Lou Laste
Verizon Foundation
No Barriers USA Success Stories
Meet Suzanne Nottingham
I volunteer for worthy causes I can squeeze into my lifestyle as a single parent, the ones that hit me smack dab in the heart. When one is volunteering to inspire participation in fitness and sports, it’s a different kind of reward. After spending my life presenting at fitness conferences and creating new fitness programming for 'able bodies', there's no real way to track whether or not the audience is grasping the content, or letting it go in one ear and out the other.
No Barriers participants are different – they come wanting new knowledge. For these athletes, learning is the multi-sensory experience that many able bodies are missing. They 'wear' energy and excitement. Some cry because they are so grateful to be moving forward instead of back, or because they just accomplished something never dreamt possible with their own bodies.
I heard an able-bodied family member say to her sister who was in a chair, "Come on, if I can do, you can do it!" Hey wait! Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? There is a place for every ability.
It is the mere ability everyone has naturally, with or without disabilities, to realize participation is possible. This ignites the amazing powerful passion amongst participants at No Barriers.
Professionally No Barriers changed my life. THIS is the real work....."inclusion" as if it is the non-issue it should be. What an honor to be part of this innovative movement of community. No other event (and there are many) is more rewarding. What a treat. The rest of the world needs to know what they are missing.
No Barriers taught me that my "disabled" friends are the most able people I know.
