Presidential Citizens Medal 2010 - Kimberly mcguiness

Kimberly McGuiness: First of all, we have a deaf autistic child that goes to Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring, and she's the reason, the main reason why I'm here receiving this award today. It's through her needs that I've advocated for deaf and hard of hearing children in the State of Georgia. 2007 lobbied and was able to get legislation passed for the State: Senate Bill 168 Deaf Child Bill of Rights and Senate Bill 170, American Sign Language for Foreign Language Credit in grades K through 12. Next year I'm going to be going back and lobbying for the same credit to be given in colleges and universities. We tried last year, but things didn't quite work out. So we're going to go for it again this year, and I'm quite sure we'll be successful. I never thought that I would have, you know, the child as Julia is with her challenges today, but I wouldn't change anything. She's shown me many things, my husband and I both. She's shown us patience, you know, how to look through the world through her eyes. She doesn't see color. Negative, you know, anything, always positive, smiling. She's a ray of sunshine. For anyone who wants to get into community work, I would say jump in and do it. You know, I heard a friend of mine say one time when she was doing a presentation at the school: What would you do if you were not afraid? You would just do it. And I live by that and also the fact that, you know, I always stand up for what I believe is right even if I'm the only one standing. What makes me feel the best about all of this is what this is going to mean to our community, our students, and our school. And if you've never known joy or happiness to have a texture, today it does.