STAR Center founder honored with award

With more than 54 million Americans having a disability (20% of the U.S. population), the need for services to help people with disability is high, according to Margaret Doumitt.

Doumitt and her husband Chuck founded the Special Technology Access Resource (STAR) Center to be a resource and training center dedicated to ensuring that all individuals with disabilities or other special needs maximize their potential for independence and achieve their personal goals of employment, effective learning and independent living through various support services.

After their two youngest children, George, 9, and Angela, 11, began losing their eyesight, they searched for answers. After numerous visits to the doctors for tests, it was discovered their children had Batten Disease, a rare, degenerative condition that causes blindness, seizures, loss of motor skills and has no known cure. After much traveling and exploring of the options available, the Doumitt's decided to start an assertive technology center in West Tennessee instead of moving to a more metropolitan area. The STAR Center was born.

"Our family made the decision to stay in West Tennessee, and the STAR Center held its grand opening April 21, 1988, with an all volunteer staff in donated space in the back half of a classroom at West Jackson Elementary School with two computers and a few assistive technology devices, said Doumitt. "I wrote my first grant to the Alliance for Technology Access and the STAR Center became the 12th assistive technology center nationally, the first center in a non-metropolitan area, and the first in Tennessee."

According to Doumitt, 1 in 3 people will have a disability in their lifetime.

"I can tell you that in the blink of an eye, your whole life or that of your loved ones can change," said Doumitt. "When our children were losing their sight, my husband and I would have given all that we had to have access to the services provided today at the STAR Center. As a mother, I am always grateful to dedicated volunteers and professionals that make the STAR Center possible."

Doumitt is being recognized for her work with the STAR Center for a Volvo for life Awards, which seeks out and celebrates everyday heroes with $1 million in financial contributions, including a new Volvo every three years for life. To learn more and to nominate a hero, visit www.volvoforlifeawards.com

"In my lifetime, I have had the blessing of seeing a vision of services become a reality," said Doumitt. "Not many people have that opportunity. To be recognized for doing something that you love is truly a gift of encouragement. I feel very humbled and grateful to all the people that have helped over the years to make STAR possible."

She and her staff serve children and adults with special needs, ranging in age from three months to 103-years-old, regardless of their ability to pay. As time went on and the STAR Center become more recognized and utilized, they were able to pay its first salary to several of the volunteers. In 1994, STAR got its own 10,000 square foot facility. A little over a decade later, the STAR also moved into a new 23,000 square foot facility to help bolster its future growth of its programs.

According to Doumitt, the STAR Center is the largest center of its kind in the U.S. with 18 life-changing programs that offer new windows of hope and opportunity to children and adults with disabilities. STAR has the nation's only Mobile Assistive Technology Bus - The Access Express. The Access Express and many programs that are recognized as national models. They are working with other leaders in different states and internationally to replicate some of our programs and services in their communities.

Although, things are progressing quite well for the STAR, Doumitt says the need for volunteers is still extremely important to the success of the programs.

"The greatest challenge comes from our commitment of serving everyone regardless of their ability to pay," said Doumitt. "This challenge grows greater each year. So we are continually raising scholarship funds and STAR could not do what it does with out our incredible volunteers. Those interested in assisting STAR through donating their time or money should contact Beth James at 731-668-3888. Volunteers truly make a difference. Volunteerism truly makes a difference. The STAR Center would not be what it is today without all the volunteers over the years. I want to encourage people to take that step in their own community."

Ultimately, Doumitt said the goal is to provide children and adults with disabilities with access to conventional and assisted technology, therapeutic services, education and employment training, and job placement services so that they can achieve their own personal goals.

"There is an ever-growing need for the life-changing solutions that STAR provides and in order to meet that need, the STAR Center had to become a Center for education. We must continue to teach others to do what we do what we do so well," said Doumitt.

For more information on the STAR Center, please visit www.starcenter.tn.org.