Bridging the GapFar more than the star-studded annual concert that

bears its name, The Bridge School has been working for decades to empower individuals around the world with severe physical

and speech impairments.

STORY BY ROBIN HINDERYPHOTOGRAPHY BY CRAIG ABAYA & JAY BLAKESBERG

The Bridge School opened itsdoors on the North School

campus in Hillsborough in 1987,serving students with severephysical and speech impair-

ments. By providing the latestassistive technologies for com-

munication and mobility, the non-profit helps students develop theskills they need to return to theirhome school districts and thrive.

The Foo Fighters perform at the Bridge School

Its past fundraising galas have featured performancesby Sir Elton John and Dave Matthews and auctionitems such as a rare motorcycle and an Arabian horse.Its annual two-day benefit concert boasts a staggeringand diverse lineup of music’s biggest names, fromPaul McCartney to Metallica to Sheryl Crow. And itowes its very existence to musicians and longtimePeninsula residents Neil Young and Pegi Young.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise when you arrive at The BridgeSchool and are greeted by a small sign above a handful of class-rooms and offices tucked discretely off to one side of the NorthSchool campus in Hillsborough. “Many of our neighbors don’teven know we’re here,” says executive director Vicki Casella.

That’s a recurring theme for the 29-year-old nonprofit, whichwas conceived in 1986 with the goal of ensur-ing that individuals with severe physical andspeech impairments received the tools andsupport they required to communicate effec-tively. “People are always telling me, ‘Oh, Iknow The Bridge School. They have that bigconcert,’” Casella says. “And I say, ‘Okay, yes,but do you really know The Bridge School?’Usually they have no idea.”

The school serves up to 14 students at atime, ages 3 – 14, from all over the Bay Area,providing them with intensive educationalexperiences that make use of the latest assis-tive technologies for communication, access,and mobility. For many students, this is thefirst time they have been truly stimulated andrecognized as capable, promising learners.

The Bridge School’s goal is not to keepthem in this protective bubble, however, butto return them to their home school districtsas soon as they acquire the skills they need toparticipate academically and socially with their typically developingpeers. The school’s Transition Program, established in 1991, worksto ensure each student’s success by offering ongoing collaborationwith his or her parents and local school district educators.

The model has proven to be extremely successful. Three BridgeSchool alums have even gone on to graduate from universities—two from UC Berkeley and one from San Francisco State, whereCasella taught special education for many years. One of them,April B., a 2012 Berkeley grad, is currently taking prerequisiteclasses at Berkeley City College in order to attend a master’s pro-

gram in psychology at SF State. She also volunteers as a mentor toyoung girls, using her own speech-generating device to assist themwith their reading skills.

Stories like April’s are beyond gratifying to Pegi Young, who co-founded the school along with Jim Forderer and Marilyn Buzolichto address “the lack of appropriate educational programs for chil-dren with severe physical impairments and complex communica-tion needs,” she says. This was an issue close to the Youngs’ heart;their son, Ben, was born with cerebral palsy.

Reaching out to their friends in the music industry, Neil andPegi organized the original Bridge School concert, held on Octo-ber 13, 1986, as a way to raise funds to get the school off theground. That one-night event set a high bar, with performances byBruce Springsteen, Robin Williams, Don Henley, Nils Lofgren,

and Tom Petty. (You may have heard ofthem.) The concert has since expanded to afull weekend of music and entertainment atShoreline Amphitheater in Mountain Viewwhose program reads like a who’s who of theworld’s most celebrated musical performers.The 29th Annual Bridge School BenefitConcert is scheduled for October 25 and 26.(As of press time, the lineup had not yet beenannounced.)

“One of my great joys is ‘bridging’ the twoworlds of music and disability that are the keyelements in my life,” Pegi shares. “Another isthe opportunity to share with the artists whocome and play with us the scope of our chil-dren’s personalities, humor, likes, and dislikes,just as any normally developing child has. It isa real ‘light bulb’ moment for many of theartists who, at the beginning of the weekend,are a bit tentative and unsure of how toapproach our kids, and by the end of the

weekend have developed an entirely different realization of what isgoing on under the surface of our children and young adults.”

A video project the school undertook at last year’s concertallowed the students a chance to interview some of the perform-ers about their backgrounds and how they got to where they aretoday. The results were heartwarming and often hilarious. Oneyoung man even managed to get some tips from Tom Jones on“how to be a ladies’ man.”

Looking back on her nearly 30-year endeavor, Pegi Youngcan’t help but marvel at what The Bridge School has already

AUGUST 2015 // GENTRY // Page 81

I

Elton John Tom Jones Jeff Bridges

Pegi Young

Eddie Vedder, Lucas Nelson, and Florence Welch

Florence and the Machine

Musician Jack Johnson and students of the Bridge School

accomplished. “Though we always dreamt big,” she says, “we haveachieved our mission far beyond our original expectations.”

Nevertheless, it’s going to take more than star-studdedfundraisers to safeguard The Bridge School’s future. “People thinkwe’re well-funded because of that concert,but the concert raises only half of my annualoperating expenses,” says Casella.

In addition to the school itself and theTransition Program, the nonprofit hosts ateacher-in-residence program for educatorsfrom developing countries that enables themto return home and promote the use of aug-mentative and alternative communication(AAC) among children and adults who arecurrently underserved. “This is sort of aresearch and development thing,” Casellasaid in a July interview, gesturing to the smallcluster of classrooms that surround heroffice. “We figure out what works, and thendisseminate that information.”

Other outreach efforts include an annualsummer camp, an Access Fair showcasingthe latest AAC tools, and a biennial three-day AAC By the Bay conference that brings

the world’s leading AAC innovators and advocates to the Bay Area.“I think of the work we do as skipping a rock across the water—every place it hits makes ripples,” says Casella.

To keep that ripple effect extending farther and farther, thenonprofit needs to focus on growing itsendowment fund, its leaders say. The targetthey are shooting for is $50 million. “Weknow that there will come a time, at thisjuncture sooner than later, when we will nolonger be able to host the concerts,” saysPegi, “and so the need for an endowment toensure that the school and organization areleft in a solid financial position to continuethe work we are doing is of paramountimportance.”

Achieving that ambitious goal won’t beeasy, but Casella continues to move fullspeed ahead with all existing programs.There are too many people counting onthe school’s services—both onsite andaround the world—to press pause. As shesays simply and firmly, “I’m not going to letworrying about the future stop what we’redoing today.” ◆

AUGUST 2015 // GENTRY // Page 83

BRIDGE SCHOOL 2015 REPORT CARD

• 74 Current and Former Students• 100% Transition Rate Back to

Home School District• $34M Raised Over the Last

10 Years (including $12.75M from the annual concert)

• 2,300 Teachers and Therapists Trained

• 820 Hours of Lectures and Seminars at Universities

• 600+ Artist Performances at The Bridge School Benefit

• $1.3M Cost of Bridge School Education Programs

Neil Young with Jim James of My Morning Jacket