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Local Voices

Abilities Network Honors Susan Fredericks

TOWSON, Md. – Abilities Network recently held its 50th Anniversary Celebration and Awards Event, which honored 35 individuals, businesses and organizations that have created significant partnerships with the non-profit. Susan Fredericks of Middle River received the Epilepsy Services Program Partner Award.

Fredericks was diagnosed with partial complex epilepsy at 11 years of age and never drove as a teenager due to her seizures. She was in drama in high school and would sometimes have seizures before going on stage. They never occurred during a show, though.

Sometimes Fredericks would have a handful of seizures a day, which caused her to miss school so she could recover from them. Interestingly, she never talked about her seizures until she went to college.

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She also experienced seizures while traveling abroad, but now only has breakthrough seizures a couple of times a year. Her seizures are externally-based. (For example, recently she drank too much coffee in a short period of time and had two seizures).

Fredericks was a teacher for 36 years in the local Catholic School System: 30 of those years were spent teaching Spanish, the other six as a general elementary school teacher. She disclosed her epilepsy diagnosis to her students during the second year of teaching and continues to educate children and adults about epilepsy.

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Since becoming an Abilities Network volunteer in 2011, the year she retired, Fredericks has assisted with health fairs at schools and done puppet shows, including Kids on the Block, which help students in grades three through five understand and accept those individuals with disabilities. The star puppet, Brian McDaniel, is a 12-year-old boy who has epilepsy. These scripts have lively dialogue and situations involving Brian and his other puppet friends who discuss epilepsy and proper seizure first aid.

Fredericks also has presented Seizure Man programs to help elementary students remove fear and create acceptance of people with seizures and Take Charge of the Storm programs to educate teens, dispel myths and reduce the perceived stigma associated with epilepsy.

“I was very surprised and touched by the award,” said Fredericks. “I didn't think I deserved it.”

In addition to the awards ceremony, this celebration highlighted the work of Abilities Network, which was initially incorporated in 1964 as the Epilepsy Association of Maryland and has since expanded to provide services to individuals with varying types of disabilities. Today, it serves over 10,000 individuals statewide.

The event also acknowledged the late Dr. John Freeman (one of the founders of the organization who has contributed to the its growth and success over the years) and paid tribute to late Diana Pillas (who worked in the epilepsy support center at Johns Hopkins Pediatric Epilepsy Center, served on the Abilities Network’s board for over 30 years and was instrumental in encouraging parents of children with epilepsy to get involved with the non-profit). 

About Abilities Network
Abilities Network is a non-profit organization that provides individualized services to people in Maryland with disabilities. Its mission is to challenge the community to acknowledge the value and equality of people of all abilities. Services include Autism Services, Community and Employment Partners, Epilepsy Services, Healthy Families of Baltimore County, Project ACT (All Children Together) and Senior Services. Abilities Network has been providing quality services since 1964. For more information, visit www.abilitiesnetwork.org.

 

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