'We Are Able': Tufts Freshman Launches Campaign To Honor Late Father

SOMERVILLE, MA – When Griffen Saul's father, Brad, fell ill during Griffen's freshman year of high school, he turned to volunteering with children with disabilities to help him cope. Brad Saul had been diagnosed with advanced multiple sclerosis in 1990, and had lived in a wheelchair for decades before his health began to decline.

During that time, Brad turned his attention to helping the disabled, creating startups such as the Chicago Disability Center for People with Disabilities. After his death on Dec. 4, 2015, his son, Griffen, continued his legacy of championing for greater understanding of people with disabilities.

Some of Griffen's final conversations with his father were about their hope for the success of Griffen's "We Are Able" campaign. The initiative, which educates people on proper disability etiquette and simulates what it is like to live with a disability, formally began last year with nearly 400 students in seven Chicago high schools near the 18-year-old's native Lakeview neighborhood.

"I thought it was fundamental to interacting in society," Griffen said. "I wanted to expand people's empathy through assimilation and attempt to figure out what it's like to have a disability."

Now a freshman at Tufts University, Griffen's program is on the brink of expanding. He expects at least 1,000 attendees at this year's two-day "We Are Able" event, which he said will give participants the opportunity to experience an "ocular impairment, an inability to speak, deafness, or a physical limitation in order to raise awareness and empathy for people with disabilities."

Griffen also hopes that his program will promote the idea that despite having a disability, those who live with disabilities are able to make meaningful contributions to society and accomplish their dreams, he said.

Interested schools can sign up by visiting https://www.weable.org/the-campaign.

A key contributor to Griffen's success has been The Allstate Foundation, which awarded him a grant and has supported him through programming. Griffen was a youth co-chair at the 2017 WE Day Illinois at Allstate Arena and has continued to work with the foundation to further his campaign.

"The passion and devotion he has in making a difference and helping people is incredible," Amy Eiduke, manager of Corporate Responsibility at The Allstate Foundation, said. "It's firsthand experience, having dealt with it his whole life with his dad. That makes him different than some other organizations, that he's building it out of something he's experienced."

Griffen plans to expand "We Are Able" to schools in the Boston area in the coming years. He is optimistic that the program will ultimately reach a national level.

"[My father's] death was a defining moment for me, Griffen said. "I knew I had to do something that would carry on his legacy and create a better, more accepting and accessible world for the disabled community."

Photo 1: Griffen Saul with his father, Brad.

Photo 2: Griffen Saul in front of the "We Are Able" banner

Photos submitted by The Allstate Foundation