“Somewhere, something incredible is to be known” Carl Sagan

Hard to believe that our Wrangler Gazette is celebrating one year this month!  What started as a “let’s see what we can put together,” has turned into a collection of incredible stories about our Wranglers, our staff, and our agency. These are stories that we are proud to tell and stories that we look forward to being known. 

Our goal has always been to share inspirational stories as we focus on the four pillars of our mission: Live, Learn, Work, and Grow.  Stories that portray our Wranglers as independent and productive; stories that reflect on their abilities rather than their disabilities; and stories that use their stories as “something incredible to be known” rather than as examples of their disabilities.

Likewise, we are proud to acknowledge all of our community partners and donors and the impact they have on our mission.  A healthy non-profit organization like New Danville strives for a wide network of partnerships to help it achieve its goals.  We are proud of our community and look forward to sharing this impact in every newsletter.

Our first year has also come with some amazing news. The Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities (GCPD), in partnership with the University of Texas at Arlington’s Department of Communication and its College of Liberal Arts minor in disability studies program, put out a statewide call for nominations of outstanding media content for the annual Barbara Jordan Media Awards. The awards spotlight journalists who in 2021 portrayed people with disabilities through a positive, person-centered lens. Winners were selected by a panel of professional journalists, people with disabilities, and disability-service professionals. New Danville submitted Dion McInnis, Development Director, and the Wrangler Gazette for one of the categories.  I am very proud to report “something incredible to be known,” our Wrangler Gazette was selected as the 2022 winner in the newsletter category! Not too bad for our first year in print.

We hope that this past year we have kept you informed, enlightened you to understand the wonders of those we serve, and helped you appreciate how you are part of our success.  Here’s to many more wonderful stories to come.