Download a PDF of the report here - United Cerebral Palsy

ANNUAL
REPORT
2012
2012 Ethel Hausman Volunteer of the Year Award
The 2012 Ethel Hausman Volunteer of the Year Award honors an exceptional individual who, through
volunteering, has made an outstanding contribution to UCP. 2012 had so many exceptional nominations that the
Awards Committee chose two recipients.
The first awardee was Tim Noonan, nominated by UCP Central Pennsylvania. Noonan has donated more than 1,600
hours of service over 10 years to the betterment of the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental
disabilities in Pennsylvania’s Perry and Cumberland counties. Noonan is the co-founder and co-chair of the
Cumberland-Perry Residential Task Force, an initiative seeking residential solutions for people with intellectual
disabilities. He worked to expand the scope of the Task Force to include employment and respite services and
secured funds so these essential programs are provided to families at minimal cost. As a result of his hard work and
determination, more than 120 individuals were placed in one of 15 new group homes, 12 apartments and in family
living arrangements. Many other people received the support they needed to live fuller lives in their community,
receive job training and placement and support transitioning from school to adult life.
The second recipient was Micki James from UCP of the Inland Empire. James has been a UCP volunteer for more than
60 years. Along with her late husband, Dennis James, she played an integral part in UCP’s history, and her impact has
been incredible. Her son, Brad James, accepted the award on her behalf.
2012 Life Without Limits Award
The 2012 Life Without Limits Award was presented to Bonnie Peterson, nominated by UCP of Central California, as an
individual with disabilities who has demonstrated leadership and achievement of such caliber as to be a significant role
model to individuals with and without disabilities.
Peterson was born in 1949, when children with disabilities were not expected to have lives as full productive citizens.
However, Peterson gracefully overcame every obstacle that came her way. She built a life that included a marriage of
more than 40 years. She and her late husband lived their lives as full citizens, and they educated their community to
the reality that people with disabilities are simply people.
Peterson is a mother, a grandmother, a business owner and an active community volunteer, whose compassion and
care seemingly knows no limits. She is also a published author. In We Climbed Every Mountain, she shared with the
world what it has been like to live her life as a person with a disability. She describes in her book, and exemplifies in
her journey through life, that no obstacle is too great no matter what the odds against one may be. She has not just
accomplished ordinary things in extraordinary ways, but she has taken hold of the extraordinary and made is part of
an ordinary, “just like any other person” kind of life.
20