Day 41: Incredible Come-Back Story

This morning we awoke at the school for the blind where 8 volunteers made us hot omelets, they were all very friendly I can’t get over how hospitable the Kansas community has been to us. Many of the women there were at our arrival and work for the city in supporting people with disabilities within their community. We then started our busy day off by jumping in the vans and heading to a friendship visit that had about 30 people with all different disabilities. I got to know Steve and Jewels who both had mental and physical disabilities. We had a fun time playing food bingo with 5 others. Steve was the reigning champ, really no one could stop him after shutting the rest of us out by three games. They sponsored us a lunch and then we headed to another friendship visit at a different center where we played Bingo. We were there for about an hour and a half until we rushed to our next event.

The next part of the day had me just amazed for the rest of the day. We went to Mark Cameron’s house, he set organized our whole day for us and has an amazing story. He is a quadriplegic that basically lives independently. He was out at a boys weekend when he jumped off the deck head first into three feet of water. He instantly broke his neck and became paralyzed; that was 4 years ago. Since then he has made an unexplainable amount of progress that even the doctors don’t understand. It was clear to me how he did it though; he was most of the determined guys I have ever met. I left Mark’s house wanting to be more like him. His doctors told him he would never live independently and now he does; he has someone sleep with him at his house to help him roll over at night but that is it.

His house was revolutionary, everything is accessible for him, and he is paralyzed it’s just amazing. His TV doors, computer, and lights are voice controlled. He surfs the web with a dot on his head that reflects onto the screen so he can control it with the movement of his head. He types using the pointer of the mouse on an on screen keyboard. He can move easily through his whole house by using a pulley system he invented in which he sits in a chair that is strung to the ceiling which allows him to move from room to room because of the tracks that are drilled into the ceiling. Mark was a true example of what it looks like to battle adversity and make the best of life and the situations that arise, however hard or easy they may be. I could talk about Mark and what an inspiration he is for two more pages; the guy has heart, we should all try to find things in our life to motivate us like Mark does, a positive makes a world of difference. Another cool thing he had was a bike in which he uses electro-stimulation to move his legs while sitting on this expensive adaptive bike. He exercises for 2 hours 4 times a week and his doctors can’t believe how good his lunch capacity is, they never thought he would come off a breathing tube after the first two years, so rad.

That night we ate at Texas Road House, a popular steak house. We were sponsored by Mark for dinner and had a great time eating great food and square dancing with the waitresses, an hourly tradition at the Texas Road House. It was a delicious meal and real fun day. This trip is so fun I can’t even begin to describe it. All the guys on the team are outstanding individual which makes the trip all the better. Tomorrow we head for Missouri, another new state!!!!