People meeting challenges with creativity.

Tim Leffens: Author, Art Activist for the disabled, Innovator

www.artrealization.org

"In the early '90s, Lefens, a painter, goes to the Matheny School for students with cerebral palsy and other disabilities to show slides of his work. As this intensely moving memoir (Flying Colors) shows, he becomes obsessed with finding ways to help students, who are in wheelchairs and have no use of their arms or hands, learning to express themselves, devising methods that allow them the freedom to paint. . . His students thrive: some begin speaking more frequently; others experience improvements in their physical well-being. . . . There are obstacles along the way: it is a struggle to get it (Art Realization Technologies)funded 'The idea,' he tells them, 'is not to struggle to do things the way that able-bodied people do. The idea is to make art."

Publishers Weekly, June 24, 2002


As Lefens says, "Healing takes place that clinicians never dreamed of. I've seen it everywhere we've gone�a silent, despondent, vegetative child, then -- with their realizing their full creative power -- POOM! alive with joy. That's healing."

Kitty Lunn: Dancer, Founder & Artistic Director of INFINITY DANCE

http://www.infinitydance.com
Her love of dance started at the age of eight and while preparing for her first Broadway show in 1987, Kitty Lunn slipped on ice, fell down a flight of stairs and broke her back. Paraplegic and depressed, she could not imagine dancing again when she could not walk. But she also could not give up her love of dancing because "the dancer inside me didn't know or care that I was using a wheelchair, she just wanted to keep dancing."

In the fall of 1995, Kitty founded Infinity Dance Theater, a non-traditional dance company featuring dancers with and without disabilities and performs all over the world. In addition to dance concerts, the Company is dedicated to educational programs by teaching other dance educators to bring the joy and drama of motion and movement to a new level of inclusion by expanding the boundaries of dance and changing the world's perception of what a dancer is. Kitty continues to take a “mainstream, professional ballet class every day and has developed wheelchair dance techniques strongly rooted in and growing out of classical ballet and modern dance.

Laurie Johnson: Founder of Lemonaid Crutches and Step with Hope

http://www.lemonaidcrutches.com

Laurie Johnson started LemonAid Crutches. In August of 2002, she survived a small plane crash but lost her husband and young son in the accident. Left with a severely broken leg (femur), Laurie endured a long journey of surgeries, disappointments and crutches. In her search of a smile, and still on crutches a year after the crash, she and her sister decided to beautify the very dull hospital design of standard crutches. With professional painted and pads covered with designer fabrics, this simple idea sparked a unique business. Crutches and arm pads are now available in fashionable, bold and colorful choices making a hardship so much more pleasant. Step With Hope Laurie says "Though my recovery was extremely challenging, losing my son and husband was the true hardship. The loss of any loved one is life changing. To lose multiple family members is life shattering. I was able to cope with my loss and begin rebuilding my life with an outpouring of help and support from my family, friends and community. Through this experience, I established Step With Hope, a nonprofit foundation offering assistance to people coping with profound loss. 50% of all profits from LemonAid Crutches go directly toward sustaining the efforts of Step With Hope."For more information about Step With Hope, please visit StepWithHope.org.