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Open Streets takes on Ability Awareness
Last Sunday, lead awesome dude, Nick and his team invaded the Open Streets of Fort Collins for Open Streets 2018. Open Streets is an event in Fort Collins where an entire three-mile stretch of neighborhood streets are closed off for local booths and citizens of Fort Collins to bike through. We were invited to be a part of it.
Nick was excited to have Awesome Advocate Samantha Strong as a part of the event this year because she’s funny, smart and she brought some speech devices so passers by could experience what it’s like to use a device to communicate. Samantha works for PRC and helps individuals use tools to help foster inclusive relationships with others. For more information on Samantha and PRC, you are invited to check out their website at Prentke Romich Company.
At our Awesome in Action booth, we had several fun activities that people could try. One of which was the Wheelchair Obstacle Race, where racers would hop in a manual wheelchair and race through an obstacle course. Many kids loved experiencing what it’s like to drive a wheelchair around.
Another one of our fun activities was trying out a speech device that our wonderful friend Samantha brought along. Nick thinks speech devices are awesome because he can tell stories, he can speak his mind, share favorite movie quotes and clips with his friends.
We also got to roam around Open Streets with awesome Olivia catching a ride on the back of Nick’s wheelchair. Nick’s favorite part was using his speech device, named Percy, to talk to all of the people he passed by.
Overall, we loved being a apart of Open Streets because it was so fun. We loved sharing the mission of Awesome in Action with the people of Fort Collins, and letting them experience how people of different abilities use different tools to get through life. We are looking forward to next year!
One of the Awesome-est Advocates: Samantha Strong
Last March, we had the opportunity to connect with an amazingly kind and dedicated representative from Prentke Romich, Nick’s speech device .
Samantha Strong met some of the AiA team in Fort Collins (all the way from Lafayette) at Starry Night coffee shop.
Not only did she buy us drinks, but she spent her afternoon sharing funny stories and learning all about Awesome in Action, Co. Nick says Samantha has a great laugh, and works well with his speech device. We love her patient and flexible demeanor, and her philanthropic nature.
With and impending large presentation at a school in Merino, Co, we reached out to Samantha once again for help in early April. Samantha enthusiastically stepped in to run our speech device station during 2 separate workshops at this all day event. She brought 4 speech devices to give the students a chance to try speaking with Augmentative Communication, and guided them in the use of the equipment. During our break, she even printed out new guides for the students, as the materials we had did not match with her newer technology. In addition to this, she invited Speech Language Pathologists from the neighboring school district to learn about the technology as she taught the students….talk about efficiency! Nick says “Samantha is warm-hearted because she helps students.”
Clearly, Samantha has gone above and beyond her role as a representative for her company. She offered assistance to us in our time of need, but also spends much of her free time helping out her community. Samantha has organized a story time at her local library in which the children hear stories read on an assistive speech device. Samantha is a great asset to the Awesome in Action community, as well as any other that is lucky enough to have her!
Awesome in Action, Co 