How a man in a wheelchair has a midlife crisis

In September, I will be turning 40.  Traditionally, that is when men have their midlife crisis, get a young girlfriend and a sports car. Since sports cars are not wheelchair accessible, I had to come up with something else.*  I got it...rappel off a building. Oh wait...I did that already...twice.

In 2009, I participated in the Drop Zone Challenge, a fundraiser for Easter Seals, in my hometown of Montreal.  The objective is to raise a minimum of $1,500 (the cost to send a child with special needs to summer camp).  Given I had a fear of heights and mobility limitations, rappelling off a building was an interesting way to spend an afternoon.  That being said, the experience was so great decided to do a second attempt, albeit in a wheelchair, in 2010.  (I used a manual wheelchair.  Using my power chair would probably not have worked well.  At a point, gravity kicks in.)

Me making my way down the side of the building in 2009.

The wheelchair rolling down the side of the building in 2010...coming in for a landing.

So what can I do that is special to mark this milestone?  Clearly, the only solution is to rappel off three buildings. 

In September 2015, I will celebrate my 40th birthday by participating in the Drop Zone Challenges benefitting Easter Seals in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. I challenge people in these cities to join me in participating, or invite you to support me in my quest by donating in the city of your choice (Click on the city to go to that city's page.):

Montreal               Ottawa               Toronto

I also invite you to follow my journey on our Facebook page - Because Sports Cars Are Not Accessible.

Thank you for your support.

Michael Lifshitz
Illumabilities

* While the sports car is not accessible, I am still open to the younger girlfriend. If interested, feel free to contact me. **
** Just kidding. ***
*** Unless you are game. ****
**** I think I have taken the *s joke as far as I can.

Missed opportunity for integration and learning acceptance?

As I prepared to head off for lunch on Easter Sunday, I noticed a tweet about a church in Jacksonville, Florida that hosted an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday for special needs children.  (See the original article here.)  When I saw the story, I could not help but wonder why there would need to be an Easter Egg strictly for children with special needs.  The objective was to highlight to parents that the church had programs for children with special needs.  A representative from the church stated that "We've been hearing a lot of families saying 'We haven't been to church in years and we just didn't you guys had a class that our child could come and be part of it'."

While I can appreciate that perhaps children with learning or developmental disabilities may require additional attention in some programmimg, I can't help but feel like an Easter Egg hunt would not be an opportunity to bring together children of all abilities, so they could learn and grow together.  Through playing together, the children could learn they are actually not that different, because after all, who does not like chocolate? :)