Finding a way to help

Interact Club at Hillsborough High School offers support to group for disabled adults.

By: Melissa Edmond
   Hillsborough High School student Tara Pokras and Allies employee Doug Conkling both hoped for a warm, sunny day for their November van wash. They got their wish Saturday.
   A dozen Interact Club members were able to wash 14 vans at Hillsborough Elementary School for Allies, Inc., a nonprofit agency based in Hamilton that supports people with developmental disabilities in small group homes around the state, including Hillsborough.
   Mr. Conkling, Allies’ fleet and facilities manager, said Tara, the public relations vice president for the high school’s Interact Club, contacted him in late September about a project that her club could do to help the people Allies supports.
   "I thought that we could help in their group homes and maybe spend time with the residents," said Tara, a Sweney Court resident. "But unfortunately you have to be at 18 years of age, which is a problem since we are all in high school.
   "Doug thought it would be a good idea to wash their handicap vans," she added.
   Mr. Conkling said Allies’ 9-foot-4-inch tall vans, don’t fit into commercial carwashes.
   Tara said the goal was to clean as many vans as possible so that the next time they are used people will enjoy their ride. This was not a fundraiser for Interact, but a project to help out Allies, she said.
   "You feel better when your car’s clean," Mr. Conkling said. "It’s a psychological lift for people to ride in something that’s nice and well kept."
   Allies Inc., a six-year-old company, supports 325 people with developmental disabilities in homes within the community in townhouses and apartments that house two to four people, according to Mr. Conkling. He said they help about 10 individuals in Hillsborough who are spread out in two houses and three apartments in the township.
   He said Allies helps people with activities like shopping, balancing their checkbooks, and teaching them life skills.
   "Some of the individuals Allies helps were in institutions until they were 30 or 40. They’ve got a lot to learn," he said.
   Mr. Conkling said the individuals helped have a variety of disabilities ranging from profound mental retardation to high-functioning people with a physical limitations.