Event raises awareness of developmental disabilities

As an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Seth Woods often spent his Friday afternoons dressed up as the Hamburger Helper "hand" mascot, giving out high-fives in front of the student union as part of his work for a student group called the Character Council.

That is to say, he knows that being fun (and a little bit silly) is a good way to get people’s attention.

That makes the fourth-year medical student, a former co-chair of the Student Alliance for People of All Abilities (SAPA), the perfect person to help lead the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s 2022 Flamingo Flocking for Developmental Disabilities Awareness campaign. The campaign will run throughout March, which is National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

“It’s a really fun idea, and hopefully it brings people joy to see the ‘flocks,’” Woods said. “Also, the event creates more awareness of intellectual and developmental disabilities and MMI. If people need help, they will be directed to MMI for that help. And just from an advocacy standpoint, people will know more about their neighbors and resources in the community.”

See sidebar at right for flocking information.

MMI’s flamingo flocking fundraiser was created to raise awareness about the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in all areas of community life, as well as awareness to the barriers that people with disabilities still sometimes face in connecting to the communities in which they live.

For a small donation, SAPA’s trained technicians place pink flamingos on front lawns, where they will rest for two to four days, until they mysteriously migrate to another location. The birds come with a sign that says, “You've been flocked by MMI for Developmental Disabilities Awareness,” and an instruction sheet on what to do if recipients want to “pay it forward.”

Woods joined SAPA in 2019, inspired in part by his wife, who holds a degree in special education and has often worked with youth and adults with disabilities, beginning as a volunteer in high school.

“I want to be involved in things that are bigger than myself and are going to be impactful,” Woods said. “SAPA deals with something – improving health care for people of all abilities – that I’ll always be passionate about and knew would be important regardless of the specialty I chose.”

This is the first year SAPA has worked on the event, and Woods is looking forward to being one of the SAPA students who will help move the flocks.

“From what I hear, we’ll have no shortage of work to do, and we’re going to try to keep up with it as much as we can, not leave the flamingos too long in one space.”

And as far as arranging the birds at each home?

“We’ll have to get creative,” he said. “Maybe we can make it even more entertaining.”