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The Arc of Alachua County celebrates 59 years of exemplary service to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities at a beautiful Annual Meeting

The Arc celebrated this past year's highlights at its October 29th annual meeting at The Village. Many people are responsible for another fabulous event: A very special "Thank You" goes out to Nehyssa Turenne, daughter of Arc Employee Judith Carasco, who danced beautifully for our guests. Kudos to Arc Board President Pat Beach for emceeing the recognition portion of the event. It was her first try headlining the event and she was superb! Thanks go out to Arc President/CEO Mark A. Swain for his passionate remarks during the event as he talked about the future of advocacy on the behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and and to The Arc of Florida CEO Summer Pfeiffer for speaking on the incredible achievements wrought by The Arc of Florida and its Leadership in the last 30 years.

Many notable people were recognized for their achievements over the past year. Pat Beach & Mark Johnson introduced the winners of the Spence-Rothrock Volunteer of the Year Award: Tom & Joan Rothrock. Tom and Joan were taken completely by surprise as we announced an annual gift from Infotech that is being used to capitalize a consumer support fund named in memory of their daughter, Ericka. We thanked our incredibly talented and courageous Arc of Alachua County board members who have navigated this Arc through many challenging times and have never shirked their responsibilities to support our employees and leadership with everything they need to thrive. "Thank You" to our wonderful board members: Mary Wimsett, Peter McNiece, Dr. Bill Williams, Dr. Tim Garvey, Dr. Charlie Williams, Tom Rothrock, Eric Parker, Ben Doerr, Naomi Williams, Lynda Knight, Pat Beach and Adele Elchert.

A huge shout-out to our Event Sponsors & Table and Individual Award Sponsors for making last night's event possible: Ben E. Keith Co., The Chini Family, Tom & Joan Rothrock, Renasant Bank, Assured Partners, Naomi Williams, James Moore Co., Mary K. Wimsett, Ben & Bonnie Doerr, Pat Beach, Digestive Disease Associates and Jaclyn Trenteseaux.

Congratulations go out to our Individual Award Winners who, showing true top notch performances during a challenging year, demonstrated 'why' they are the best:

A huge "Thanks" to the leadership & staff at The Tower Club at The Village. We thank The Village's Matthew Peters and the incredibly skillful servers for helping me coordinate last night's event. I continue to receive nothing but compliments on the quality (and size) of the meal portions and on the beauty of the venue.

As always, a big "Thank You" to Jennifer Starling ('Lady J'), who is my 'partner-in-crime' and always volunteers for the event as she handles the Check In Table and helps me distribute Annual Reports at the end.

Finally, to the Arc employees and clients who attended the event with our donors, board members, families and community leaders, I say "Thank You." You are the reason we hold this event. You are the reason The Arc has been around for 59 years, making great memories for our loved ones.

The Arc looks forward to the 2026 Arc Annual Meeting & Recognition Event in October of 2026 as we celebrate our Diamond Anniversary of 60 years.