Teen founds nonprofit for disability awareness, tribute to late father

Griffen Saul, 18, founder of the nonprofit We Are Able organization, never saw his father, Brad Saul, walk.

His father had multiple sclerosis, and was in a wheelchair years before Griffen and two siblings — triplets — were born.

Brad Saul, a broadcast entrepreneur known for founding successful start-ups for people with disabilities, died from MS on Dec. 4, 2015. He was 55.

His 25-year battle with the disease, which affects the brain and spinal cord and weakens the immune system, never stopped Griffen’s father from pursuing his passions, living life to the fullest.

Brad Saul was his son’s hero.

“As a young person, it was a very difficult experience for me to cope with,” says Griffen, a freshman at Tufts University and a graduate of Chicago Public Schools’ Lincoln Park High.

“I was athletic, but never able to throw a ball with my dad. And by freshman year of high school, when he became very ill, the ways I found myself identifying was by getting involved in my community and engaging with people with disabilities,” Griffen says.

When Brad Saul died, he left behind a rich legacy in Chicago’s disability community as the founder of Chicago Disability Transit, Radio Center for People With Disabilities, and other socially conscious firms melding his passions of media and technology. That legacy now is propelled by his son.

“It’s an indescribable thing knowing your father is going to pass, but not knowing when,” the teen says.

“I was devastated by his death. It wasn’t until I heard a recording he made for me — he’d made one for each sibling — that I knew what I had to do. My father taught me the importance of empathy, of not letting obstacles define you, because that’s who he was,” says Griffen.

“He never let his disease define him, and listening to that recording, I realized I had a similar choice to make. So after a period of grief, I got to work.”

A year later, Griffen founded his fledgling but growing nonprofit that raises awareness of people with disabilities through an annual campaign coinciding with the Dec. 3rd International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

A tribute to his father, the two-year-old We Are Able this week held its second annual campaign, a two-day event in which teens at area high schools: experience a day in the life of someone with a physical disability, through simulation; educate themselves on disability etiquette; and pledge to serve as ambassadors with a mission to help their peers do the same.

Last year, 400 teens at seven schools participated. This year, the program grew to 1,000 students at 20 schools.

“We teach the difference between sympathy and empathy,” the teen says. “Etiquette is, in my opinion, mindfulness of how we interact with one another, and so is empathy. If we begin to treat each other with respect and dignity, and try to find commonalities with one another, that’s how we’ll progress and make change in society.”

Griffen has drawn the attention and support of some heavy hitters. Inspired by the story of Canadian brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger, who founded the WE movement to tackle global issues and social causes, and WE Day, to inspire youth to be change-makers, Griffen wrote to Craig Kielburger.

“He responded, and really put me on a path that enabled me to make a much more meaningful impact than I thought I ever had the capability to achieve,” says Griffen, who was invited to serve as a speaker on We Day 2016, taking the stage at Allstate Arena to share his story with 15,000 Illinois youth.

That’s when he came to the attention of WE Day sponsor, the Allstate Foundation, which has since promoted his efforts and this year gave him a grant to expand the participating schools.

“Griffen is the epitome of a young leader. He has embraced his personal experience with his dad, and has made it his mission to teach others how to be mindful about seeing people with disabilities for who they truly are, and encourage their contributions to society,” says senior program manager Laura Freveletti. “Griffen continues to impress us with his passion.”

Griffen wrote the We Are Able curriculum himself. He hopes to continue to expand and eventually go nationwide, even global. For this year, he’s satisfied to have brought the program to Tufts, but left others to lead it this first year, because he came home to oversee the second year of the program here.

His two siblings, Brennan and Gabi, support him all the way, and are working to establish the program at their own colleges. His mother, Debbie Saul, couldn’t be prouder.

“Griffen was extremely close to my husband, and from a very young age, there just was something about Griffen’s make-up that he was always Brad’s champion,” she said.

“He was deeply affected by this loss. But he saw in my husband that role model that said you just get up and fight everyday, and you don’t give up — a very strong personal lesson about resilience,” Debbie Saul said. “He decided to make something positive out of his personal sadness. But Griffen also has a very large heart.”