Hi everyone! 

 

Something totally unexpected happened last month.  I received a call from the Indianapolis Star; their weekly entertainment magazine, Indy.com, was doing a story on people that were "lucky".  Due to previous publicity of my story, my name was brought up as a survivor of a fatal car crash, and the reporter met me for lunch soon after to interview me for his article.

 

Indy.com is FREE and available in grocery stores, some restaurants, bars, liquor stores, etc.  The magazine highlights arts and entertainment, movies, dining, etc., in the Indianapolis area.  I attached the link for the article that features other folks and myself considered "lucky": http://www.indy.com/posts/5952.  The small section written about me talks about my brain trauma and injuries.   

 

On another note, I'm pretty excited while preparing for an upcoming keynote speech in Nashville, IN!  It is for the Toastmaster District 11 (all of Indiana and northern Kentucky) Spring conference.  I feel very honored to have been asked to speak!  I'm really looking forward to it.  To give you an inside scoop as to the title of my speech, it's "Me and My Big Feet."    I'm recording it and hope to have it out on CD shortly after.

 

I hope you have a good and safe St. Patrick's Day next week!

 

Darcy

How exciting it was for me to meet and talk with Bob Woodruff at the Brain Injury Association of Michigan conference a couple of weeks ago!  My husband, Chris, and I enjoyed unparallel hospitality from the folks in Michigan and had a great time.  Bob is such an inspiration and a joy to talk to.  He and I both have left lobe injuries and many of the same word challenges. 

On October 11, I was presented with the Brain Injury Association of Indiana Volunteer of the Year award at the Brain Injury Association of Indiana state conference.  This was pretty special, and I'm honored to have been selected to recieve this honor for my work in the passing of the new seat belt law and involvement in other BIAI activities.

As I mentioned in my last blog, this Tuesday I will be speaking at the Kokomo Rotary, as requested by one of my sorority sisters.  I'm looking forward to sharing my story with her and the rest of the Rotarians.  She had visited me when I was in my coma 16 years ago, and I haven't seen her since, though we've talked on the phone and e-mail for a few years.  Miriam and my real sister, Dana, were pledge sisters at BSU.

Stay tuned next month for some exciting news that will be going around the world!

All the best,
Darcy

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to let you all know of an upcoming speaking engagement at the Kokomo, IN Rotary meeting on October 23, 2007!  One of the reasons that I'm excited about it is that my sorority sister, Miriam Thomas, is the one who asked me to speak.  She is also one of my sorority sisters who visited me 16 years ago in the hospital right after the crash.  She has been a dear family friend of ours for years, and I'm glad to share with her and this organization about the crash and my steps for surviving and thriving in life.

I'm also excited about going to the Brain Injury Association of Michigan's annual state conference this coming Thursday, the 27th, and Friday, the 28th.  The last speaker on Friday is Bob Woodruff, and I'm sooo looking forward to hearing him and his wife Lee!!  I hope that I get a chance to meet him and Lee, too!  In any case, I look forward to seeing my friend Mike Dabbs, the Executive Director of BIAMI, Dr. John Corrigan from OSU, and Kathleen and Don Weber from Ohio (OVC Council), as well as meeting many other TBI survivors and advocates in Michigan.

I have some other upcoming announcements that are in the works, so stay tuned!

Fondly,
Darcy

• At the deadline for ABC's Republican debate question voting, the TBI question was ranked third in the most views with 5230 and second highest in the ranking at 4 1/2 stars!
• As a result, the TBI question was asked in the post debate Republican spin room and was featured LIVE on ABC cable channel on August 5, 2007.
• On Monday, August 6th, I uploaded my response to presidential candidate Representative Duncan Hunter's (R-CA) response, which was played on ABC's cable channel in heavy rotation the following several days (my co-worker told me the following Saturday that she turned on the TV, and there I was!).  In case you would like the link to the entire question, response, and rebuttal, here it is: http://ugv.abcnews.go.com/player.aspx?id=577774.
• ABC's voting counters were reset to "zero" views and "zero" stars for all of the questions for the Democratic debate on August 19th.  After a few days of voting, I was notified by ABC that my video made the "first cut".  At the voting deadline for the Democratic debate, my TBI question had 1300 views and was rated 4 1/2 stars! 
• However, my question was not used in the Democratic debate on August 19th or the spin room.  I still consider the question a success for this debate because if the Democratic candidates were smart, they'd have their campaign committee scoping out the questions that the public is asking and may be possibly selected for the debate.  With my TBI question being ranked in the top 5 the whole time, I'm sure that ALL candidates took notice of it.

How excited I was to receive the evaluations from a keynote speech I gave at OSRAM Sylvania, located in Westfield, IN, last month!  I wanted to pass along a few of the written in comments:

"You are a blessing to all of us!  Thank you for starting us off on the right note."
"What a gift.  Thank you so much for your time!  I needed every word you offered today.  You have so much to offer!"
"One of the best presentations I have attended.  Inspriational."
"Excellent!"
"Excellent speaker"
"I would recomend Darcy to a group seeking a motivational speaker."

WOW!  I had such a great time with this great group of folks.

The Democrat Presidential Iowa debate is tomorrow, and I'm so thrilled of the support and positive response that I've received from the question I submitted regarding the need for TBI services, treatment, rehabilitation, and public education.  I've been touched by the outreach of support for my question.  To God be the glory!

I'm doubly excited, as the question was featured on ABC in the Republican post-debate spin room, and I hope it is asked in the Democratic Iowa debate tomorrow.  It's important for this injury/disability to be addressed among the 1.4 million Americans, not to mention the brave soldiers who receive such injury in combat, who get this injury each year.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your support.

Your partner in TBI advocacy,
Darcy

Now is the time to advocate for TBI survivors.  Please read on for some exciting news!

 I wanted to ask for your help on something.  A week ago Thursday, I received a call from ABC New York (yeah - I about dropped the phone).  Because I had submitted a question via ABC's website to Bob Woodruff, which was featured in his interview this past March, they called me to ask if I would submit one for the upcoming presidential debates in Iowa, of which the first one for the Republicans is this Sunday, August 5th. Of course, I agreed.