Disability Awareness Day was started by Dave Thompson, a full time wheelchair user after he broke his neck playing American Football. This was planned to be a one off event at Walton Hall Gardens Warrington in1992. This years event on the 16th July will not only be the 26th event in Warrington but will also be a true international day with with organisations in other countries running events during the same weekend. Events in the past have been held in India, Kenya, Uganda, Gibraltar and Gambia to name a few, with several other countries joining up for D.A.D 2017 . During the 25 year history the event held at Walton Hall Gardens in Warrington and has been attended by approx. 550,000 people and raised in excess of £950,000:00 for participating charities. The event is organised by Warrington Disability Partnership, a user led charity that has a board made up of mainly disabled people or carers and the majority of the work force are either disabled or carers. All the work and organisation for D.A.D is carried out by a team of volunteers including many that take annual leave from their paid jobs to spend as much as 120 hours over a 9 day period setting up, stewarding and dismantling the event. They all finish the week exhausted but brimming with pride to have a part of such a life changing day for many of the visitors. We all know money to run shows such as this is getting harder to come by so please ensure the future of this life changing day. There is no public funding about for events such as this and each year as a charity we cannot commit to the next years event until we have sufficient funds available to cover basic costs. The target fund aimed for will not cover 20% of the event costs, we will go out as volunteers and raise the balance, but this will ensure the event can carry on next year and be there to support the next generation of disabled people.
The whole day is about what you can do not what you can't, so please "HELP US TO HELP OTHERS"