Today was a pretty special day. It was extremely hot and we rode about 77 miles. We passed a few thermometers at banks that all read over 100 degrees. We staged up at a little convenience store called Casey’s Grocery on the outskirts of town. One of the ladies working there asked what we were doing and when we told her she told us to come in and grab some Gatorade and snacks on the house. We all grabbed a couple of things and sat out on the shady side of the building and enjoyed it.
When we went to leave we took a team picture outside. I went inside to ask the ladies for their email address so that I could email the picture to them. One of the ladies gave me a small photograph of her granddaughter Karley who has down syndrome and said “Let this be your inspiration. I appreciate what you are doing.”
We had dinner with an organization called the Happiness Bag in the evening. They have all sorts of programs for children and adults with disabilities. The thing that makes them different from other places that I have visited is that they open the programs to siblings and families of their clients. This means that if a brother and sister, one with a disability and one without, need after school programs, they are able to go to the same place and do it together. I have not encountered this at any of the other organizations that I have visited and I think that they are really on to something. One of the problems that they have is that many of the organizations who will fund programs for the disabled do not want to fund the programs for the siblings and families.
At dinner I spoke with one of the volunteers and her husband. When I asked her how she became involved she told me that her daughter who had CP used to go there. She lost her daughter in ’91 but Happiness Bag meant so much to her and her daughter that she continues to work there. Her younger daughter completed a degree in Special Education and now works there as well. I think that says a lot about what kind of a place this is.
After dinner we went out to play some softball. I sat and spoke with one of the care givers named Jackie. She told me that she worked there part time and was disabled herself. She is bipolar and has had a lot of trouble over the years which resulted in the breakup of her marriage and the loss of custody of her children. She is doing well now with the newer medications that are available but she says that the experiences and hardships that she experienced help her to relate to and empathize with others with disabilities. She said that some of her friends give her a hard time about not having a life because even when she is not on the clock she still helps and hangs out with the people that she cares for taking them shopping, to the movies, out to dinner, or anything that they need. She is just one example of the incredible people that we meet on the trip. I always feel bad when people make a big deal about what we are doing because I always think of people like this who devote so much of themselves and their time to people with disabilities and in comparison what we are doing doesn’t seem like all that much.
Rob Raesemann
