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. Prizes were announced Saturday evening and awards were presented by festival judge Susan Bernard, Executive Director of the d’Art Center. Corporate Sponsors of the festival included the City of Chesapeake Parks and Recreation, Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission, Chesapeake Friends of the Arts, The Rountree Team of Coldwell Banker, Nancy Chandler Associates, and Precon Construction. Media Sponsors included PortFolio Weekly, WHRO, Bob-FM, WNIS/WTAR, and LINK.

The arts festival is organized by Hope House Foundation and all proceeds raised are used to support people with developmental disabilities in Hampton Roads. The festival's revenue helps with medical and housing subsidy, clothing and household needs, daily living services and various needs of people served by Hope House Foundation.

Hope House Foundation Presents family forum: An Ordinary Life is an Extraordinary gift

When:   May 20, 2008

Where:  Virginia Wesleyan College

What:    A Family Forum

Why:     The forum will help provide needed resources to families in order to assist them in creating better futures for their family members with developmental disabilities.

Time:     6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Guest Speakers:    Hope House Foundation's Our Voices Committee

                               Dawn Machonis                     Parent of a child with disabilities

                               Nancy Mercer/ Jill Egle           Co-Executive Directors Arc of Northern Virginia

                               Lynne Seagle                         Executive Director, Hope House Foundation

The event is free and open to the public.

Hope House Foundation is the only organization in Virginia that supports adults with developmental disabilities exclusively in their own homes. Hope House has offered these services throughout Hampton Roads for over 40 years. Hope House is known for their cutting-edge approach to services and management. They are also known for their consulting arm, which has earned an international reputation among non-profits and corporations. Locally many know Hope House for organizing the Stockley Gardens Arts Festivals and the Hope House Thrift Store, all part of the foundation's plan to give back to the community while raising funds for their programs.

For more information please contact Paula Traverse-Charlton at 757-625-6161.

The Noblemen & Hope House Foundation present a Day at the Race with the 2008 Kentucky Derby Party

Hampton Roads, Va.- (April 2008)- The Norfolk Noblemen and Hope House Foundation are teaming up again to throw the party of the year the 2008 Kentucky Derby Party! The event will be held Saturday, May 3, 2008 from 2PM-7PM on the grounds of Talbot Hall located at 600 Talbot Hall Road in Norfolk. The Kentucky Derby is the premiere event in the spring and the Noblemen and Hope House are bringing the experience to Norfolk. Tickets are available for a minimum donation of $55 and are available at www.thenoblemen.org. Tickets are limited so get your tickets now.

The Kentucky Derby is coming so that means it's time for the girls to grab their big hats and sundresses and the guys to grab their sunglasses and head outdoors for a day of horse racing at one of the areas largest and most beautiful outdoor venues in the city of Norfolk overlooking the Lafayette River. This all day Derby Party will include the race on two giant projection screens, all you can eat southern style buffet, beverages, silent auction, Derby games, Best Hat Contest and live music.

Join us for the biggest Kentucky Derby party to hit Hampton Roads that will surely become an annual event. Proudly sponsored by Wheeler Interests, BB&T and 5forty design.

The Norfolk Nobleman and Hope House Foundation are both non-profit organizations in the Hampton Roads area which dedicate their time and energy to helping those in need. The Noblemen are dedicated largely to children and Hope House focuses on independent living services for adults with developmental disabilities. All proceeds from this party will benefit those in need. Join us and be apart of the solution...all while having a ball.

For more information log onto www.hope-house.org or www.thenoblemen.org

Hope House Foundation and Ben & Jerry's Announce Free Cone Day!

March 4, 2008

Norfolk, VA- Ben & Jerry's will be giving away free ice cream & yogurt cones on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 from Noon-8:00 PM at the Norfolk Waterside Ben & Jerry's to benefit Hope House Foundation. Hope House will be on hand with a display and informational materials, and patrons will be encouraged to use their savings to make a donation.

Hope House Foundation is the only organization in Virginia that supports adults with developmental disabilities exclusively in their own homes. For more information please call 757-625-6161.

Hope House Foundation is awarded the National 2008 AAIDD Full Community Inclusion Award

February 4, 2008

Hope House Foundation was just chosen as the recipient of the American Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) 2008 Full Community Inclusion Award! This national award is bestowed annually upon a program/organization which is designed to assure full community inclusion and participation for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, empower communities to fully include individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and serve as an inspiration to other community efforts at the local, state, national and/or international level. Nominations and letters of support were sent from colleagues, organizations and community supporters in Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri and England. Hope House Foundation extends a thank you to all of our supporters and to the Hampton Roads community for embracing inclusion, independence and true citizenship for citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This marks the first time AAIDD has bestowed this award upon an organization in Virginia. The award is made all the more meaningful due to the fact that Virginia ranks near the bottom in the nation for funding to support and include people with disabilities in the community.

Based in Washington DC, AAIDD (formally the American Association for Mental Retardation) promotes progressive policies, sound research, effective practices, and universal human rights for people with intellectual disabilities.

For more information, please visit http://www.aamr.org/.

Dave Hingsburger discusses Darius Goes West

January 10, 2007

Dave Hingsburger is a well known speaker, consultant, writer, and champion for people who have been ignored, abused, or mistreated by society. He is a primer leader in the field that supports people with intellectual, physical, and developmental disabilities. And, he’s a great guy. Hope House loves Dave Hingsburger (probably more than he knows). As you’ll soon discover (if you read the following): Lynne Seagle and Dave Hingsburger were both floored by an independent movie. The following is a blog entry Dave Hingsburger made that we’d like to share.

DGW

"Last year when Lynne Seagle came to do a presentation here in the Toronto area, we had dinner together at a Irish Pub style restaurant. Lynne was full of stories about the most recent staff retreat that had been held for her organization called Hope House which serves people with intellectual disabilities in Virginia. She went on and on about a film that she had seen and told the story of how she came to get rights to show the film at the staff retreat. That was the first time I had heard of Darius Goes West. Lynne spoke of her staff watching the film and alternately laughing, crying and cheering.

When Lynne wrote me a few days ago asking for my home address because she had something she wanted to send me, I thought that she was probably going to send me the new sexuality policy that we’d worked on together or a draft of our plans to do a workshop day together. Both things I wanted, so when the package arrived, I tossed it aside for a few minutes because I was talking to my boss on the phone.

As soon as I was done, I ripped open the package to find a note from Lynne and a DVD copy of Darius Goes West. All I remembered about what Lynne had said about the movie was that it was about a group of young men who take another young man with Muscular Dystrophy on a road trip to California to see if they can get his wheelchair ’pimped’ on the MTV programme Pimp My Ride. A wonderful concept. We had company staying with us and everyone gathered around the television."

We popped it in and pushed play. Within seconds my eyes began to fill and I had to look away. I wished I was seeing this on my own. Why didn’t Lynne warn me about ... oh yeah ... she did. But no shame here, everyone was reacting the same way. The movie is full of laughs, real laughs ... but it’s also full of moments of real, true, tenderness. It encourages the viewer to reevaluate what community means, what caring means ... they were documenting two road trips - the one made by the 15 year old man with Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy to California, but they were also documenting the journey that each was making in relation to the other. At first the young men travelling with Darius learned little lessons about the big issue of assessibility - but they began to learn big lessons about the little issue in life.

All the money from the sale of the DVD is going to raise money for research into MD, that’s cool, but even if it wasn’t - this isn’t a DVD you buy to support a charity, this is a DVD you buy because for the time watching it, you are with Darius as he goes west. And for 90 minutes, there’s no better place to be.

Note to Readers: I don’t know how to buy this film, I looked it up on the web, but I’m not all that good at these kind of searches. It’s not on Amazon ... so if you know or if you are a computer whizz that can find these ... could you post in the comments section about purchase information. This is a must see, must experience, movie.

Note to Lynne - Thanks."

From the Darius Goes West site:

DGW ON MTV!

The headline is for real! Only we’re talking about MTV/Canada.

Tonight at 6:30 PM, Darius and Logan appeared on MTV Live, a show produced by MTV/Canada and based in Toronto. The three-minute segment was taped via webcam at Athens Academy (thanks, Jarrard!), and within seconds of airing, we were getting fan mail. Woo-hoo!

We were quite surprised when we got the call a few days ago. They said they had read about our film and seen Darius and Logan on The Today Show. They asked for a copy of the movie so they could show clips from it, and we thought for sure when they saw it, they would back out. But they didn’t!

Canada loves DGW. In fact, another huge TV  show out of Toronto, called "The Hour" (think "60 Minutes, only edgier) wants to interview Darius for their show. Since the movie is playing at the Sprockets International Children’s Film Festival on April 17 in Toronto, we decided to take Darius to Canada , and he will be interviewed for "The Hour" while there. Darius Goes (Extreme) North! Thanks to new DGW fan Mona Sidler-Hosios for making this happen!

We’re making news all over the place...

→ Check out the awesome review on DVDTalk by film critic David Walker. He saw our film in Portland, OR at the Longbaugh Film Festival and has been a huge DGW fan ever since. To access it, go to http://www.dvdtalk.com/ and put "Darius Goes West" in the search box. Please leave a comment!

→ We also love what Canadian blogger Dave Hingsburger had to say about DGW.