Posted Feb 05, 2010 @ 11:41 PM
Photo by Sean Steffen
PITTSBURG —
When she was growing up in Chanute, Sheila Marque had no one to stand up for her, including her own family.
“If there’s something good that came from out of that, it’s that it made me more independent and made me want to help other people,” she said.
She does a lot of that in her position as a rehabilitation teacher for services for the blind and vocational rehabilitation, Kansas Rehabilitation Services Southeast Region.
Based at the Pittsburg Social and Rehabilitation Services office in Pittsburg, Marque covers a 12-county area and spends a lot of time on the road. A driver must accompany her because Marque has a very personal insight into the problems of those with impaired vision.
She herself is very nearly blind.
“While she was pregnant with me, my mother picked up a germ that damaged my eyes,” she said. “I have no vision in my left eye and never did. From my birth until 26 years ago I had no central vision in my right eye, but I did have good peripheral vision.”
She has lost most of that now.
“I have what I call my little window in the corner of my right eye,” Marque said. “I can see one letter at a time, but they have to be five or six inches tall.”
Her eye problems were ignored by her parents.
“We didn’t talk about it, and I was not allowed to use a cane,” she said. “My mother did not come to my IEP meetings at school.”
Nevertheless, Marque got a good education, starting with an associate degree in speech and communication.
KLKC The SKIL Radio station in Parsons at Career Day!
Steve Lardy and Colt Smith of KLKC were at Parsons High School Career Day – The two gyms at Parsons High school were filled with representatives of institutions of higher education, businesses, industry and the military Thursday during Career Day. Students were able to access information about many opportunities available following graduation. One of the organizers Sherry Bowen noted the event has grown. Three years ago, there were forty booths set up in one gym. She said the facilities Thursday were as packed as one of the local basketball games with students making plans for the future.
February Voice of Freedom Newsletter Includes.... My Home For The Holidays 2009 and More. SKIL Resource Center hosted their “My Home For The Holidays” annual event at the Parsons VFW Friday December 4th. More than 500 people gathered to share in a holiday meal served by Ultimate Choice Catering of Pittsburg.
Ed Reynolds opened the meeting with a prayer of thanks for the previous year. State Representative Julie Menghini welcomed the crowd from all over the state, as residents had traveled from Hays area to attend the event.
Billy Altom the Executive Director for APRIL (Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living) was the keynote speaker. APRIL is a national membership organization that works specifically with organizations that focus on integration of people with disabilities. Billy’s address combined music with recognizing the history of the disability movement. It also focused on the future and the need for people to not back down from the difficult barriers faced in their communities. Click Here for Newsletter
The weather didn’t cooperate, but Rose Harris, Pittsburg, still enjoyed her 110th birthday.
“The weather was so bad — she just couldn’t get out no kind of way in this weather,” said Patricia Swinney, great-niece.
Instead, some family members and friends by with cards and a cake. “She got a bunch of cards, and she enjoyed the cake,” Swinney said.
Harris, affectionately known as “Aunt Rosie” and “Mother Rose,” also received a birthday call from U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, who has admired and respected her for years. “The senator has been to see her many times,” Swinney said.
The daughter of the late Lott and Margaret Shaw Miller, Harris was born Jan. 30, 1900, in Yale, just east of the current location of Chicken Mary’s. Her father, a former elementary school teacher, worked at No. 2 Mine for the Western Coal Co. There were 10 children in the family. Harris’ last living sibling died at 106 a year or so ago, and she went with relatives by car to attend the funeral in Denver, Colo.
She is living proof that hard work never hurt anyone. Harris’ mother died when she was 11, and much of the work at home fell to her. She did housework and maid work most of her life, including many years at the Benage home in Pittsburg, helping to raise John Benage, who became a prominent Fort Scott physician.
Harris is a devoted member of the Lighthouse Temple Church of God in Christ, attends services faithfully when weather permits and still speaks in church to give her testimony when she feels moved to do so.
She was married twice, to William Allen and Walter Harris. They are both deceased, along with her only child, a son who died in 1990. Relatives include Swinney, nieces Juanita Gilmore and Darlene Lomax, and another great-niece, Renee Lomax, all of whom look after Harris and helped her celebrate her 110th birthday.
“We feel blessed that we still have her,” Swinney said.
Kansans for Quality Communities on The Community Bridge
Community Bridge takes up the issue of the Kansas state budget crisis with representatives from Kansans for Quality Communities. Kansans for Quality Communities is a new coalition of organizations representing education, health care, the disabled and state workers. KQC will provide a united front in reforming tax policy that has been inspired by the now discredited "starve the beast" mentality of the conservatives. Joining us to discuss KQC and it's goals are Mark Desetti, Director of Legislative Advocacy for KNEA, and Matt Fletcher, Associate Executive Director, InterHab.
Waiting lists —More than 4,100 Kansans are on waiting lists for residential and home-based services. Missouri, with more than twice the population of Kansas, has a waiting list of about 4,500. Waiting means delayed therapy for children whose social and physical development depends on services. It means idleness for young people who have finished school and are shut out of job programs.
It means unending stress for families seeking a group home placement — or even respite care — for a disabled adult. Many Kansans have been on hold for more than four years. Waiting lists are only part of the equation. Woeful state funding has eroded the capacity of the community-based system that cares for the 10,000 disabled children and adults who receive services.
Direct-care workers — the people who help disabled Kansans with functions like cooking, eating, toileting, dressing and transportation — on average receive a paltry $8.83 an hour. A state's character is defined by how it treats its weakest citizens. By that measure, Kansas has much work to do.
Chubby Checker and Social Security Commissioner Astrue Announce a New “Twist” in the Law
Changes Make it Easier to Qualify for Extra Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs
SKIL Resource Center hosted their “My Home For The Holidays” annual event at the Parsons VFW Friday December 4th. More than 500 people gathered to share in a holiday meal served by Ultimate Choice Catering of Pittsburg.
February 10, 2010 
The weather didn’t cooperate, but Rose Harris, Pittsburg, still enjoyed her 110th birthday.
Community Bridge takes up the issue of the Kansas state budget crisis with representatives from Kansans for Quality Communities. Kansans for Quality Communities is a new coalition of organizations representing education, health care, the disabled and state workers. KQC will provide a united front in reforming tax policy that has been inspired by the now discredited "starve the beast" mentality of the conservatives. Joining us to discuss KQC and it's goals are Mark Desetti, Director of Legislative Advocacy for KNEA, and Matt Fletcher, Associate Executive Director, InterHab.