Is it just us, or do Abilities Expos keep getting better year after year?
We were excited to make our way to Abilities Expo Los Angeles this month to host two medical fundraising workshops and a heartfelt adaptive bike giveaway.
Special thanks to the Abilities Expo team for featuring us in two videos on their Facebook page. Click below to watch a video with correspondent Dave Stevens that will give you a great idea of what makes Abilities Expos unmissable events for the disability community:
Our Workshops
A big part of the reason why we attend Abilities Expos is to give attendees the opportunity to learn how to fundraise with us to offset the cost of some of the life-changing equipment, technology, and mobility devices they see at these events.
On March 8 and 9, we shared our medical fundraising mission with attendees in 2 workshops at Abilities Expo LA.
We partnered up with a special guest: client Ambassador Rachelle Ledbetter, who received a double lung transplant in 2021 and has been fundraising with us for nearly a decade.
She even got to connect with the makers of MyID, medical alert bracelets that many of our clients – including Rachelle – qualify to receive for free.
Our Community
Karli chatted with Lyena Strelkoff, artist and creator of the acclaimed one-woman play Caterpillar Soup about metamorphosis after a spinal cord injury. Lyena has been fundraising with Help Hope Live since 2003:
Sonny met up with Ryan Butcher, a Help Hope Live client since 2016:
And we got an extra-special visit from Austin, an adaptive bike recipient from a previous Abilities Expo event:
In addition to abundant love from our clients, we shared connections with a few friends from our larger community. A special shout-out to WOW Wonders on Wheels who kept up the energy as our booth neighbor this year!
It’s always a pleasure to see Billy Price, co-founder of BILLY Footwear. Don’t forget that BILLY Footwear offers our client community 20% off if you use this link to shop for adaptive footwear!
And we love catching up with Hannah and Shane of Laughing at My Nightmare and the interabled YouTube channel Squirmy and Grubs, fast approaching 2 MILLION subscribers!
Pippi’s Adaptive Bike: A Second Chance
So many families in the area have been affected by devastating wildfires this year. The family of 13-year-old Parker “Pippi” Grace lost all their belongings in the Palisades fires, including Pippi’s customized adaptive bike.
Living with a rare genetic diagnosis that impacts her vision and mobility, Pippi would not be able to ride a bike without special custom adaptations. Following the loss of the bike, Pippi’s family would be on the hook for $5,000 or more to get her back on the bike path.
We were extremely grateful for the chance to enable Pippi and her family to get this one piece of their lives back at Abilities Expo LA.
Special thanks to our friends at CBS for covering the story—their coverage and Pippi’s reaction to her new ride reached over 50 million people!
What’s Next?
We’re ready for our next stop! Find out where our team will be traveling to next – or meet us online for a Hope Talk or virtual wheelchair fitness class:
