Countywide : Awards Honor Those Who Aid Disabled

Richard Crandall, a Huntington Beach resident and founder of the Short Stature Foundation, received the Dayle McIntosh Center’s “barrier buster” award Friday for his work enlightening the community about short people.

The Dayle McIntosh Center for the Disabled honored Crandall and four other people and companies for their work in helping the physically and mentally handicapped to live independently. The third annual Apple of Our Eye awards were presented during a breakfast at the Irvine Hilton Hotel.

Crandall, who is 3-foot-10, founded the Short Stature Foundation to help short people live in the mainstream. He published a catalogue of devices designed to make life easier for short people, such as a mechanical arm to reach objects on high supermarket shelves and light-switch extenders.

Also receiving awards Friday were Santa Ana resident Ann McClellan, Laguna Beach resident William Ray, the HOMES halfway houses for mentally ill adults and the Stop-Gap drama-therapy troupe.

McClellan received the independent-living honor for overcoming the challenge of quadriplegia to earn a master’s degree in special education and become a program coordinator for the Developmental Disabilities Center in Orange.

Ray, 56, owner of the Balboa Bay Club, received the business leader award for his 10-year-old program that teaches severely disabled children to fish.