December 2009

Join CTD Online Today!

Want to join an organization with restaurant discounts, travel assistance and a fancy member card? Then look someplace else! What you get with your CTD membership is the knowledge that you help ensure that people with disabilities may live, learn, work, play and participate fully in their community of choice.

Many non-profits, many businesses of all kinds actually, were scaling back on goals and cutting work in 2009. CTD did not. I believe we’ve had a remarkable year. This was a legislative year, and we worked very hard representing people with disabilities. When we started in January, all bets were off, and most experts predicted a difficult legislative session. By most accounts, we greatly exceeded expectations.

CTD also served on over a dozen work groups, committees and boards, influencing policy and practice to benefit citizens with disabilities. Our electronic newsletter reaches thousands statewide and our web-based Raise Your Voice page facilitated communications between the community of people with disabilities and policymakers. CTD conducted workshops and trainings all over the state. The National Council for Independent Living, the Texas Rehabilitation Association and the American Council of the Blind of Texas honored us with awards.

We invite you to renew your membership with CTD for 2010. If you are not currently a member, but have been in the past, please join with us in these increasingly critical times for Texans with disabilities.

Dues are still only $25 for an individual, $30 for a family, $5 for those on a limited income, $100 for a local organization and $200 for a state organization. Every member counts to CTD.

As we enter the season of giving, please consider CTD. A contribution to CTD can simply be added to your payment for dues. Contributions to CTD are deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Payment is easy at www.cotwd.org/paypal.html

Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season.

CTD Annual report Now Available!

The 2009 Annual Report What have we done this year? Find out in our annual report, now available. For this year’s theme, Over three decades of advocacy and counting…, we’ve incorporated photographs from CTD’s 31-year history on the front and back covers. Inside the report you will find:

a quick recap of this year's legislative session, including summaries of bills CTD worked on
highlights of our public awareness and education efforts
overviews of awards, and appointments.

You can read the report online or request a print copy by email (please include your mailing address in your email).

Thanks to our Sponsors - 6th Annual CTD Film Festival a Triumph!

The full Alamo Drafthouse theater at the CTD Film Festival The 6th annual Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival (CTDFF) was a huge success! Both nights, Novemebr 6th and 7th, sold out, media coverage before and after the event was widespread, and the attendees enjoyed great films by and about people with disabilities. The short film competitons garned contestants from across the country and from Canada and Spain as well! At the festival, CTD also named two local schools as Scholastic Partners to help jump start their film programs. The Ann Richards School and the Griffin School both received equipment rental certificates in the amount of $500 thanks to a generous donation by Mopac Media.

Yves Langlois (Quebec) won Grand Prize in the Emerging Filmmaker Competition with his short film Mon Ami Claude. The audience enjoyed an episode of 70's TV series Longstreet, in which guest star Bruce Lee teaches Longstreet, a detective who is blind, martial arts. The evening came to a close with the feature length film A Possible Dream: The Andrea Friedman Story, which documents the life of the successful actress who happens to have Down Syndrome.

Austin Bouse, of Austin's Griffin School, won the Grand Prize and Audience Choice awards in the Scholastic Film Competition, with his comedic short Slice of Life. We are happy to hear his success has launched his greater involvement in the Austin film community. After the competition, comedy clips from a variety of TV shows featuring characters and actors with disabilities were screened. The final feature was The Eyes of Me a film about four students at the Texas School of the Blind and Visually Impaired. Director Keith Maitland, producer Patrick Floyd, and star Meagan McComic participated afterwards in a Q&A.

Thanks to the very generous support of our sponsors (listed below) the festival was an unqualified success. We hope you’ll join us next year for an even bigger and better version of CTD's largest annual awareness and fundraising event!

Medicare Open Enrollment Ends Soon!

Prescription drug costs can make a big difference in choosing a plan The current Medicare open enrollment period ends on December 31st. Although the amount of information from current and prospective providers can seem overwhelming, it is important to review your coverage and decide if you need to make changes. Also, be sure to check for notifications from your current providers to see if they are making changes to your existing coverage. Some tips for making coverage decisions:

Get a printout from your pharmacy of your last year's prescription usage and costs.
Check different plans' literature to be sure that medicines and services that you need are covered.
Go to the the US Department of Health and Human Services website for useful information to help you make these decisions
If you haven't started, get started now!

Film Festival Sponsors: