March marks several milestones for the developmentally disabled community in Wood County, including the
30th anniversary of the presidential proclamation that designates the month as Developmental Disability
Awareness Month and also the 50th year of the creation of the county board system in Ohio.
Wood Lane, Wood Lane Residential Services and other organizations across the state and nation are using
this opportunity to promote public awareness of the developmentally disabled community in Wood County
and showing how the community lives and works together.
“We want to push community involvement and breaking down those barriers of seeing disability as a
limitation. I don’t want to see a division. Bowling Green is an amazing community of awareness and
acceptance. We have a lot of diversity anyway in our community,” said Jessica Miller-Blakely, CEO of
Wood Lane Residential Services. “We want to focus on saying ‘Hey, I’m Jessica and this is me and why I
love living in the community.’ For us, it’s about making sure that people are aware that developmental
disabilities isn’t just someone with down syndrome, there are a lot of disabilities, but we want to look
at the ability part of disability.”
Wood Lane Residential Services is celebrating the month with a “meet your neighbor” campaign on its
website that highlights the residents it serves and gives people a better understanding of who their
neighbors are on a personal level.
Wood Lane has several activities planned to highlight the month, and they are also taking note of the
50th anniversary of the establishment of county boards of developmental disabilities.
“There’s a website, alwaysthere50.org, that will be up and running as a yearlong campaign. It’s also a
month that we celebrate every year. We do various activities just to bring awareness to our organization
and the individuals we serve,” said Mollie Tyrrell, Wood Lane community education coordinator. “They are
your neighbors, they are your coworkers.”
On Wednesday, seven individuals from Wood Lane’s People First group will be traveling to the statehouse
for DD Advocacy Day.
“Very uniquely, this is the 50th year of the county boards outfit in the state of Ohio. Fifty years ago
was the legislation that actually established the county board system,” said Brent Baer, superintendent
of Wood Lane. “Now here in Wood County, because of the amazing advocates and really the self-starters
and innovators, we had services that were delivered countywide and really Wood Lane (started) several
years prior to that.”  
Wood Lane School students will have a celebration March 17 during which they’ll participate in a
progressive craft.  They will then watch a clown show put on by members of the staff, including Baer.

“The amount of work that our custodial supervisor has volunteered and donated to put this together, it’s
kind of the secret magic that goes on that people think may happen, but the dedication that Barb Dussel
and her team have shown to provide a positive experience for our students is heartwarming. They’ve been
working on this for over a month now,” Baer said.
“There are very few people who work at Wood Lane where it’s just a job for them, Tyrrell added. “It’s
much more than that.“
The Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities is also hosting a Business After Hours Open House on
March 23 from 4-6:30 p.m., in concert with the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re going to introduce our programs by having individuals who actually participate in those services
give a testimonial. Not testimonials in the sense that we’re bringing in a bunch of ‘homers;’ we have
individuals who experience some pretty significant challenges in life. Our job is really to help those
individuals work through those barriers and obstacles,” Baer said.
Wood Lane is also promoting Developmental Disabilities Month in area schools with a social media
campaign.
“We’re also asking the schools countywide to take a few moments in each classroom to teach a lesson or do
something that actively, positively promotes disability awareness month,” Tyrrell said. “We’re using the
hashtag #woodlaneawareness as a way they can show they’re participating.”
Wood Lane Residential’s Miller-Blakely said being involved in the developmentally disabled community has
been a way of life, crediting her father’s involvement in Wood Lane and the HUD board for exposing her
to the inclusive nature of Bowling Green and Wood County.
“It’s that awareness factor. People will take someone’s lead, in that sense. … We’re very lucky. The
individuals that work with us are so involved in getting people out in the community that I feel the
community buys into that,” Miller-Blakely said. “And the schools are so good at their programming and
their intervention programming that they do. … When I grew up there wasn’t as much inclusion in school.
Now there’s inclusion and, yes, you still have intervention classes, but for my children there’s no
boundary there. It’s that acceptance, that’s how they’re raised. There’s no bullying or treating anyone
different. They’re more understanding. I find the compassion to be different.”
Baer notes that while improvements have been made as far as acceptance and awareness, as long as there is
a need for disabilities awareness month, the county board’s job is not done.
“Wood County is such a welcoming location. It’s a pleasure to go to our local civic groups and they’re
ready to partner with us and it’s our job to take advantage of that,” Baer said.
“It’s a good place to be, Wood County. We also know that until there’s not a reason to do disability
awareness, we have work to do. We’re trying to take advantage of that this month.”