\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAs we\u2019re about to celebrate 250 years of America, here\u2019s one story of independence that one local woman is especially proud of.Those who know Genea Powell say she’s kind, hardworking, and a go-getter. Born with cerebral palsy, this 55-year-old Orlando native doesn’t let anything get in her way.”We can do just about as much about a normal person can do. We just have to do it in a different way,\u201d she said.Genea graduated from Evans High School and loves poetry and music.She’s also lived in a Quest group home. Quest helps people with developmental disabilities experience a full life.Then she moved to a private home, but soon…”I’ll have my own apartment, being able to pay my own. I pay my own bills. I take care of my own finances and everything,” she said.She has her own job, too, working at Quest and putting RFID stickers on cups so that companies can keep track of how many are sold.”I really enjoy my job because it gives me independence to knowing that I may have a disability but I can go out and earn a paycheck, have my own apartment,” she said.She started working four days a week, now five days a week for almost a year now.Ebony Rutland is the employment service manager for Quest.”What I tell each one of my employees when they come here, ‘We don’t focus on your disability, we focus on your ability,’ and that’s our main goal here,” Rutland said.Carlos McClellan has known Genea since he served as her former medical assistant when she lived at Quest.”I used to help her go take her to do her doctor’s appointments and set up all her- like, if she wanted to go to the store, so we used to do that, but she has always been very, very \u2014 you know what I’m saying \u2014 independent,\u201d McClellan said.And a role model to others.”And just be able to show people that people like me can still achieve the things that we want to achieve and we reach for the stars every day of our lives,\u201d Powell explained.Genea said with Ebony and Carlos’ help, she has achieved as much as she wanted to achieve. She plans to move into her own apartment later this month and is ecstatic to do so.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
As we\u2019re about to celebrate 250 years of America, here\u2019s one story of independence that one local woman is especially proud of.<\/p>\n
Those who know Genea Powell say she’s kind, hardworking, and a go-getter. Born with cerebral palsy, this 55-year-old Orlando native doesn’t let anything get in her way.<\/p>\n
“We can do just about as much about a normal person can do. We just have to do it in a different way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Genea graduated from Evans High School and loves poetry and music.<\/p>\n
She’s also lived in a Quest group home. Quest helps people with developmental disabilities experience a full life.<\/p>\n
Then she moved to a private home, but soon…<\/p>\n
“I’ll have my own apartment, being able to pay my own. I pay my own bills. I take care of my own finances and everything,” she said.<\/p>\n
She has her own job, too, working at Quest and putting RFID stickers on cups so that companies can keep track of how many are sold.<\/p>\n
“I really enjoy my job because it gives me independence to knowing that I may have a disability but I can go out and earn a paycheck, have my own apartment,” she said.<\/p>\n
She started working four days a week, now five days a week for almost a year now.<\/p>\n
Ebony Rutland is the employment service manager for Quest.<\/p>\n
“What I tell each one of my employees when they come here, ‘We don’t focus on your disability, we focus on your ability,’ and that’s our main goal here,” Rutland said.<\/p>\n
Carlos McClellan has known Genea since he served as her former medical assistant when she lived at Quest.<\/p>\n
“I used to help her go take her to do her doctor’s appointments and set up all her- like, if she wanted to go to the store, so we used to do that, but she has always been very, very \u2014 you know what I’m saying \u2014 independent,\u201d McClellan said.<\/p>\n
And a role model to others.<\/p>\n
“And just be able to show people that people like me can still achieve the things that we want to achieve and we reach for the stars every day of our lives,\u201d Powell explained.<\/p>\n
Genea said with Ebony and Carlos’ help, she has achieved as much as she wanted to achieve. She plans to move into her own apartment later this month and is ecstatic to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As we\u2019re about to celebrate 250 years of America, here\u2019s one story of independence that one local woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[135090,166,96963,135089,112671,135088,21538,139,141,140,135091,135093,992,135092,71714,135094,1456,164],"class_list":["post-326851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-carlos-mcclellan","tag-day","tag-developmental-disability","tag-ebony-rutland","tag-full-life","tag-genea","tag-independence","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-own-apartment","tag-own-job","tag-people","tag-powell","tag-quest","tag-rfid-sticker","tag-week","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}