DAYTON TEACHER RECEIVES MDA NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Amy Dunaway-Haney |
TUCSON, ARIZ., Aug. 31, 2002 – High school Spanish teacher Amy Dunaway-Haney of Dayton, Ohio, has been named recipient of the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s 2003 National Personal Achievement Award.
The award, part of MDA’s program recognizing the achievements and community involvement of people across the country affected by neuromuscular diseases, will be presented during the national broadcast of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon Sept. 1-2.
Dunaway-Haney, 32, was chosen for the national honor from candidates across the country.
This is the second national award this year for Dunaway-Haney, who teaches Spanish at Kettering Fairmont High School in Kettering, Ohio. In May, she was selected for the Frieda J. Riley National Teaching Award, which included a $10,000 prize. Her teaching excellence was also recognized in 2000, when she was presented with the Jiffy Lube Excellence in Teaching Award and a $2,000 prize.
Dunaway-Haney has master’s degrees in school and clinical counseling, and works on weekends and evenings in various counseling jobs in addition to teaching full time. She specializes in dealing with families and children, and does marriage counseling, works with families facing chemical dependency issues and treats people with mental health diagnoses.
Her other achievements include coordinating a recreational program pairing college students with people with developmental disabilities, and being the first student at Bowling Green University using a wheelchair full-time. She was also the university’s 1991 Homecoming Queen.
As a teacher, Dunaway-Haney is known for her positive attitude, energy and high standards, and for demanding nothing less than 100 percent effort from her students.
“We’re proud to honor Amy Dunaway-Haney, a role model whose energy and attitude are a fine example for all of us,” MDA President & CEO Robert Ross said. “While many thousands of people with disabilities across the country are playing vital, constructive roles in our society, Amy’s achievements and impact are particularly outstanding.”
Dunaway-Haney has been involved with many aspects of MDA since her childhood, and her family has organized many MDA benefits. She currently facilitates an MDA support group for people with neuromuscular diseases and their families in the Dayton area. She served from 1997 to 1999 on MDA’s National Task Force on Public Awareness, a group that promotes MDA’s goals and programs and provides MDA with feedback about issues affecting people with disabilities.
As a youngster she regularly attended MDA summer camp, and she served as the 1980-81 MDA Goodwill Ambassador for Dayton.
Dunaway-Haney received a diagnosis of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy at age 8. The progressive disease causes weakness and wasting, initially affecting the shoulder and hip muscles. She uses a power wheelchair for mobility. She and her college sweetheart, Timothy Haney, have been married for nine years.
Each of MDA’s 150-plus chapters nationwide selected an achievement award recipient from among local nominees this year. Dunaway-Haney received the award from MDA’s Miami Valley Chapter and was then chosen for the state award from among all local honorees in Ohio.
She was one of four finalists for the national award. The other finalists were Rebecca Johnson, a graphic designer from Forest Lake, Minn.; Edward Long, a writer and employment counselor from Kihei, Hawaii; and Jane Nemke, a businesswoman from Tomahawk, Wis.
MDA’s 2002 national award recipient was George Donahue of Watertown, Mass., an information analyst who’s an advocate for and a mentor to people with disabilities.
MDA is a voluntary health agency working to defeat neuromuscular diseases through programs of worldwide research, comprehensive services, and far-reaching professional and public health education. MDA maintains a clinic for area adults and children affected by neuromuscular diseases at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The Association's programs are funded almost entirely by individual private contributors.
The MDA Telethon will originate from CBS Television City in Hollywood and be carried by nearly 200 "Love Network" stations nationwide, including Dayton’s WKEF, Channel 22. It will be simulcast on MDA’s Web site, www.mda.org, with the help of RealNetworks.
