A heartfelt “Thank You!” to ALL those who brought a non-perishable food item to the SKIL Resource Center Annual Meeting. Those items went to the food pantry at the Parsons Nazarene Church (300 E. Main). There are great needs especially at this time of year. We do so appreciate your generosity. The pantry is open on Tuesdays from 11:00am – 1:00pm. If there is a need we will do our best to help. Again, thank you so much!!! God bless!

Pam Spohn (SKIL) & the other Workers at the PNC Food Pantry.

THANK YOU SPONSORS!!!

For making SKIL’s 2018 Annual Meeting and Celebration Dinner event a great success!
We deeply appreciate your community support!

• Babcock Mfg. Inc.
• Bank of Commerce
• Carvin Wilson
• Commercial Bank
• Farmers Bank
• Home Savings Bank
• Iron Press LLC
• Jennifer Eichinger, CPA
• Pittsburg Ford
• Queen City Antiques
• The Mustard Seed
• Thomas Sewell, CPA, LLC
• Video Center
• Wall Funeral Services

Happy Holidays from SKIL Resource Center!

by Andy Rausch and Joe Reinecker

This year, like always, Southeast Kansas Independent Living will be having an annual meeting and Christmas dinner. This year the event will be held on Friday, December 7th at the Parsons VFW 704 (105 E. Main). It will begin at 5:30 pm and last until 11. According to SKIL CEO/President Shari Coatney, this year's keynote speaker will be Mike Oxford, the former director of the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center and Kansas ADAPT organizer.
“Mike is about to retire, so we asked him to be our speaker, which is pretty exciting,” said Coatney. “He's a good speaker and he's good at getting people fired up.”

Last year was the first time the dinner featured a 50/50 drawing. It proved to be a success and they are doing that once again. “Hopefully this year it'll be even bigger and better,” Coatney explained. “That's fun and exciting, and it's also a way for us to help pay for the dinner. And somebody will get to go home with some extra cash in their pocket.” There will also be door prizes awarded.

As usual, there will also be an awards ceremony for deserving individuals. “We have a very diverse group accepting awards this year, and that's exciting,” said Coatney. “The board members had so many worthy nominations for people to be recognized this year, and that's a really cool thing.” In addition, there will also be elections for the Board of Directors at SKIL.

Coatney says the main point of the dinner is to provide people who don't get out of their homes very often to have a place to go and have fun at the holidays. “It offers the opportunity for socialization to people who don't normally get that,” said Coatney. “A lot of people with disabilities don't have many opportunities to let their hair down and have fun and be accepted for who they are and whatever their abilities and limitations are. They can dance and not feel uncomfortable dancing in a wheelchair.”

This year's caterer will be Mom's Best, and they will be serving roast beef, potatoes, a vegetable, and roll. “We've had them cater the past few years and it always works out smoothly,” said Coatney. “The food is good and they take care of everything, such as serving food and cleaning up afterwards.”

The event is open to SKIL customers, employees, and the general public.

Cafe opens with robot waiters remotely controlled by disabled people

TOKYO

A cafe featuring robot waiters remotely controlled from home by people with severe physical disabilities opened Monday in Tokyo's Minato Ward.

Five robots, 1.2 meters tall, controlled by disabled people with conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neuron disease, took orders and served food at the cafe that opened on a trial basis.

The cafe, which will be open until Dec. 7, deploys OriHime-D robots that transmit video footage and audio via the internet, allowing their controllers to direct them from home via tablets or computers.

"The robots enable physical work and social participation," Kentaro Yoshifuji, CEO of Ory Lab Inc, the developer of the robot and one of the three organizers of the cafe, said at a press conference.

Ten people will work shifts for 1,000 yen per hour.

The three entities, including the Nippon Foundation and ANA Holdings Inc., aim to launch a permanent cafe by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

The organizers said Monday they have also formed a partnership to further promote employment assistance for disabled people by utilizing remotely controlled robots.

"Avatar robots have potential...for transportation and communication," ANA Holdings chairman Shinichiro Ito said.

by Joe Reinecker and Andy Rausch

The Chanute SKIL center recently relocated to a new location at Four East Main on November 19th. The Chanute location is primarily a one-person operation; there are several part-time workers, but Independent Living Coordinator (ILC) Sharon Traylor is the only full-time employee. The center provides services to roughly 120 customers from Neosho, Woodson, and Allen counties.

The decision to relocate (after having been at the previous location for five years) was largely a consideration of space, or a lack thereof. “The building we had was really narrow and the customer room was really small, so we couldn't get very many people in it and you couldn't really move,” explains Traylor. “The new building has a nice big place for reception, an actual office, and lots of room for the customers. It's much, much better than what we had.

“Now we will have much more room to participate in the activities,” she continued. “They will be able to talk to me without hearing a lot of commotion or interruptions from the same room. This will also allow us to leave the activities set up without having to take them down every time we have a meeting.”

Another key feature of the new location will be multiple handicapped bathrooms, whereas the previous office had just one.

“Moving into this new building is going to be great for us,” said Traylor. “I'm really happy about the move.”