SOMBER GROUP CHANGED BY LAUGHTER

DIRECTORS OF INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL CENTERS meeting...LAUGHTER YOGA FEEDBACK!

This is a particularly anxious time for Directors of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Centers across the state, as the Texas HHSC budget proposals prepared for the 82nd Legislative Session include a number of significant and even critical cuts in funding. Presentations on the first morning of our quarterly meeting in September confirmed this, leaving us a somber group.

Then Leah walked in and changed things for the remainder of our meeting. Her energy, exuberance and ability to get everyone laughing -- while pretending to mix drinks, run a lawnmower or bounce basketballs -- helped people change their outlook from
"doom and gloom" to "bring it on".

It's often hard to gauge what people take from these day and 1/2 meetings. Not this time. No doubt they
snickered, chuckled or guffawed all the way home.


Carey Amthor
Waco Texas