IT HAS been a big 12 months for Mark Hutton since he started working at Gateway Industries in Dandenong.
Addressing the company’s AGM on Wednesday, he spoke eloqently of how he had blossomed from a shy, nervous recruit to now speaking in front of school assemblies, university students and the BHP boardroom.
“I can share and be a spokesman for other people with a disability,” he said.
“It’s helped me spread the word, to educate about other people’s needs.”
He later told the Journal his message was acceptance, respect and support, honed with the help of his mentor and Special Olympics Australia manager Anne Monaghan.
He wants to change minds.
“We do things that everyone else does. We struggle and might do things a bit slower but we’re all normal people,” he said.
Mr Hutton said there should be more media coverage of sports events involving competitors with intellectual disabilities.
“If any media could get behind us that would be my dream.”
He and work colleague Peter Christoforou are training in basketball and ten-pin bowling respectively ahead of Special Olympics national titles next month.
They are hoping to have a shot at qualifying to represent Australia at world games in LA next year.
Gateway has sponsored some of the pair’s $5600 participation costs – though more donations are needed.
As part of their work at Gateway, they and 47 other staff mow lawns, tend parks, pick up litter and package items for councils and businesses.
Established by Rotary in 1983, the enterprise states its charter is to help its workers “build a quality of life”.
Mr Hutton told the meeting he’d felt shabbily treated at his former ‘hospitality’ workplace, working 11-hour days, six days a week and being “challenged physically and emotionally”.
His new welcoming workplace had “restored his faith” in people. He quickly realised his bosses were caring, and the factory was filled with happiness and pride, he said.
He said he’d since learnt to understand people with other disabilities and respect other people’s needs.
“I could be myself,” he later told the Journal.
The AGM heard that the disability enterprise had returned to a modest profit in 2012-’13.
It faces uncertainties through a current High Court case over disability awards and the upcoming and as yet undefined National Disability Insurance Scheme.
However, Mr Hutton is proof Gateway’s social dividend is rich.
To sponsor the athletes’ sporting campaign, call Alan Warwick at Gateway Industries on 9793 9988.
-Cam Lucadou-Wells
