From the dining room table to serving thousands: SADI's Gudermuth nears retirement

Maryann "Miki" Gudermuth has faced challenges all of her life.

Diagnosed with polio as an infant, Gudermuth has learned to overcome disabilities and has spent most of her life helping others do so as well.

Next week she will retire as the executive director of the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence (SADI), an organization she founded several decades ago to empower people with disabilities live independently. This week she reflected on SADI's origins, accomplishments and future.

"We started out as a polio support group and it grew into something bigger than I could have ever dreamed," Gudermuth said.

It was in 1984, shortly after she and her husband, Chuck, moved to Cape Girardeau, that Gudermuth helped organize the support group at Saint Francis Medical Center. It didn't take long for her to realize people in the support group were dealing with issues that went beyond their physical limitations. "They had other issues beyond their disabilities that were impacting their lives," Gudermuth said. Among them were accessibility issues, transportation, housing, employment and other issues.

Gudermuth realized there was an unfilled need for services to assist people with a variety of physical and mental challenges. "This was something I could sink my teeth into," she said. "People with disabilities want to be looked at as an equal, not as somebody you have to carry around and do things for."

In the late 1980s, Gudermuth was working for the local law firm of Limbaugh, Russell & Syler, but in her spare time she was creating SADI in her home. "My husband had to give up some space at home where I had a 128K Macintosh computer that I used for doing my first newsletters," she recalled. "We started out very bare bones, found a used copier for $300 which my husband helped repair and stocked with toner."

SADI operated on a shoestring in the early years. "We funded a lot out of our own pockets when we were starting out," she said. "We did what we had to do to keep it going."

Gudermuth says a big milestone for SADI came in 1993 when she was able to obtain its initial funding and became incorporated as a not-for-profit social service agency.

"It took us seven years to get funded," Gudermuth recalled, adding that grants and funding amounts have varied over the years. "For nonprofit organizations you always have ebbs and flows and it's always feast or famine," she said, adding that during the lean years it wasn't always easy to provide services.

SADI is funded through Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Vocational Rehabilitation) to provide independent living services in five Southeast Missouri counties -- Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Perry, Scott and Mississippi.

It didn't take long for SADI to outgrow Gudermuth's dining room table. By early 1993 the newly-incorporated organization, which by then had a staff of three employees and two volunteers, moved into a 1,200-square-foot office at 11029 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau. Two years later SADI moved to 121 S. Broadview to accommodate a growing staff and more services. SADI expanded at that location in 1998, and in 2008 SADI built a new headquarters at 1913 Rusmar. The following year SADI opened a branch office in Charleston, followed by branch offices in Marble Hill and Perryville in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

In 2012, SADI acquired its current location, the former Cape GMC Pontiac building on South Kingshighway, which allowed it to consolidate its services and close its Marble Hill and Perryville branch offices.

Today, SADI has about 135 employees and offers a variety of programs, including information and referral services, peer support, life skills training, advocacy, employment mentoring, transportation and more. All services are free for SADI clients with the exception of transportation, for which there is a nominal charge.

Through the years, SADI has remained committed to its core mission to help people with disabilities make choices and have more control over their lives. Gudermuth said she's proud of how SADI has made a positive difference in thousands of clients' lives over the years. She is also proud of SADI's staff and board members. "We require that at least 51% of our staff and 51% of our board members must have a disability," she said. "Here, you walk the walk, not just talk the talk."

"Miki has done a lot of amazing things," said Donna Thompson, SADI's associate executive director. "She saw a need and spearheaded this organization. The rest is history." Thompson, who has been with SADI for 18 years, will succeed Gudermuth.

SADI will host an open house to mark Gudermuth's retirement from noon to 4 p.m., with a recognition ceremony at 2 p.m., May 30 at SADI's headquarters, 755 S. Kinghighway.

jwolz@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630