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Choice Hotels included Sunflower Bakery at their Disability Inclusion Celebration for being named “One of the Best Places to Work for People with Disabilities.” Sunflower Bakery provided cakes for their event and Daphna Raskas, Executive Director, was honored to be invited to speak at their Celebration. The following article appeared in the Voice of Choice Hotels Post the week of June 30, 2018.
Did you know that 20 percent of the population has a disability—and that the majority of disabilities are invisible?
ENABLE does—and that’s why they’re dedicated to enabling success for associates of all abilities. The group sponsored last week’s celebrations at Rockville and Phoenix in honor of Choice’s being named one of the “Best Places to Work for People with Disabilities.” In case you missed it, here’s a recap!
An exciting new health care benefit
Patrick Cimerola announced an exciting new benefit that will make Choice even more disability confident. An expert from Cigna will be in Rockville on August 16 at 2 p.m. ET (will be broadcast) to share more, but here are the highlights:
- Starting on August 1, treatment for autism through Cigna will be available to all covered associates and their covered family members.
- Cigna also has a new Cigna Autism Specialty Program and Autism Case Managers to help anyone needing assistance.
Bakeries making a difference
After hearing from Patrick and John Bonds, we enjoyed treats and hosted two guest speakers from bakeries making a real difference in our local communities—be sure to check them out!
Sunflower Bakery
Daphna Raskas is the executive director of Sunflower Bakery in Rockville, whose mission is to ensure people of all abilities have access to meaningful employment. Sunflower prepares young adults with learning differences through professional on-the-job training for employment in pastry, baking, and related food industries. In addition to the bakery, Sunflower operates a café that also offers savory treats.
Stuttering King Bakery
Matt Cottle, founder and master chef of Stuttering King Bakery, provided Phoenix’s treats. Matt spoke about his experience with autism and founding the bakery out of his family’s home kitchen. Matt trained for three years and now specializes in event and business catering in the Phoenix metro valley. He is working on opening his own brick-and-mortar bakery, where he’ll employ and teach the art of baking to others with autism.
Join ENABLE!
If you’re interested in helping Choice become even more disability confident, reach out to one of the ENABLE co-chairs: Todd Reeser in Phoenix and Case Parker, Anne Smith, or Mike Shemer in Rockville. Anyone can participate—you don’t need to have a disability. And, if you do have a disability, you do NOT need to disclose it.
With your help and ENABLE’s leadership, we will continuously learn, grow, and strive toward becoming fully inclusive.
Thanks for being part of Choice’s journey!
