Empowerment This Holiday Season

Written by John Waterman:

Helping, supporting and reaching out to people with disabilities is a nice step. However, empowering individuals to become the best they can be is the greatest thing any agency can do. Whenever an individual receives help, assistance, or a lending hand, that support will always need to be given by someone else. When an individual is an active part of getting that support for themselves, and empowering themselves to receive the support they need, they become the chief of their own destiny.

To do that, individuals need to begin with small steps. At PEAC, examples of empowerment are achieving personal milestones: riding with others, connecting with friends. A more advanced level is sharing their challenges with others, advocating for situations in which they can be successful and included and refusing to be excluded or left out.

As individuals become empowered, they realize that it is their responsibility to make sure they are part of society, and part of the solutions to make the world a better place to live.

Empowerment in PEAC was initially a byproduct of the success of our students and our refusal to accept anything but achievement. When our students achieved success, achieved personal milestones, and identified the support they needed to be independent, they grabbed ahold of it and naturally started advocating for themselves.

As an agency, we saw the success of these individuals from students like James Kleimola, Ryan McGraw and Aaron Welty.

The success of these initial pioneers gave us the opportunity to start working with younger students to help them become self-advocates, and empowered through cycling. Knowing the potential and results we had seen, it has given us a roadmap to use with our youngsters.  

The first individuals who were empowered through PEAC became an inspiration to our students and a joy to our students’ parents, who saw the potential of their child with a disability. These youngsters are individuals like Conor, Katie, Kaitlin, and many others, who are now taking steps to make the world a better place to live in.

What began as a program to keep individuals safe and to share the joy of cycling and personal achievement has developed into a chance for individuals to improve the world for all people with disabilities. Cycling is not just about the bike, it’s about the power the bike gives us.

Please consider contributing to this process of empowerment this holiday season. Any gift that you can make will go so far in the life of an individual with a disability. Thank you for your consideration, and happy holidays!

You may make a donation here: http://peac.causevox.com/

PEAC believes in Milestones

Milestones: a significant event or stage in the life, progress, development,or the like of a person, nation, etc.:

Take a moment today to reflect upon your life. What are the milestones that stick out to you? In more recent years, perhaps those milestones were getting married, buying a house, or getting a new job. But when you reach back into the depths of your memory, think about those early milestones. Walking, maybe? Going to school for the first time? What about riding a bike? Usually, that first feeling of freedom is one that is hard to forget!

At PEAC, we believe in reaching milestones. Milestones can be just about anything! When a student sets a goal for him/herself, that becomes the milestone. Take Ethan, for example. Ethan and his family decided that Ethan’s goal this summer would be to improve his steering and braking skills on the tricycle. We worked with Ethan on the track in the parking lot for several weeks in the beginning, before realizing that Ethan would shine on the trail around the park. By using this smaller track with real obstacles (the trees were pretty close to the edge!), Ethan was forced to use the handlebars to steer the bike away from the trees and stay on the course. It was clear that Ethan was having WAY more fun on the trail, too! Ethan accomplished this milestone and his pride was evident.

What happens when a child reaches a milestone? Parents cheer, staff members cheer, the student is beaming! There is joy all around, and it becomes a memory that is hard to forget.

PEAC believes in reaching milestones. Please consider donating today to empower more students to reach these life-changing milestones. Check out the Facebook page this week to see stories of some of our amazing students in action! Your donation will ensure that this work continues throughout the region and that more students are able to rise to new heights.