Annual Gala Celebrating Possibilities

For Those With Disabilities

DANBURY — In 1986 Geoffrey Schachter could have been described as a typical college student. Young and extremely bright, he studied computers, engineering, and math at Columbia University in New York City.

In 1986 Mr Schachter was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street and he suffered a traumatic brain injury. The accident initially left him without the ability to talk, walk, sit up, or even swallow.

Mr Schachter traveled across the country going from facility to facility in search of the type of care he needed. Disgusted by the options that were available for young men and women with brain injury, his aunt, Joyce Fubini, who serves as Mr Schachter’s co-conservator along with his father Steve, searched for a place that could give Geoffrey a life where he would be cared for with dignity and respect.

It was in Connecticut that they found exactly what they were looking for: Ability Beyond Disability, a health and human service organization that provides community-based services for people with disabilities throughout Connecticut and New York.

“We’re so fortunate to have an organization like Ability Beyond Disability,” Ms Fubini said. “They have given Geoffrey the chance to live the kind of life he deserves.”

Mr Schachter has been with Ability Beyond Disability since 1995 and is currently living in one of the organization’s homes in Ridgefield. Over the past 13 years Mr Schachter has transformed into a very independent individual. Not only is he capable of talking, walking, sitting up, and swallowing, but he even shops for himself and cooks his own meals. 

Ability Beyond Disability will feature Geoffrey held Saturday, April 26, at The Amber Room Colonnade in Danbury. The event will honor Anthony Rizzo, Sr, who will be presented with the Robert S. Young Humanitarian Award, named after the former volunteer leader and president of Ability Beyond Disability.

The evening will also feature dinner with a menu appropriate for Passover, silent and live auctions, dancing and musical entertainment by Nik and the Nice Guys, back by popular demand.

The gala will support the organization’s mission to enable people with disabilities to live as independently as possible. Tickets are $175. For further information and reservations contact Greg Bastek, ABD director of development, at 826-3171 or Gbastek@AbilityBeyondDisability.org.

Ability Beyond Disability is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Bethel and Mount Kisco, N.Y., with services expanding throughout western Connecticut and along the eastern lower Hudson Valley in New York. A growing resource for more than 800 people with disabilities, it currently offers a wide range of flexible services in the areas of residential and individual home supports, employment services, day and educational resources, transitional services, behavioral and clinical supports, aging specialties, transportation, and service coordination.

Founded in 1953, Ability Beyond Disability has received the highest level of accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and is recognized as the first agency in the country to close its sheltered workshop and provide extensive services that are fully community-based. For more information about Ability Beyond Disability visit AbilityBeyondDisability.org.