We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carly Oberle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carly below.
Hi Carly, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?
My 10 year old son Landon plays baseball, basketball, and is on a running team. And he also has Williams Syndrome, a deletion of genes on the 7th chromosome. Usually he is the only one in the league with a disability. He is unique – his team knows it, the parents know it, I know it, and he knows it. What I have learned while coaching Landon is that I need to focus on supporting him – not just on his athletic skills but for his place on the team. Landon and I can’t worry about what others think, we rather focus on him being the best, most positive teammate he can be. Landon is kind and cheers his team on. He brings positive energy and good vibes. The coaches model inclusion and respect and the team follows. Sometimes a young teammate is the model for inclusion. If we treat Landon just like everyone else then he is just like everyone else. He belongs.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
We are focused on disability inclusion and changing the perceptions of people in our community. We have continued to offer inclusive sports for kids with and without disabilities to play together. With more funding, we would like to add week long sports programming/camps. We have started to add more team building and self awareness activities centered around inclusion during our sports clinics. It makes me happy when I see participants and their families understand and embrace our message. It is also special that we get to host and run these events together as a family. We also do advocacy work to educate the public on our cause. We would love to reach more families to spread our message. People can support us and spread awareness by purchasing merch with our Let’s Include… disability inclusion message. And by making donations at LetsIncludeLandon.org
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three areas of knowledge that helped the most when setting up my nonprofit were entrepreneurial skills, finance, and communication. These were interests of mine and areas I studied during college. Even though Let’s Include Landon is the first business I have started, I felt like I had the knowledge and skills to begin. I had the passion to keep pushing and figure out what I didn’t know. And when I got stuck I reached out to my network and other professionals. If you need help in these areas, or areas you aren’t as knowledgeable in, don’t be afraid to reach out to your network – friends who believe in your mission will want to help. You could even consider adding some of these professionals to your Board. I think when you dive in and start, just working through situations, you will pick up a lot of knowledge. If you have the drive to get something done you can learn along the way. Beyond any skills or knowledge, when you have passion for something you tend to figure it out no matter what it takes.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
We would like to connect with more therapy offices and their clients, athletes and professionals in the sports world, coaches, and potential Board/Advisory Committee members. We would like to connect with more therapy offices and their clients with disabilities, neurodiversities, and developmental delays so that these families can come participate and hopefully benefit from our inclusive sports and other community activities. We would love to collaborate with more athletes and professionals in the sports world. We would love athletes both current and retired, announcers, reporters, etc to be part of our clinics and camps to help us spread our disability inclusion message. We would like to attract more professional coaches to have interest in helping run our events and come alongside our volunteers for our events. We are looking to grow our Board and / or Advisory Committee – we would love more expertise. The other Board Members and I have taken on a lot in these beginning stages. We have done it all with a small team. In regards to all of the people discussed above, we want to work with people who share our passion behind disability inclusion and our vision for kids of all abilities to play together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://LetsIncludeLandon.org
- Instagram: @LetsIncludeLandon
- Facebook: @Let’s Include Landon
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