Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Feting Lab's formula for success Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 15:11:15 EST Message-ID: \SE E;LIFE;ABOUT TOWN \HD Feting Lab's formula for success \BY Siobhan McDonough \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES All during his early academic years, Sir John Swan saw scrambled letters when he attempted to read a page. But he didn't realize he had a learning disability until much later, when a college English professor - the mother of a dyslexic child - recognized his problem. It was a discovery that would completely change his life. Sir John, who not only overcame his impediment but went on to become prime minister of Bermuda, was in Washington Monday night to accept the Lab School of Washington's Outstanding Learning Disabled Achiever Award. "Struggling with a deficiency and turning a handicap into an advantage gives a person a sense of pride," he said. "You go from being an oddball to a person who's gained greater inner strength. "The Lab School is a modern-day miracle. And there are a lot of miracles that have come out of that big miracle," he added, describing the people who have benefited from the special education program begun by Sally Smith in 1967. A roomful of about 1,000 guests, including politicians, entertainers, artists and business leaders, made sure to celebrate the feats of Mrs. Smith and her internationally recognized school, which offers extensive support services and products for learning-disabled people. "I always consider myself verbal until I have to think of an adequate way to describe the Lab School and Sally. She is a legend in her own time, and the school is a 'Miracle on Reservoir Road' ," benefit committee chairwoman Judith Terra said of the program Mrs. Smith pioneered and developed. Mrs. Smith started the Lab School as a mother desperate to find an alternative for a son unable to keep up in traditional schools. It developed out of a summer program she started in an Adams Morgan elementary school and is now offered to youths and adults at a site on the edge of Georgetown in Northwest. Many of those attending the dinner dance marking the school's 25th anniversary were learning disabled, or knew someone who is. Singer/actor Harry Belafonte - a previous awardee who had difficulty reading as a child - came from Las Vegas to indulge in a bit of self-exultation with old comrades-at-arms. "We've done something with our lives!" he said triumphantly, as he shook Sir John's hand. Among the guests paying tribute to Mrs. Smith and the awardees were co-chairwoman Ann Simpson with her husband, Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson; Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy; novelist Tom Clancy; Joe and Barbie Allbritton; French Ambassador Jacques Andreani and wife Donatella; art collector Daniel Terra; D.C. Council member Jack Evans; Henry Brandon; and FBI Director William Sessions and Alice Sessions. Also at the event were past Outstanding Learning Disabled Achievers, including filmmaker Charles Guggenheim, former U.S. Fish & Wildlife Director Frank Dunkle, architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, auction galleries chairman William Doyle and paleontologist John Horner. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM