Key To Independence Day 2010

Bruce H. Sham, CLF has dedicated his financial services practice of 31 years to working with families with special needs children.

He served as President for Adults with Developmental Disabilities, Advisory Board member for the Philly Friendship Circle and NHS Human Services, non-profit organizations which serve disabled individuals in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. He has also been a Platform Speaker for the Governor’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities. In 2005, Bruce won the Advocacy Award from Montgomery County Mental Health Mental Retardation for exemplary service, and the Timothy C. Flanagan, CLU, ChFC Stewardship Award for Community Service.

Bruce and his wife Hilde are the founders of the Amanda Sham Resource Center for Children with Special Needs at the Old York Road Temple Beth Am in Abington, PA. Bruce teaches and tutors children in the Resource Center so they can achieve the same accomplishments that children of all abilities enjoy. Bruce and Hilde have been married for 32 years and reside in Oreland, PA with their three children, Amanda, Seth and Mallory."

The Wendy Cohen Advocacy Award is given yearly to individuals who have assisted the ADD members and the Agency, are leaders who have made a commitment to ADD by their tireless efforts and willingness to go that extra mile.

Elaine Ecker is a native Philadelphian and a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Girls. She received her degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania and taught elementary education in Abington Township. She and her husband, Malcolm, moved about the country while he did his military service and finished his residency in Manhattan. They returned to Philadelphia with theirfamily of three children to begin Malcolm’s practice.

Elaine became involved as a volunteer with Telehelp, a telephone crisis line. She went on to be a board member of the Montgomery County Mental Health Board. These experiences inspired her to enroll in the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research from which she received her MSS degree.

Following graduation, she worked full time at Eastern State Psychiatric Institute as an in-patient social worker caring for patients with major mental illnesses and in teaching medical students and psychiatric residents. She was a student at the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute and began a private psychotherapy practice.

Elaine was attracted to the Young Adults Group, the predecessor to Adults with Developmental Disabilities, because of its direct involvement in filling the void of social interaction for its members. She eventually was a board member for many years and developed and ran Q and A sessions for the parents of our members so that ADD could better address the families’ concerns. Following retirement, she developed a passion for bridge which led her to be the chairperson for the bridge portion of Key day that she and her co-chairs have expanded significantly.