The FAS Pests of the West

Red Shoes Rock honors the FASD pioneers –
FASTimes Team SHINES BIG IN HISTORY – Thank you!

Very busy bees in Washington that took on the task to change how people think about FASD.

Shared by Jocie DeVries – thank you

Let’s see:
Our core team was Vicky McKinney, Linda LaFever,
Ann Waller, Delinda McCann and I.

Jocie DeVries, mine, was based on my presentation of WHY prevention was important (FAS with an average IQ). To introduce this concept, Dr. Sterling Clarren recommended me to ABC to introduce FAS and a normal IQ level side by side to his “new” research. That was the spring of 1992? And you already know about me, so let our stories.

Vicky McKinney’s our co-directors specialty was prevention (Dare actually asked her to donate her presentation to the DARE Program (It was her family’s story for heaven’s sake). After the disbanding of the FAS Family Resource Institute, Vicky still had energy to spare and went to work as Director of the Parent Training and Information Center of Washington, funded by the Dept. of Education. She managed and trained Parent Coordinators who advocated for students with disabilities throughout the state. Now that Jocie has retired (again) her goal is to grow and produce fine wine from grapes grown in her own yard and enjoy her grandbabies. She enjoys hosting parties on her infamous deck and photographing sunrises on Mayfield Lake with her family and friends. In the summertime you will often find her at various Blues Festivals.

Linda LaFever’s specialty was the birth mother story. Her presentation won one of the two top presentations of the National ARK’s Prevention Summit in Maryland (I think it was 1993) I won the other anchor presentation other. Telling a birth mother story takes bravery — Linda showed her courage again and again. Linda is retired and living on the beach with her husband in Ocean Shores. Her son, Danny, is happy, healthy and living in his own little place on their property. Linda’s had a few ups and downs, but in spite of her health issues, she is passionately involved with her church and frequently vacations in Israel where her daughter lives. Her autobiography, “Cheer’s Here to the Baby!” is beloved by both her friends and colleagues; when she retired she donated the remaining copies of her book to The Division of Alcohol and Substances Abuse to use in prevention programs for women who struggle with addiction. Linda is still as lovely and vibrant as ever.

Ann Waller came on board around 1993, she had just finished her Master’s Degree in Computer Science, and she devoted her career to me to help me with writing skills so I wouldn’t look so inept in advocacy in the professional world. Ann has recently completed an eleven-year journey of wholistic inner healing for her PTSD and OCD perfectionistic tendencies. This has involved classes in theology, Strengths Finders, Celebrate Recovery, and also treatment, trainings, and practice in several types of alternative/complimentary approaches to healing, such as hypnotherapy; breathwork; Reiki; ThetaHealing; Total Biology/Recall Healing; Energy Medicine and a whole lot of prayer and meditation. She is now healthy and whole–free to live her faith, day by day in Divine Love, for which she is deeply grateful. Her husband is a retired minister and a university Professor Emeritus as of two years ago. Last fall (2017) they took a three month trip to Haiti where her husband was an interim pastor for an English-speaking non-denominational church. When people ask her if she is keeping busy, she answers, “As busy as I want to be.” She’s still living in Nampa, ID.

Delinda McCann was on original board of Directors. She always our point of contact for our conference table, very good with the public, a good writer for FAS Times and was a rock behind the scenes in State Agencies. Delinda is still running her flower farm on Vashon Island. Occasionally she writes an article about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or other children’s issues. Delinda’s other writing includes several novels. She includes characters with disabilities in each story. This is another opportunity for her to remind women not to drink when pregnant. She posts her essays and short stories on her blog. In addition to farming, writing and making music she tries to fit in vacations to warm climates. Her upcoming novel, Lucy Goes Home should be released in the fall of 2018.

Links:
Blog: https://delindalmccann.weebly.com/blog
Web Site: https://delindalmccann.weebly.com

Books by Delinda McCann:

• M’TK Sewer Rat: End of Empire – https://www.amazon.com/MTK-Sewer-Rat…/dp/1938586344/
• Power and Circumstance – https://www.amazon.com/Power-Circumstance…/dp/1938586743/
• Janette – https://www.amazon.com/Janette-Feminine…/dp/B01417YZCG/.
• Something About Maudy – https://www.amazon.com/Something-About-Maudy-Delinda-McCann-ebook/dp/B00DUHRQYS/
• Summer Chaos. https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Chaos-Pastor…/dp/1938586883/

Larry Burd, Ann Streissguth, Ed Riley always had our backs and never said a word of criticism against us as far as we knew.  I am so grateful for their support.

To Ann Streissguth Thank You — I originally used the term that that affected folks with a normal IQ were like moral chameleons and Ann Streissguth used that in her literature so sippers would leave me alone. She also invited me (with Ann Waller) to write a chapter in her book The Challenge of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (Overcoming Secondary Disabilities) published by the University of Washington Press in 1997. The title of our chapter was Parent Advocacy in FAS Public Policy Change.

Not many people know this, but when Senator Tom Daschle was proposing the 25 million dollar appropriation for FAS, he told us it was never going to pass unless we found him a Republican Senator to co-sponsor. We asked our Senator Slade Gorton, and he agreed immediately, and the 25 million was unanimously passed a few days later. The fed agencies always said they got the appropriation, but they didn’t as far as we could ever discover. We never went back for another appropriation because none of the money ever went to services for affected children and families.

TOMORROW LET’S FIND OUT HOW SOMETHING BIG CAN BEGIN IN SMALL PLACES – NOFAS began in SOUTH DAKOTA?

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