Kicking off October, the Disability Action Center NW and the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre held “Zombie Fest” Monday.
The festival included people dressing up like zombies to see “FIDO.” “Zombie Fest” was the first of five films in the Reel Movie Monday series. Each film or film festival will feature people with disabilities. All events are a part of the Disability Action Center (DAC)’s fundraiser campaign “Life Happens on a Stage” and are free, with donations accepted for the DAC.
“FIDO,” a family-friendly film about the rise and domestication of the living dead, centers around a boy befriending one of the undead and promptly naming him Fido.
In addition to showing “FIDO,” the DAC produced four “Don’t be a zombie” video shorts with the purpose of educating the public on ADA accessibility, said DAC marketing director Vicki Leeper. Monday’s festival included free zombie makeup, free zombie t-shirts while supplies lasted, raffle prizes and photos with zombies.
The remaining four movies will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 6, Dec. 4, Feb. 5 and March 5.
The campaign’s goal is to raise money for an accessible stage lift, an item the Kenworthy needs. Currently individuals who use a walker or wheel chair can’t access the stage, so the lift would benefit both the theater and the community.
Leeper said the benefits of a lift include being able to “use the lift at events like graduations, weddings and rendezvous in the park. Those kind of events can be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible.”
The DAC’s goal is $30,000. Any extra proceeds will go toward a closed-caption system for the Kenworthy. The goal of “Zombie Fest,” the first fundraiser was “mostly just to have fun,” Leeper said.
So far, the DAC has raised $5,358. Leeper said their hope is to unveil the new lift March 27.
“Someone like myself who is a chair user living with a disability, any way that it is accessible to go eat or even go watch a movie, regardless if I am in it or not brings a good feeling about just being able to have access and feel, quote on quote, ‘normal,’” said Aerius Franklin, an independent living specialist who also works for the DAC.
The next movie to been shown is “Swim team.” The movie is about autism, more specifically an autistic swim team that was formed in response to discrimination. The goal of the next film is to raise autism awareness.
Dominique Stout can be reached at [email protected]