Exceptional Connections International

Our Zoom sessions have resumed! We are so thankful to Dawn for taking time to prepare a presentation on Emotional Supports for our learners. It was such a productive and applicable session. We think everyone took away something they can begin implementing immediately! Thank you Dawn, for continuing to support ECI's mission in this capacity!

Visiting our Partners in-person is vital to our mission. Sure, virtual trainings might save us some time and the hassle of travel. We know they'd be less expensive. But, they could never replace the relationships we've built over the years. Like Simon Sinek wrote, "Trust is not formed through a screen, it is formed across a table. It takes a handshake to bind humans...and no technology yet can replace that. There is no such thing as virtual trust."

We know without a doubt that our relationships, our Partnerships, and our mission would not have grown so deep if it weren't for those real life, in-person visits. And we've also come to learn over the years, that those tables we're sitting at so far away from home almost always involve a meal!

We're excited to have Madonna Learning Center joining us again for this year's Empower the Exceptional 5k & Fun Run! If you don't know much about them, you can check out all of their awesome day programs for learners with disabilities here: https://www.madonna-learning.org. Thank you so much, MLC, for your great sense of community and involvement in our 5k and mission!

If you'd like to be a rider or a pusher at our Empower the Exceptional 5k & Fun Run, please let us know! You can also contact Rolling Runners or sign up here: https://raceroster.com/events/2024/88137/empower-the-exceptional-5k-and-fun-run. There's an option to join the Rolling Runners team and we offer a registration discount to our buddy pairs!

Not sure who comes up with these, but according to Facebook today is Relaxation Day! We hope you've taken some time to rest today. Only one more day 'til the weekend!

~Tuesday Tidbits~

To be guaranteed a 5k tee, please register by September 7th!

Don't want a t-shirt? No problem! You can select this option during the registration process.

https://raceroster.com/events/2024/88137/empower-the-exceptional-5k-and-fun-run

Can you believe this is year 7!? We can't either! And seeing that today is Motivation Monday, here's your motivational post to go get registered!

https://raceroster.com/events/2024/88137/empower-the-exceptional-5k-and-fun-run

Thank you to the Posey family for returning this year as an Empowering Sponsor for our Empower the Exceptional 5k & Fun Run!! We're so thankful for your continuous support year after year!

Our race day awards may be some of the most unique in town! They are handmade in Kenya by the Cheka Mamas program. This program is run by our Partners at Tabasamu Watoto Inclusive Center in Kibera, Kenya. The Cheka Mamas are a group of parents who are taught sewing skills to learn to create beautiful items to sell so they can bring in an income to support their families. If you place in one of our Awards Categories, you get to take home one of these one-of-a-kind, gorgeous medals!

There is no room for this kind of hate in the world! We encourage you to follow Squirmy and Grubs on Facebook to help break your own stigmas of what you think a disabled persons life should be like.

Hi everyone, Shane here. This one hurts to write, but it needs to be done.

We currently have a silly video going viral, which should be cause for celebration. Instead, it’s forcing me to confront the painful fact that literally hundreds of thousands of people hate me and think I’m worthless because of my disability. I’ll explain…

The video is quite simple: there’s a trend going around of people posting funny clips of themselves failing miserably at sports, with an ironic caption that “announces” that they did not qualify for the Olympics this year. This kind of self-deprecating humor is right up our alley, so we joined the trend and posted a quick video of me “diving” into a pool, except my dive is obviously just Hannah gently lowering me into the water. My caption announces that I “sadly did not make the 2024 Olympic diving team.” Mildly silly at best, kind of dumb at worst, but it fits the trend perfectly.

As of right now, the video has almost 20 million views. In our work, that’s a major success. I should be ecstatic. I should be proud. I should be celebrating.

But do you know what makes it tough to feel those things? The comments pouring into the video. Let me share some of the brutally ignorant and aggressively hateful things people felt compelled to say on this lighthearted and fun video I created.

The very top comment says, “It’s always important to wash your vegetables,” referring to me as the vegetable. It has 97,000+ likes. That means almost one hundred thousand real humans on this earth agree with this humiliating insult!

The next one, with 79,000 likes: “I still struggle to see that they are in a relationship.”

10,000 likes: “One day she’s not going to pull him back up.”

And another: “Dating him is like doing charity work.”

“You should just drown him.”

There are thousands more just like these. Thousands.

I’m tired, guys. Tired of spending my entire life trying to get the world to accept me. Tired of dedicating my career to educating people about the true disabled experience, only to be reminded—DAILY, by hundreds of thousands of people—that I’m still widely regarded as a “vegetable” that would be better off dead in their opinions. Tired of being denigrated and dismissed. The sheer volume of these horrific comments is staggering, so please, I beg you, don’t tell me to simply ignore them. These are real, actual people, with families and jobs, with influence and votes, who are out there in the world every day harboring these absolutely disgusting ideas about disabled people. It’s sickening.

It’s moments like these when I just want to throw in the towel. Hannah and I have given the world thousands of hours of authentic and personal content about our lives. We’ve worked passionately and tirelessly to show people that a disabled life is just as valid, worthy, meaningful, and joyous as any other, and yet, hatred fills every comment section we create.

I won’t give up, though. It’s too important to me and the stakes are too high. Until disabled people are embraced by our world as equals, I’ll be here, sharing my disabled life that I so deeply enjoy and cherish, and hoping (maybe against reason) that it’s making a difference.

I do believe people can change their opinions. I believe people can grow.

If you believe that too, and if you believe there’s no place in this world for the kind of hatred we receive, it would mean everything to me if you’d share this post. Let’s fight hate with love. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for all the support you give us. You truly keep me going when I’m facing what feels like an overwhelming monster.

Love, Shane

We will always join the dance!

~Tuesday Tidbits~

Our August Zoom is on the calendar! Please reach out to us or one of our Partners for the Zoom link! We'd love to have you join us!

Our #1 mission is to Empower the Exceptional and that still holds true with our 5k! We want individuals with disabilities to feel included, accepted, and accommodated when taking part in any of our programs. We designed our 5k and Fun Run courses to be friendly to all mobility levels and our after race activities are as well! People of all abilities are invited to participate with us on race day to support our efforts in empowering exceptional individuals in the Memphis community and beyond!

https://raceroster.com/events/2024/88137/empower-the-exceptional-5k-and-fun-run

Happy Birthday Ticha Masai! You are a wonderful human being and all who know you, love you. We hope you have an awesome day and feel so celebrated!

While in Kenya last month, we had the honor of helping host two family fun days- one in Kibera and one in Busia. These days are some of our favorites 💜 It's a great opportunity for the kids to let loose, play games, and try new things. In Kibera, the parents join in as well! It's great seeing them get to chill out and enjoy each others company 😀 We want to say a special thank you to Sweet Pea's Southern Cookin for hosting our fundraising night in June and helping make these two family fun days possible!

Please contact us about sponsoring our 7th Annual Empower the Exceptional 5k & Fun Run! We have lots of great perks for our 2024 sponsors! Deadline to commit is August 31st!

5k Friday is here to remind you that we offer prizes for Best Costume and Most Team Spirit at our Empower the Exceptional 5k & Fun Run!

https://raceroster.com/events/2024/88137/empower-the-exceptional-5k-and-fun-run

Searching for monkeys, then and now. 2016 vs 2024.

Part of our mission is to ensure educators feel empowered and supported to offer inclusive or special education when they are ready to build this into their programs. Our time in Musanze was spent working with staff at two schools, L'arce-en-ciel (an inclusive program) and Ineza Kabaya (a program for students with intellectual disabilities). This group came together with so much passion and thirst for knowledge for our two-day training workshop! We were able to help them expand their knowledge on several topics they chose to learn more about. Working with such an eager group of professionals was the cherry on top of a very productive two-week trip!

We're excited to welcome Bolich Consulting as an Empowering Sponsor of our 5k this year!! Catherine has been so awesome to work with in the short time we've known her and has been super savvy with assisting us with our Google Ad Grant. Check out her website here -> https://bolichconsulting.com. Thank you for supporting us, Catherine!!

Well it isn't the Olympics, but we think our 5k is pretty remarkable! Our Feel Good Fridays are turning into 5k Fridays from now until September 21st! Stay tuned for more race updates.

Speaking of 5k fun, we give away TONS of prizes at our event! Don't miss out on the chance to win one of door prizes, or dress up to be eligible for Best Costume! We've also been known to designate our Buff City Soaps gift to "Sweatiest Runner". 😉💦🏃🏽‍♀️🛁. Get your running shoes ready and sign up here -> https://raceroster.com/events/2024/88137/empower-the-exceptional-5k-and-fun-run

Empower the Exceptional 5k & Fun Run

Throwback Thursday just got a whole lot sweeter 💜 These two have been buds for a long time! First pic is from 2017 and then the second is from our recent trip earlier this month. They are growing up so fast!