Everybody comes to advocacy in their own way For some, it starts with a conviction that the world needs to change. For others, it begins with a phone call, a diagnosis or a search for answers that leads a family somewhere unexpected.
For Sunny Blanco and Lissy John, it started with their children.
Both joined the Board of Directors of The Arc of Northern Virginia because they wanted to do more for their families and for the disability community. What began as a personal commitment has grown into years of service, leadership and advocacy. Now, along with their husbands, Steven Blanco and Charley John, they’re helping lead the organization’s biggest celebration of the year.
The November 7 gala, Independence Belongs to Everyone, presents an opportunity to celebrate the lives that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are building and to support the work that helps make those lives possible. For its four co-chairs, the theme is more than a slogan. It reflects something they’ve learned through experience: independence doesn’t look the same for everyone, and getting there often takes a community.
Sunny Blanco, Vice President and Commercial Services Officer at United Bank, has served on The Arc of Northern Virginia’s Board for six years, including the past two as Second Vice President. She joined the Board to learn more about the disability community and to give back as she supported and advocated for her daughter.
Her husband, Steven, a Vice President and Senior Treasury Analyst at Freedom Bank, shares her commitment. Together, they see the gala as a chance to help more people understand what independence really means for the entire community.
“We are co-chairing the gala this year in support of the disability community and to help advance greater awareness,” they said. “To us, ‘Independence Belongs to Everyone’ reflects the belief that every individual, regardless of perceived ability, should have the opportunity to lead an inclusive and fulfilling life free from barriers and limitations.”
For Lissy John, that belief comes from a different but familiar place: the experience of raising a child with an intellectual disability and discovering just how much the right support can matter.
Lissy works as Vice President of Enterprise Transformation at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Her husband, Charley, serves as Vice President of Public Policy at UnitedHealth Group and joins her as co-chair. Lissy has served on The Arc of Northern Virginia’s Board for eight years, including two years as President. She joined after receiving support for her son, Maddox, who has a rare chromosomal disorder. Her decision to give back was rooted in a desire to help other families find the same kind of support her own had received.
“When you have a child with an intellectual disability, you learn quickly that independence isn’t a given. It’s built, piece by piece, with the right support,” John said. “I’m co-chairing this gala because I’ve seen what that support can do for my son, and I want every family in our community to have the same chance.”
There’s something important in the way both families have chosen to turn personal experience into public advocacy. A family’s immediate concern might be finding the right services, navigating a complicated system or figuring out what comes next. But those questions rarely stay personal for long. They lead to bigger ones. Why is this so difficult to navigate? What happens to families who can’t find the right resources? And what can we do to make the path easier for the people who come after us?
That’s where advocacy begins. Not necessarily with a grand plan, but with the simple recognition that what one family learns can help another, and that the support people need to build a life of their own shouldn’t depend on luck.
For more than six decades, The Arc of Northern Virginia has worked alongside people with IDD and their families, helping them navigate everything from the transition to adulthood and independent living to financial planning, guardianship and the fight to protect essential services. Much of that work happens one person and one family at a time. Most of it also requires a broader community willing to stand up and make change possible.
The gala brings that community together. As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, the theme Independence Belongs to Everyone invites us to consider what independence means beyond the familiar words and ideals. It means having choices. It means having a voice in decisions about your own life. And most of the time, independence means having the right people beside you while you figure out what comes next.
Sunny and Steven Blanco and Lissy and Charley John know that independence can take work, and that no family should have to do that work alone. On November 7, they’ll help bring together the people and resources that can make a difference for families across Northern Virginia.
Their reasons for getting involved may have begun at home. Their advocacy is helping make a difference well beyond it.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Arc of Northern Virginia relies on private support from individuals, corporations, organizations, and foundations to fund our efforts. Your generous donations help make it possible for us to provide programs, services, and advocacy so that people with IDD can live “A Life Like Yours.”
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