There's no doubt that having a child with mobility challenges has opened our eyes to the barriers faced by those in wheelchairs. And I don't mean just in Albania -- even modern, European airports have presented struggles for Reni, as recently as our layover in Vienna in January.
Our own accessibility challenges pale in comparison to some of our local friends whose families rely on public transportation or live in a multi-story apartment complex without an elevator. Even then, assuming a building does have an elevator, most building entrances are above street level and lack ramps.
Barriers to accessibility mean fewer opportunities. Fewer opportunities mean less growth and poorer quality of life.
That's why, when we started designing our new community center, we envisioned a fully handicap accessible facility. We included an elevator shaft in our building plans for a future elevator installation, when finances permitted.
When our 15-year-old friend Seanan H. heard that the Valdete Trust would be moving into the center for school this fall he was concerned the elevator be installed as soon as possible. As someone who was born with cerebral palsy, he knows the value of accessibility and gets nervous when someone has to navigate him in his wheelchair up or down even a few steps.
He and his mom went to wgm.org and started an online campaign to raise the $25,000 needed to install an elevator in the Center so that the students from VT would have access to the entire building and their current stair-climbing wheel chair can be retired!
In addition to launching the campaign, he started a online challenge to climb 25,000 stairs and donate $25,000 in the month of June!
Would you join the challenge?
- Carry someone or something you love up as many stairs as you can and either give or find a sponsor to give $1 per step climbed.
- Have someone video your last few steps and declare that you have just completed the Lift Us Up Albania challenge and nominate 3 others to keep the challenge going.
- Post your video and tag your nominees.
- Use the hashtag #liftusupalbania
- Go to www.LiftUsUpAlbania.org and donate. Don’t forget to comment that you are completing the challenge and list the number of steps you climbed!
Other ways to help!
Maybe you aren’t able to climb stairs with someone on your back, or you are in quarantine and don’t have any stairs close by. You can still join the challenge!
Maybe you aren’t able to climb stairs with someone on your back, or you are in quarantine and don’t have any stairs close by. You can still join the challenge!
- ‘Virtually’ climb the 25,000 stairs with us through a direct gift!
- Share the challenge with your friends with a personal note.
- Offer to cover the donation for someone who can climb, but can’t give.
- ‘Like’ or comment anytime you see a new Lift Us Up video on your news feed. This will ensure more people see the posts!
The video below gives a virtual reality experience of riding the current stair climbing chair. While we are grateful for the access it provides, you can see how scary it might be as a strapped-in passenger, the higher it goes! You can change your perspective in this video by turning your phone, or dragging your finger on the screen of your phone or tablet.
No comments:
Post a Comment