Healthcare / Caregiving

Eli Shaw Biography

As a Caregiver, I have experienced many different scenarios of caregiving. As a young boy, I protected a friend with Down Syndrome from bullying daily. I volunteered to help with kids with disabilities in a youth group called STAR and was a US delegate to the Canadian National 4-H Convention. I went to RISD Art School High School program for six years and experienced College for 4 years with no degree. In 1969 I was founder and first director of Camp Happyness and was nominated for the Outstanding Young Men of America Award at Twenty. In 1970 I lived in Brazil and created several programs in the agricultural community in the rural farm area on an IFYE exchange. I was a house worker for a group home in Massachusetts. I worked with a camp for kids with Cancer as a photographer. I was a freelance photographer since my twenties and worked in retail and theater in NYC and was a Visual Display Artist for Bloomingdales, Victory Shirt Co, and many clothing and stationery stores. I worked with the homeless and substance abuse programs and HIV/AIDS Peer Education coordinator in Yonkers. I volunteered at Camp VIVA for families affected by HIV. I was a truck Driver, mill worker, and sales rep. On the board of the Stamford Arts Society and worked as an Educational Technician for several schools in Vermont for twenty-two years. I served on the Community Justice Center Board since 2014 and was Retail Manager for the Non-profit called ReSource. I now work with the mental health agency and have been a PCA for one young man for twenty plus years. My next goal is to continue restoring the 1900 vintage 16 room Victorian and turn it into a respite place for people with TBI. My mission in life is to enjoy it, learn from it, and leave it better than when I got here.