It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death yesterday of Carolyn Cartland, who was a founder and former President of EqUUal Access. Carolyn helped to launch and to shape this organization. While she had not been active nationally with EqUUal Access recently, she was available to share her insights and perspective with the Board. We will miss her.
Carolyn’s advocacy for Unitarian Universalists with disabilities long predates the founding of EqUUal Access, including service on the UUA’s Accessibility Committee and Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee. And it continued after she left our Board, as she supported the Team currently bringing the Accessibility and Inclusion Ministry (AIM) Program to her congregation. A social worker by profession, Carolyn’s advocacy was not limited to the world of Unitarian Universalism!
There will be a memorial service for Carolyn on Wednesday, September 7, at 11 a.m., at the Unitarian Society of Hartford, CT.
We invite you to share your remembrances of Carolyn on our Facebook page, by emailing EqUUalAccess@gmail.com, or as comments here.
Carolyn was an incredible person and an inspiration for me and so many others. I worked with her closely on the Disabilities sub-council shortly after I joined the Unitarian Society of Hartford in 2004. She was a dedicated, inspiring leader passionate about the cause. She was my mentor for so many years in so many ways. I was on the Board when she was President during very challenging times for our church and I worked at her side as we were trying to figure out what to do in one difficult situation after another. I never saw her lose her temper, her wisdom or her sense of humor. I’ll carry Carolyn with me for the rest of my life. They say that after we’re gone we live on in the people we’ve touched. In that sense, Carolyn will be around USH far longer than I can imagine.