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Početna / Kategorije / Wade Blank - Founder of Atlantis Co-Founder of ADAPT 89
- ADAPT (1774)
[image] Wade drinks from a glass. - ADAPT (1773)
the Beacon Review May 3, 1991 [This contains the text from ADAPT 1773 and 1772 for easier reading.] Title: Local activists making an impact on our daily lives Drawing of the heads of three people: Beth Gallegos, Sam Lusky and Wade Blank. Their names are printed beside their heads. Title: Striving to make a difference by Kerri S. Smlth According to a recently released national survey, most Americans are moral bankrupt, and many live in an existential waste. We're a nation of liars and cheaters, according to the survey results. Twenty five percent of the survey respondents even said they'd abandon families for $10 million. But there are still people who spend their time fighting for what they believe ls right and just. The Beacon took a quick head count this week, and came up with dozens of local activists trying to make a difference. Three are profiled below. WADE Blank Last week hundreds of demonstrators led by Denverite Wade Blank, a 50 year old minister who's made a career out of civil disobedience. invaded the Baltimore headquarters of the federal Health Care Finance Administration, waving signs, shouting demands; and honking horns. Most of the demonstrators, who belong to Denver based American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), rode wheelchairs into battle with the federal government . Blank is founder and co director of ADAPT. Their aim: to up divert aid dollars to a national home care program, so that disabled and elderly people can remain at home instead of in a nursing home. It's a controversial, but then Blank ls no stranger controversy. He marched with civil rights leader Martin Luther King, demonstrated against the Vietnam War and saw the birth of the feminist movement at Kent State before moving to Colorado in 1971. "I call myself a person who teaches empowerment," Blank explained. "As an able boded‘ man, l set the pace and target issues, and then hand the power over to others." The process apparently works. Before July of 1978, Denver, like most cities, lacked wheelchair accessible public transit. ADAPT activists commandeered two buses and shut down the Colfax Broadway intersection long enough to get the job done. "We slept in the streets for two nights while supporters sent over sandwiches," Blank recalled. Today, wheelchair accessible public transit is the law of the land, and Japan and other countries are following the American example. Blank's metamorphosis from minister to leader of the disabled people's civil rights movement occurred when he worked at a Lakewood nursing home ln the early 70s.‘ "I moved here to lick my wounds after the shootings at Kent State," Blank said, [missing text] ...ing my Volkswagen behind a U Haul. My family thought I'd gone berserk, because, I had, a master's degree in theology and was working as a nursing home orderly." He didn't like what he saw there. ‘I tried to make life bearable by reforming the system, but by 1974 I gave up and tried moving residents into ' apartments,” Blank said. A Legal Aid lawyer helped Blank and disabled residents sue the facility, along with the federal and state governments, Thirteen years later, in 1987, the disabled plaintiffs won a class action suit and collected $26 million. While the lawsuit dragged on, Blank founded “The Atlantis Community,” a home health care company currently serving around l50 disabled and elderly Coloradans; The company also runs a home health aide certification “training program. ADAPT activists also influenced the l988 national nursing home reform bill (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) that protects residents‘ rights, among other things. And last summer President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, another ADAPT driven initiative. The bill requires all restaurants to be wheelchair accessible by January 1992. In the meantime, Blank said he and other ADAPT activists will “keep hitting the streets until the government changes national policies towards disabled and elderly people. - ADAPT (1775)
- ADAPT (1776)
This is the cover of the April 1993 issue of Mainstream Magazine with an almost full page picture of Wade Blank in an ADAPT cap with his hair blowing behind him, his trademark round tinted glasses. He's wearing an ADAPT shirt with a square pattern of Free Our People around the Free Our People logo. Across the upper left corner of the picture is a diagonal banner that reads Wade Blank 1940 to 1993. - ADAPT (1778)
Wade, in an ADAPT T-shirt with the old no steps logo, rests a hand on the chair of Gary. Beside him is Molly in a red version of the same ADAPT shirt. Beside her is Tisha Auberger (?) and Brook Ball is standing beside her in a blue tank top and yellow pants. Mel Conrardy is sitting back to the camera in the foreground and just in front of him, leaning forward is Ken Heard (both in wheelchairs.) Behind the group is a pink graffitied trailer. Everyone is looking to the left of the frame. - ADAPT (1777)
Wade is standing in a doorway looking off into the distance, his hand to his mouth biting his fingernail. In front of him sits Glenn Kopp, looking down, hands folded in front of his chin in a prayer-like position. Glenn lived with Wade and Molly for years, and this might be the back door to their house. Both men look very thoughtful. - ADAPT (1779)
[This page continues the article from Image 1784. Full text is available on 1784 for easier reading.] - ADAPT (1780)
Wade is standing, hands on hips looking down at Claude Holcomb who is spelling out a message on his letter board. Behind them someone is bent over doing something. Claude is in a wheelchair and has the letter board resting on his lap and armrest, as usual. It's a newer board laminated black with white letters and numbers. Before computer communication devices. people used these boards to spell out the words they were saying. - ADAPT (1781)
Wade is standing behind and leaning over a man in a wheelchair helping him with the buttons on his T-shirt. The man, who sits an old-fashioned E & J type of chair, is looking at the camera and smiling. His arms are bent up at the elbows and his wrists are bent down. - ADAPT (1782)
- ADAPT (1783)
- ADAPT (1784)
[Headline] When "Rights" Clash [Subheading] How does an industry association cope with the constitutionally protected rights of an activist organization that opposes it? APTA has wrested with ADAPT about accessibility for six years. By Bill Paul [boxed text] An APTA task force has developed a draft policy recommending that APTA adopt a policy of full wheelchair accessibility for all buses and railcars. The recommendation also urges the federal government to implement a national policy toward that end. A working paper outlining the draft recommendation is now being debated. It has become a familiar scene. The American Public Transit Association sponsors a trade show, or an educational or business conference. Transit professionals travel in from distant points to register for the members-only conference. Meanwhile, outside the conference hotel, usually on opening day and then for a day or two afterwards, a small group of wheelchair-bound protesters, typically numbering between 50 and 150 people, mount a demonstration. Nearly all of them too have come from distant points. They gather their wheelchairs around the hotel entrance, or roll into the path of a passing public transit bus forcing it to a halt. Soon the now-familiar chant begins" "We shall ride!" We shall ride! We shall ride!" Protested by the First Amendment [image] [image caption] Wade Blank walks behind a group of his ADAPT supporters in front of the Omni International Hotel in St. Louis during APTA Eastern Conference in May. The demonstrations have become commonplace at APTA meetings. [text resumes] right to free speech, the protesters, members of American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), are demonstrating in favor of full accessibility of every federally funded transit bus and transit station. Often, the demonstrations turn violent with arrests following. Since these protests began six years ago, 381 arrests of ADAPT demonstrators have been made. ADAPT began demonstrating against APTA in 1982 after the association filed a lawsuit three years earlier in federal district court to rescind a DOT regulation to comply with the Section 504 regulations. The DOT regulation was issued by then-Secretary Brock Adams, and would have mandated all federally funded transit buses and rail transit stations to be wheelchair accessible. APTA's lawsuit eventually prevailed, incurring the association the enmity of ADAPT. In the aftermath of the lawsuit, APTA's position on accessibility has focused on the right of each transit system to develop its own solution rather than the federal government mandating a solution. Its policy statement declares: "APTA agrees with Congress, the Administration, the courts, local officials and many disabled persons that each community should continue to be permitted to determine the best means of meeting this obligation by tailoring service to the diverse needs, circumstances, and desires of the local community." In 1983 ADAPT presented APTA with a resolution asking association members to vote on the issue of full accessibility. APTA declined. Indeed, that vote has yet to be taken in a general session, a matter that rankles ADAPT. However, as we'll see, an association task force has re-evaluated APTA's position on September/October 1988 METRO Magazine 79 - ADAPT (1785)
Wade and Lincoln Blank are standing outside on the grass practicing football. Wade, in profile, is holding the ball, legs spread like he's getting ready to toss the ball. Lincoln, a couple of feet closer to the camera but facing away, is leaning toward Wade. - ADAPT (1786)
This is a continuation of the article in 1789 and the content has been included there for easier reading. - ADAPT (1787)
Wade, in a yellow ADAPT shirt over a sweatshirt and wearing an ADAPT baseball cap, is pushing a man [Bobby Simpson] in a manual wheelchair who is drinking from a large cup. Bobby is slightly slumped to one side and there is a towel by his side in the wheelchair. They are going down a city street in the traffic lane, and behind them are several other ADAPT folks walking, all wearing black ADAPT clothes. One [Terri Susan Hartman] carries a pink coat, another is walking a dog [Frazier] on a leash. In the far distance are cars and a bus.