ABOUT THE COLUMNIST
Gracie Bonds Staples is an award-winning journalist who has been writing for daily newspapers since 1979, when she graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi. She joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2000 after stints at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Sacramento Bee, Raleigh Times and two Mississippi dailies. Staples was recently promoted to Senior Features Enterprise Writer. Look for her columns Thursdays and Saturdays in Living and alternating Sundays in Metro.
Pearlann Horowitz looked across the room at the Mason Fine Art gallery last month and her heart soared.
In all the years she and her husband, Jerry, have been sponsoring The Tasting to raise funds for adults with developmental disabilities, this was perhaps the first time Pearlann Horowitz could not assign names to the sea of faces. She saw more strangers than friends and it gave her hope.
For the first time in a long while, there in the sea of people Pearlann saw the Zimmerman-Horowitz Independent Living Program's future.
The convenient narrative is that the program supports independent living for adults with developmental disabilities.
But that’s hardly the whole story. The program allows adults with developmental disabilities to pursue their dreams independent of family members. If they want to rent an apartment or live in a group home with supportive services, the program provides the resources they need to do that. It provides them transportation to and from work and social outings.
Pearlann and Jerry Horowitz decided that they wanted to be part of that work soon after their daughter, Michelle, now 46 and developmentally disabled, returned from boarding school in 1991.
At the time, the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, which conceived the program, was struggling financially to stay afloat. And those with the greatest needs couldn't afford services on their own.
The Horowitzes knew they wanted Michelle to live as close to a “normal” life as possible. They also realized that they and their son were getting older and they needed to somehow secure both her future and that of others with developmental disabilities.
Their dream for their daughter was really no different from other parents’. They wanted her to live life on her own, not dependent on them or her 48-year-old brother, Scott. They wanted her to develop socially and culturally, to have a healthy self-esteem.
They knew that with the right support that all of that was possible.
In 1999, with equal contributions of $250,000 each from the Horowitzes and Dorothy and Ben Zimmerman, Jerry’s mom and stepfather, they established an endowment.
“We wanted to establish a stable, financial foundation for all those who are entitled to these services,” Pearlann Horowitz said.
The program, which serves over 50 adults annually, was then named the Zimmerman-Horowitz Independent Living Program to honor the Atlanta couple.
But like the program’s founders, she and her husband are aging. At 72, Pearlann thinks often about who will be there to take up this important cause.
At The Tasting last month, she looked across the room and couldn’t identify more than a third of those in the room.
“Three-fourths of them, I didn’t know,” Pearlann Horowitz said. “They were my son’s age and maybe 15 years younger. That was exciting.”
The Tasting is held each year both to raise funds and to raise awareness about the work being done on behalf of those with developmental disabilities. And although the program is under the auspices of the Jewish Family and Career Services, nearly half of residents hail from other ethnic and religious groups.
“We have to have a younger population who is aware of and understands the importance of our mission, of supporting those who cannot advocate for themselves, who know that adults with developmental disabilities deserve to be respected and included in the community,” Pearlann Horowitz said.
The Horowitzes’ daughter, Michelle, is living proof of the difference the program can make in the lives of those with a developmental disability.
Not only has she lived independently of them for more than 20 years, she is able to work, too. Just last year, she was named Employee of the Month at the Georgia Aquarium, where she works weekends as a greeter and saleswoman.
Officials there said Michelle always has a smile on her face and doesn’t complain. She’s an asset.
“I was blown away,” Pearlann Horowitz said of Michelle’s award. “She was blown away. People with developmental disabilities have the same wants and needs as the rest of us.”
The Zimmerman-Horowitz Independent Living Program makes it all possible.
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