(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - After 6.5 years with Southeast Alaska Independent Living (SAIL) Ketchikan and almost 9 years with SAIL, Independent Living Specialist, Kevin Gadsey will be leaving employment with SAIL on July 2.  Aaron Fong has been hired as the new SAIL Ketchikan Program Manager, and will work with Emily Chapel, Independent Living and Recreation Specialist.

Fong has a background serving people with disabilities and senior citizens.  He worked for 2 years prior as a care coordinator on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, and before that in Seattle, WA, with a mental health focus from 2006 to 2011. Fong has a master’s degree in counseling psychology, and was born and raised in San Francisco, CA.

“I look forward to continuing the mission of SAIL with Emily, inspiring personal independence, and carrying on and building upon all the fantastic accomplishments in Kevin’s tenure.  I am very excited to be working for SAIL and contributing to the community of Ketchikan, overall.  I am glad that my office serves Prince of Wales, so I may continue to advocate and make visits there in the future.”

Gadsey is leaving SAIL and Ketchikan to pursue a Master’s Degree in Public Advocacy and Activism at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

“I hope to learn the skills to continue the fight for disability rights, human rights, in parts of the world that still lack community access options for people with disabilities and differences,” Gadsey said. “It is tough to leave Ketchikan, my friends, and my adopted hometown, but this degree option will allow me to continue my efforts to effect positive change in the world.”

During the past six years in Ketchikan, Gadsey advocated for more accessible sidewalks, and the City of Ketchikan installed or repaired dozens of curb cuts. His efforts directly led to the installation of small ramps on the airport ferry waiting rooms, and installation of access features in the locker rooms of the new Gateway Aquatic Center.

As chair of the local Revilla Coordinated Transportation Coalition (a role Fong will assume), Gadsey helped create a local 200-page Transportation Plan Update that allowed several agencies including SAIL, Rendezvous Day Center, and Southeast Senior Services to obtain new vehicles to transport people with disabilities and senior citizens. The Transportation Plan Update also allowed SAIL Ketchikan to apply for a grant from the State of Alaska to bring the first wheelchair-accessible taxicab to Ketchikan in 2011.

Gadsey served on the governor-appointed Statewide Independent Living Council from 2008-2011, including the roles of Secretary and Vice-Chair. Gadsey also became an Americans with Disabilities Act trainer with the Northwest ADA Center in 2011.

Gadsey was named one of Ketchikan’s 50 Rock Stars for the 2009 July Fourth Parade and received the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau’s Rainbird Award in 2011 for his work in making Ketchikan more accessible for tourists with disabilities.

“We’ve accomplished so much over the past six years, and so many of SAIL’s consumers have stepped forward as advocates themselves. I know that Aaron, Emily, and the SAIL team will be able to continue the mission of SAIL – to inspire personal independence.”

Source of News: 

SAIL
www.

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