Hello dear family and friends. Thank you for taking a moment to check out my page.
Last October, Craig Hospital brought life back to my spirit through assisting in the timely arrival of Miles von Flava! Thanks to a very dog savvy TR Therapist, things started to make sense again as I let go of my tight grip on Ava grief and got out into nature. As Miles and I put in the miles on the Cherry Creek Trail my heart after 30+ years of living with a SCI discovered and reclaimed some of the JOY it had been missing. The Cactus Rose my first bike and its coaster brakes could be felt in my power boosted fish tails...and to the over-poetic billowy naturalist authors I get it! I get it! Dry grass in a field looks red! (A weekend ride through a Colorado prairie is worth a thousand words...).
With a sense of pay it forward gratitude, I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support other Craig patients and alumni through participating in Pedal 4 Possible: At the Raceway on October 14th.
Here the fundraising template suggests I tell you "Craig Hospital is a very special place!...Craig goes above and beyond!" Well, I don't know what to tell you about all that but if you have spent any more than 10 minutes around me this past year (...I offer it to my coworkers as a drinking game the number of times I excitedly say Craig!) you know it is true.
In addition to Miles, Craig has helped me throughout the past year in the following ways:
-Thanks to a one week Intensive Outpatient Evaluation (IOE) and continuity of care with the Urology Department, I was able to make an informed decision and move forward with a procedure that has allowed me to achieve independence after 30+ years of miserable suffering (I got nooo issues sportin' a leg bag. Leg bag schmegbag...give me peedom or give me death!).
-Thanks to a Craig scholarship Miles sticker price of $12,000 only cost me an arm!...not both an arm and a leg!
-Also thanks to Craig supporters, I have a fully paid membership at the PEAK Center. The PEAK Center at Craig is a health and fitness center that uses assistive technology (there's a lot of people hooked up to stimulation electrodes riding bikes and hanging from walking harnesses) to help us reach our goals! Right now you should see me "crush it" on the NuStep machine! (It's a recumbent cross trainer).
-And last but DEFINITELY not least the TR Department again has filled my life with new hope and "posse-bilities!" This summer thanks to a calendar of offerings I've been able to edge more into the community of adaptive rock climbing. I'm currently almost butterfly excited as I'm able to show up, clip in, and get ONto the ledges and edges of higher things like climbing walls!
Okay, last thing if you're trying to figure what's an appropriate amount to give? I say it's not important the amount but the intention with which you give! (...but I'm also aware the Bodhisattva path only goes so far).
Therefore, please keep this in your consideration...
(*Imagine here someone smiling, very professional, sweet, kind, in a dress...aka not me )
Important programs, such as Music Therapy, Therapeutic Recreation, Assistive Technology, the School Program, research, and Community Reintegration are just a few of the extra services that Craig Hospital offers, which help patients rebuild a life filled with possibilities. But these programs are not covered by insurance! And they rely on supporters, just like YOU.
Whether you give $1, $20, $12,000…just think you could be the full sponsor of getting one of Miles’s relatives out of Germany...Mila von Gearpopper, Frederick Uberwagon, Wheelamina Umphboosterer!?!
If you do support, I can make you a promise. There will be pictures of me in my new cool jersey (anyone who raises $300 gets this prize) with a big smile on my face and footage to share of a finish line celebration!
With much appreciation and a basketful of gratitude,
Amanda
