To our wonderful family and friends,
It is with a heavy heart and regret to tell you that though we made it into the top 5% of voters for the NMEDA National Mobility Awareness Contest, we were not one of the selected winners. Every family was in need and so deserving of an accessible vehicle, so on one hand, we celebrate those who are now able to thrive with new freedom and mobility, and yet we continue on the struggle and journey to find new avenues for an accessible vehicle so that we can continue our work and life.
Barton and Megan Cutter are in need of an accessible van.
We are working on a Plan B- jokingly on Saturday I posted on Facebook how the mileage on the car (’99 non-accessible Honda Civic) was a palindrome & that it had stopped, again, in the middle of the road. Very soon, our circumference for mobility will become a 5-mile radius- hey, at least we can walk to the grocery store! So we can’t wallow in our sadness, we must persevere and find a way, though we don’t what that is yet.
During the last few months, we have felt your support all around us, and we cannot thank you enough. So many of you joined us on our journey and joined in the fun of pictures, postings, emails, voting ranks and keeping tabs on where we were. We are deeply thankful for all of the support we have received.
We will need help moving forward, exhausted from the weeks of postings and the emotional drain of hoping for something so much, only to fall short.
What now? While we are working on a full strategy, here’s where we are beginning.
* We have set up a Go Fund Me Campaign http://www.gofundme.com/3393f8 with the full amount of the van, though if we can receive just enough for a down payment, that may propel us just enough over the edge and jumpstart us into gear.
Couldn’t you see this smile on the Ellen Degeneres show??
* Get Barton and Megan on the Ellen DeGeneres show!! Couldn’t you see Barton and Ellen bantering jokes back and forth! Here’s the link to tell her why we need a new accessible van and why we would make the perfect guests (and humor has to be in there somewhere): http://www.ellentv.com/be-on-the-show/441/
* Petition NMEDA (http://www.nmeda.com) and BraunAbility (http://www.braunability.com) to be a Spokesperson. We are out in public speaking and changing the way people think about relationships (no matter what the ability). What we learned is that so many families have been disempowered, feel like they have no where to turn, and are on the verge of giving up. We believe we could help shift this paradigm and restore hope. In addition, we have reached and opened up discussion and dialogue with regards to many issues including fertility, depress, dating and communication. We aim for a story of possibility, hope and empowerment. If you feel inclined, write to one of these staff members to petition Barton to be a public spokesperson, something he is already doing!!
* Help Barton and Megan out– a few of you went above and beyond the call to support us, and we may be doing things like starting a van FB page, sending emails, researching people who may be inspired from our story. If you’d like to spend even just a few hours of your time (which we know is precious), send us an email and when we get a full strategy in place, we’ll keep you in the loop!!!
In many ways we feel like we have let you, our wonderful community of supporters down, but we will not give up. We will continue on our journey, and hope to continue to inspire, motivate and empower those with and without disabilities to overcome their own challenges in the process.
With much love,
~ Megan and Barton