Local contestants vying for freedom

People with disabilities that limit their mobility and the people who love them recognize that mobility is a key to freedom and that overcoming a barrier often requires a genuine act of heroism.This year, during the May observation of National Mobility Awareness, four Johnson City area residents are need of vehicles that can to meet the challenges of their physical limitations are in the running for one of three specially modified, freedom-giving vans to be given away by National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association.Their stories are featured online at the National Mobility Month Local Heroes website where the public is invited to help chose the finalists by voting daily through May 31.The local contenders include Lori Spada, a 61-year-old Elizabethton resident with post polio syndrome, whose greatest desire is to be less dependent on her husband and friends. A three-year veteran of the Local Heroes competition, Spada made the semi-finals in last year's contest and is competing this year in the senior division.Adding to Spada's drive to win, her husband and caregiver was seriously injured in a recent accident that fractured several of his vertebrae and all of his ribs, putting both of them in temporary need of assistance with simple, everyday necessities of life. Despite their challenges, Lori said she and her husband are determined to keep lives moving forward and to return their volunteer work as counselors for people in the community burdened by the anxieties of domestic violence, family and health issues and financial hardship."A reliable wheelchair accessible vehicle that I can operate, will allow us to continue this work and stay active in the community together," she said. "We hope to inspire others by being a living testimony that life moves forward. Even when the circumstances change, it's possible to overcome. All of us are heroes when our disabilities don't define us."Also vying for specially modified vans in the competition's caregiver and general categories are the families of Edgar Story, a young Jonesborough man with cerebral palsy and a father who has grown too old to lift him in and out of their vehicle; Janice Maupin, a Johnson City mother with son who is unable to walk and van that is undependable and not handicap accessible; and Kelly Whaley, a Johnson City teacher with a 7-year-old son with multiple medical needs and van that is not equipped to accommodate his special equipment and supplies.All of their stories are gripping and each of the contenders are worthy of their community's support in their attempt to attain greater mobility and freedom.To increase awareness about the equipment and vehicle modifications available to help people with disabilities live fuller and more mobile lives, visitors to the website can win an extra daily vote by correctly answering a related question.Spada posts the answers daily on her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lori.spada and encourages those who wish to support more than one local contender to alternate their votes day by day. The second vote that comes with the awareness question is tallied as a double vote for a single contestant. If there is a need or a project in your neighborhood the Good Neighbor column can assist with, contact Sue Guinn Legg at 423-722-0538 or P.O. Box 1717, Johnson City, TN 37605.Email Sue Guinn Legg at slegg@johnsoncitypress.com. Follow her on Twitter @sueleggjcpress. Like her on Facebook at facebook.com/sueleggjcpress.