The Achievement Center of Texas Special Arts Festival, held March 19, brought various types of art to Garland’s Spring Creek Church. This year’s festival marks the ninth anniversary of the event that continues to hold great significance for the special needs adults and children that attend ACT.
“They don’t get enough chances to shine and they have so much talent,” Marilynne Serie, executive director ACT said. “If you can bring that out of them, they feel wonderful and self-confident.”
ACT students enjoyed entertaining the crowd with song and dance numbers that included a wonderful rendition of “Let It Go,” from the popular Disney film “Frozen.”
Serie, whose son-in-law John Bramblitt is a world-renowned blind artist and author, said that the talents of people with disabilities should never be underestimated.
“I was inspired by my son-in-law
when I got to go with him to an arts festival in Shreveport and I decided that we had to do that and give people in Garland and North Texas an opportunity to shine,” she said.
Bramblitt, who was at the event to paint and visit with attendees, said that when he first lost his eyesight he didn’t think he could do anything.
“I thought my life was over. I was a student and my whole goal became just not being a burden on my family. I thought if I worked really hard
maybe I wouldn’t be a burden,” he said. “My family and community didn’t give up on me and the people around me and the people in school didn’t give up on me. They believed in me at a time when I didn’t, so I started believing in myself. I started believing them.”
Gary Bachers, another artist who showed his work at the festival, was a doctor and concert pianist before he suffered a debilitating stroke at age 37 that changed his life. He could no longer practice medicine or perform and he began painting.
Austin Davenport, who has Down syndrome also showed his artwork at the festival. He said that he paints because it is a way in which he can express how he feels.
An artist of a different kind, Lisa Smith, wowed spectators with moving interpretations of songs through sign language. Smith has Down syndrome and has been performing for 16 years. She had one sign language lesson then used books to complete her education in the language on her own. She gives God the credit for her talent and is grateful to be able to sh
are her gift with others.
Smith has performed with recording artists including Sandi Patty, Sheila Walsh and Kathy Troccoli. She’ll celebrate her 41st birthday in New York City while she is there to perform at a benefit at Carnegie Hall.
Other organizations were on-hand to visit with attendees. Garland’s chapter of Altrusa International, Inc., a worldwide service organization, distributed free books to children to help promote their literacy programs.
About ACT: The Achievement Center of Texas is a licensed nonprofit day care and day habilitation center for children and adults with special needs. Every effort is made to offer families their choices in services and to support those choices wherever possible. In providing a wide range of services in the least restrictive environment, students at the Achievement Center can grow and develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially working toward greater independence and more satisfying way of life.