Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis looks from the sidelines during the game against Michigan in the fourth quarter in Ann Arbor, Mich., in this Sept. 15, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Story Created:
Dec 5, 2007 at 4:52 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Dec 5, 2007 at 4:52 PM EDT
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — President Bush has asked Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, whose daughter is developmentally disabled, to serve on a committee that works to improve the lives of people with disabilities.
Weis and his wife, Maura, met last week with the president and first lady Laura Bush at the White House, the coach told the South Bend Tribune. They wanted to know if coach Weis would be interested in serving on the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
"It's moving in that direction," Weis told the newspaper Monday.
A university spokesman said Wednesday that the White House has not yet announced who would be appointed to the 21-member committee, and Weis did not indicate whether he would accept.
The Weises' 12-year-old daughter, Hannah, has global development delay, a form of mental retardation. She can't say more than two or three words at a time, dress herself or tell her parents how she is feeling.
She is the inspiration behind Hannah and Friends, the charity Maura and Charlie Weis founded after the coach nearly died of internal bleeding following gastric bypass surgery in June 2002. The Weises broke ground on a residential center for developmentally disabled adults called Hannah and Friends Farm in South Bend earlier this year.
A caretaker's house is expected to be finished by this month, a recreation center for the property by spring and the first two units that will house a total of eight residents by next football season. The plans for the farm call for a total of 16 residential units to eventually be built.
The presidential committee Web site says some of the aims of group are to expand educational and employment opportunities for people with disabilities, as well as to integrate them more fully into their communities.
Six months ago, Weis said the White House sent a representative to South Bend to meet with him to gauge his interest in serving on the committee.
The President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities was created in 1961 by former President John F. Kennedy.
