Rockville Centre father nominated for $50,000 award

Support — and votes — from the Rockville Centre community have helped propel village resident Gene Kirley into the running for the Rare Life Award and a $50,000 grand prize. The money would go toward ACDS, formerly the Association for Children with Down syndrome, for which Kirley is the board president.

The Plainview-based organization was founded in 1966 by a group of Long Island parents who were seeking services for their young children with Down syndrome. It has evolved into a lifetime services agency that serves families of individuals with a wide range of disabilities, from before birth until late adulthood.

ACDS has helped Kirley and his family since the birth of his daughter, Bryn, 9, who has Down syndrome, a disorder that causes developmental and intellectual delays.

Laurie Schaefer, ACDS’s director of donor engagement and special events, who also has a daughter with Down syndrome, said she has known Gene for years, and thought he was a perfect fit for the award, given by Eagle Rare bourbon. She nominated him in the “Devotion” category. “He and his family just do so much for the organization and I have always been pretty impressed by their dedication and willingness to help,” she said.

ACDS provided physical and occupational therapy for Bryn shortly after she was born, Kirley said, and she went to ACDS’s preschool before transitioning into kindergarten at St. Agnes Cathedral School.

“They welcomed us when we had a daughter with special needs,” Kirley’s wife, Tracy, said of ACDS. “They open their doors to families, they provide information and a community of people to go to for support. It becomes like a second family.”

Bryn now attends Meadow Elementary School in Baldwin, and continues receiving support from the organization. “ACDS will be a part of her life probably for the rest of her life,” Gene noted.

In 2012, Gene helped start Rockville Centre Little League’s Challenger Division, an adaptive baseball program for individuals with physical and intellectual challenges. An idea by Tom Bucaria, the league’s president at the time, Gene, inspired by Bryn and his sons, who all like baseball, volunteered to be the division’s commissioner.

The division, for boys and girls ages 5 to 21, has about 30 players from Rockville Centre and surrounding communities, Gene said, and brings in about 75 volunteers each year to help out.

The link to vote for Gene was posted to RVC Moms, a Facebook page with a few thousand members. “It’s kind of taken on a life of its own,” Tracy said. “People wake up, have their coffee and vote.” Last week, Gene was among the top 10 recipients in votes out of about 120 nominees, with nearly 25,000.

Voting ends on Dec. 5, and a panel of judges will then evaluate the top 10 nominees and choose a winner for the $50,000 prize. “[ACDS] has to make up $1 million a year of money that we don’t get from state and federal funding,” Gene said, noting that the money would go a long way toward helping families in need. Other fundraising efforts for ACDS include an annual gathering at the St. Agnes Parish Center, which this year is set for March 2.

“It’s really been so exciting to see how many people have gotten behind the cause and behind Gene,” Schaefer said. “…They’re voting because they know and love Gene.”

Vote for Kirley and ACDS at www.eaglerarelife.com/stories/gene-kirley.