My name is Larry Ketchem. I was born in Billings. MT, in December of 1971. I graduated from Billings Senior High School in 1988 and was a member of the wrestling team. I also graduated from Montana State University Billings with a Rehabilitation degree in 1999. I am happily married to Marcia and have a wonderful daughter.
I work at LIFTT as an Independent Living (IL) Specialist. I am a person that lives with a vision disability, so I understand what our consumers go through, and what barriers they must overcome to reach their goals and live independently daily. Being low vision requires me to be well-organized in order to not get lost. Everything must have a specific place and always be put in that spot. My memory helps me remember a lot of things. If you are vision impaired, you are not alone. Allow me to remind you that there are over 25 million people in the United States who experience at least some vision loss. Many people believe that going blind leads to a complete loss of independence but that is not true and I am proof of it. There are lots of technology that can help a low vision and blind person live independently. I use special software, magnifiers, audio texts, audiobooks, voice recognition, and other instruments.
This is my second time working at LIFTT. I first worked at LIFTT from 1998 to 2010, when I retired. In November 2020, I decided to return to LIFTT because I wanted to serve the disabled community of Southeastern Montana.
If you are low vision or blind and live in one of the eighteen counties of our service area come to LIFTT and let us work together to improve the quality of your life.
Things I like to do in my free time are playing with my three dogs, listening to audiobooks, watching professional and college football, and playing video games. What I love the most is spending quality time with my wife of 25 years. We usually set aside time during the week to do something special together. Every day we sit down to eat a meal together and talk about our day. The moments we spend together increase our happiness and satisfaction help to reduce our stress and anxiety lead to a healthier lifestyle, and lengthen our life. We motivate each other to become the best version of ourselves.
Thanks
Larry
About Living Independently for Today & Tomorrow (LIFTT): LIFTT is a Montana 501(c)3 corporation organized as a Center for Independent Living (CIL). With team members based in Billings, and Glendive, LIFTT provides people with disabilities with programs and services that help empower them to break down the physical, bureaucratic, and cultural barriers that prevent them from being fully independent participants in their lives and communities throughout 18 counties in southeastern and southcentral Montana: Big Horn, Carbon, Carter, Custer, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, Golden Valley, McCone, Musselshell, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Stillwater, Wibaux, and Yellowstone. For more information, please visit liftt.org or download our mobile app on Apple or Google Play.