This site has lots of examples of creative arts projects, as well as links to other types of programs and activities related to art, disability and therapy that supports disabled people and their caregivers.
Funds from MagsArts will be used to support projects for children, artists and persons with disabilities, continuing Margaret's love of community, beauty and art.
Nancy Smith Worthen, Maggie's mom
Margaret(Maggie) Lucia Worthen, 31, died on Sunday, August 2, 2015 at her home in Somerset, Massachusetts, following a nine-year struggle with injuries from a brain-stem stroke. She was the daughter of Nancy Smith Worthen,of Providence, and Paul Endicott Worthen, of Tiverton, RI. Maggie graduated from Smith College in 2006,where she received a BA with honors in Spanish. Born and raised in Richmond, RI, Maggie was deeply committed to the care of animals. She worked at the South County Animal Rescue League and hoped to become a veterinarian.
For eighteen months after her stroke, Maggie was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state, but after participating in a Cornell-Columbia research project, doctors discovered that she could learn to communicate using eye movement, a revelation that did not surprise her parents, In 2012,several words that Maggie spoke were recorded during a research visit to Rockefeller University in New York City. Her desire to communicate was extraordinary to all who witnessed it, and greatly informed her subsequent care and treatment. Through feature articles in the Providence Journal and the Smith Alumni Magazine, Maggie’s story has been widely circulated, and therefore she leaves behind a large community of friends, family members, caregivers, medical researchers, as well as others who heard about her life. Maggie was both a scientist and artist at heart.
A celebration of Maggie’s life will be held at the Westminster Unitarian Church on the 29th of August at 1 pm. In memory of her love of art and science, donations can be made in Maggie’s name to the Everett Company, www.everettri.org in Providence, 9 DuncanAve. 02906 and Speak Your Mind Foundation, www.speakyourmindfoundation.org attn: Dan Bacher, 2 Stimson Avenue, Box 1994, Providence, RI 02912.