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| Power Style Wellness Connections |
Rolling Over the Obstacles
In the blink of an eye, your life can change, but it doesn’t
have to stop.
Jenny Smith, Age 34
Vice President, The Mobility Project
As many children do, Jenny Smith became involved in
gymnastics at age three. She continued the sport and competed in the junior Olympics
at age 14. During the summer of 1989, when Jenny was 16, her parents were out of
town for a week, and she was staying with her best friend. The girls were in the back
yard and Jenny was practicing her round-off back handspring layout, “something I had
probably done since I was six years old,” she said, when her foot slipped on the wet
grass and she landed on her stomach with her face in the grass. She wasn’t in pain, but
she couldn’t move. As friends rushed to her side, she warned them not to move her. “I
don’t know where that came from, but I knew I had injured my spinal cord.” Jenny
instructed them where to find her insurance card, but they weren’t worried about that. An
ambulance took her to the hospital.
Jenny was paralyzed from the chest down — a quadriplegic. She could move her arms,
but not her hands. She spent two months in rehab, which was all the insurance company
would allow. During her time in the hospital, family and friends rallied around her. Jenny
was a keyboard player in a Christian rock band called “Captive,” and the three guys in
the band didn’t give up on her. “They were awesome,” she said. They took her keyboard
to the hospital, and the band practiced there. Jenny would use the side of her hand to
try to play. “The guys would make me do things even if I didn’t feel like doing it,” like
carrying her up three flights of stairs to a recording studio. “It was a good time.”
When school started, Jenny’s teachers came to her, tutoring her so she wouldn’t fall
behind. As part of her therapy, she attended classes for a couple of hours each day.
She stayed on schedule, and graduated a year early, as planned. Not missing a beat,
Jenny continued her education at the University of Louisville, eventually earning a
master’s degree in counseling psychology.
A friend convinced Jenny to enter the Ms. Wheelchair Kentucky Pageant. She won the
title, and went on to compete in the Ms. Wheelchair America Pageant, which is not a
beauty contest, but a competition to select an articulate spokesperson to communicate
with the community and the legislature about the needs of Americans with disabilities. “I’
m so glad I did that… it really started to change my view of a lot of things. I met 26 really
great women and started thinking for the first time, ‘How do you do this, or that?’ It really
broke down some barriers for me.”
As a result, Jenny became involved in wheelchair tennis. “I’m still the world’s worst quad
wheelchair tennis player, but it’s great exercise, a stress reliever, and a lot of fun.”
Ten years after the accident, Jenny had a series of four surgeries that enabled her to
pinch with her left thumb and grasp with the fingers of her left hand. After recovery, she
needed a job, and began teaching English as a second language to children in
Jefferson County Public Schools. She loved the job, but found another mission calling
her. She joined the non-profit organization, The Mobility Project, and began traveling
around the world, to Afghanistan, Mexico, and this year to Costa Rica, to help mentor
and distribute reconditioned wheelchairs to the needy. She is now the vice-president of
the organization.
In February, she went to New York City during fashion week to serve as a “roll model” in
a fashion show held by Discovery Through Design, a group dedicated to bringing
awareness of issues facing women with disabilities.
About three years ago, Jenny joined the Louisville Rowing Club. Conquering her initial
fear of being on the water, she instantly fell in love with it. The boat is adapted to her
needs, with a rigid back, “because I have no back or stomach muscles, so I need
something to sit against. I use a chest strap to make sure I don’t lose my balance and
secure my right hand to the oar, because I have no grip in my right hand, but it works.”
She typically rows once a week.
Within the first year of her injury, the Homebuilders Association of Louisville donated
labor and renovated Jenny’s family’s garage, turning it into a fully accessible bedroom
with a roll-in shower and closet, and added a room where Jenny and her friends could
hang out. She later used the room as an office. It worked out so well for her that Jenny
lived there until this May, when she bought a condominium and moved in with a
roommate.
Advice from Jenny: “For so many people who are in the hospital after an injury, life
stops. There’s such a focus on research — a cure is just around the corner, and for me
I know that’s not the case because I’ve been injured for so long. But I see people who
are new to it — they get stuck and aren’t living life, because they will begin living when
the cure comes. When they’re walking, then life will be worth living. But there’s so much
they can do right now. It doesn’t matter that you use a chair. You can still play sports,
you can still go to school, you can still be married — whatever. The fact that you use a
chair is just how you get somewhere. It doesn’t change who you are.”
If you know a woman who has had a life-changing experience, please email:
cherylstuck@iamtodayswoman.com.
In the blink of an eye, your life can change, but it doesn’t
have to stop.
Jenny Smith, Age 34
Vice President, The Mobility Project
As many children do, Jenny Smith became involved in
gymnastics at age three. She continued the sport and competed in the junior Olympics
at age 14. During the summer of 1989, when Jenny was 16, her parents were out of
town for a week, and she was staying with her best friend. The girls were in the back
yard and Jenny was practicing her round-off back handspring layout, “something I had
probably done since I was six years old,” she said, when her foot slipped on the wet
grass and she landed on her stomach with her face in the grass. She wasn’t in pain, but
she couldn’t move. As friends rushed to her side, she warned them not to move her. “I
don’t know where that came from, but I knew I had injured my spinal cord.” Jenny
instructed them where to find her insurance card, but they weren’t worried about that. An
ambulance took her to the hospital.
Jenny was paralyzed from the chest down — a quadriplegic. She could move her arms,
but not her hands. She spent two months in rehab, which was all the insurance company
would allow. During her time in the hospital, family and friends rallied around her. Jenny
was a keyboard player in a Christian rock band called “Captive,” and the three guys in
the band didn’t give up on her. “They were awesome,” she said. They took her keyboard
to the hospital, and the band practiced there. Jenny would use the side of her hand to
try to play. “The guys would make me do things even if I didn’t feel like doing it,” like
carrying her up three flights of stairs to a recording studio. “It was a good time.”
When school started, Jenny’s teachers came to her, tutoring her so she wouldn’t fall
behind. As part of her therapy, she attended classes for a couple of hours each day.
She stayed on schedule, and graduated a year early, as planned. Not missing a beat,
Jenny continued her education at the University of Louisville, eventually earning a
master’s degree in counseling psychology.
A friend convinced Jenny to enter the Ms. Wheelchair Kentucky Pageant. She won the
title, and went on to compete in the Ms. Wheelchair America Pageant, which is not a
beauty contest, but a competition to select an articulate spokesperson to communicate
with the community and the legislature about the needs of Americans with disabilities. “I’
m so glad I did that… it really started to change my view of a lot of things. I met 26 really
great women and started thinking for the first time, ‘How do you do this, or that?’ It really
broke down some barriers for me.”
As a result, Jenny became involved in wheelchair tennis. “I’m still the world’s worst quad
wheelchair tennis player, but it’s great exercise, a stress reliever, and a lot of fun.”
Ten years after the accident, Jenny had a series of four surgeries that enabled her to
pinch with her left thumb and grasp with the fingers of her left hand. After recovery, she
needed a job, and began teaching English as a second language to children in
Jefferson County Public Schools. She loved the job, but found another mission calling
her. She joined the non-profit organization, The Mobility Project, and began traveling
around the world, to Afghanistan, Mexico, and this year to Costa Rica, to help mentor
and distribute reconditioned wheelchairs to the needy. She is now the vice-president of
the organization.
In February, she went to New York City during fashion week to serve as a “roll model” in
a fashion show held by Discovery Through Design, a group dedicated to bringing
awareness of issues facing women with disabilities.
About three years ago, Jenny joined the Louisville Rowing Club. Conquering her initial
fear of being on the water, she instantly fell in love with it. The boat is adapted to her
needs, with a rigid back, “because I have no back or stomach muscles, so I need
something to sit against. I use a chest strap to make sure I don’t lose my balance and
secure my right hand to the oar, because I have no grip in my right hand, but it works.”
She typically rows once a week.
Within the first year of her injury, the Homebuilders Association of Louisville donated
labor and renovated Jenny’s family’s garage, turning it into a fully accessible bedroom
with a roll-in shower and closet, and added a room where Jenny and her friends could
hang out. She later used the room as an office. It worked out so well for her that Jenny
lived there until this May, when she bought a condominium and moved in with a
roommate.
Advice from Jenny: “For so many people who are in the hospital after an injury, life
stops. There’s such a focus on research — a cure is just around the corner, and for me
I know that’s not the case because I’ve been injured for so long. But I see people who
are new to it — they get stuck and aren’t living life, because they will begin living when
the cure comes. When they’re walking, then life will be worth living. But there’s so much
they can do right now. It doesn’t matter that you use a chair. You can still play sports,
you can still go to school, you can still be married — whatever. The fact that you use a
chair is just how you get somewhere. It doesn’t change who you are.”
If you know a woman who has had a life-changing experience, please email:
cherylstuck@iamtodayswoman.com.
