{"id":76372,"date":"2016-12-26T09:54:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T14:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76372"},"modified":"2016-12-25T15:59:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-25T20:59:13","slug":"rcil-presents-madison-county-woman-with-2016-fiorentino-self-advocacy-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=76372","title":{"rendered":"RCIL presents Madison County woman with 2016 Fiorentino Self-Advocacy Award"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heather<\/a>
Heather Bumbolo (back left), Paul Porthouse (back center), Ellen Fiorentino (back right), and Nichole Hastings (front center)
(Heather nominated Nichole for the award, Paul is Nichole\u2019s fianc\u00e9, Ellen presented the award in honor of her late husband Gene Fiorentino, and Nichole is the 2016 award recipient.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is with great honor that the Resource Center for Independent Living presents Nichole Hastings with the 2016 Gene Fiorentino Self-Advocacy Award.<\/p>\n

Each year, RCIL\u00a0presents the Gene Fiorentino Self-Advocacy Award in memory of Gene Fiorentino, one of RCIL\u2019s most\u00a0committed Board members, who full heartedly believed in independent living and was a true self-advocate.<\/p>\n

The award was established to honor another person who, like Gene, is committed to self-advocacy; who knows about disability issues and the barriers people face; and is publicly willing to\u00a0take a stand without regard to consequences and fearlessly address the changes needed for equality.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Dec. 17,\u00a0RCIL presented the 2016 award to Nichole Hastings. Nichole is very\u00a0committed to self-advocacy and takes great pride in the work she has done with various organizations\u00a0throughout Madison County.<\/p>\n

Nichole knows the barriers that individuals with disabilities face every day. Having a physical disability\u00a0(using an electric and manual wheelchair for mobility), Nichole has faced many challenges with accessibility in her community and is currently advocating to make sure a new local clinic space will be accessible to the individuals that use it every day.<\/p>\n

Nichole has also assisted with developing a manual on emergency preparedness for individuals with disabilities to use when preparing and responding to\u00a0an emergency.<\/p>\n

One of Nichole\u2019s goals is to participate in awareness rides and marathons. In July of 2016 Nichole rode\u00a0her accessible bicycle in the Journey Along the Canal with members of Our Abilities.<\/p>\n

These are just a few of the examples that illustrate why Nichole Hastings is being honored with the\u00a02016 Gene Fiorentino Self-Advocacy Award. Congratulations, Nichole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is with great honor that the Resource Center for Independent Living presents Nichole Hastings with the 2016 Gene Fiorentino Self-Advocacy Award. Each year, RCIL\u00a0presents the Gene Fiorentino Self-Advocacy Award in memory of Gene Fiorentino, one of RCIL\u2019s most\u00a0committed Board members, who full heartedly believed in independent living and was a true self-advocate. The award […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-jRO","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/2016-Gene-Fiorentino-Award-Winner-Nicole-Hastings.jpg?fit=2988%2C4533&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}