Your editor was sent a link to a website featuring unique gifts. Racing Grannies is a plastic 10-piece racetrack with two elderly women racing each other in their power wheelchairs. It requires 4 AA batteries (not included). $19.95 See picture below:
Go to www.whatonearthcatalog.com. In the search space type in "Racing Grannies." (The link would not post on Publisher).
If you don't have room for the track or don't want to fool with assembly, there is always this..
More information on Racing Grannies with walkers can be found at Firebox.com.
The following are from New Mobility.com
NEW TAXIS HAILED BY ADVOCATES
The new "Standard Taxi" was unveiled Sept. 18 in Seattle at the annual conference of the International Association of Transportation Regulators. "If local advocacy is successful, people will realize that the Standard Taxis is the vehicle to buy," says Taxis for All Project Manager Terence J. Moakley of the United Spinal Association. "It is built to be durable and easy to maintain for taxi and Para transit service." Wheelchair users enter the cab using a recessed access ramp and, once in the cab, ride facing forward. For more info, log onto www.taxisforallNA.org or www.standardtaxi.com.
WEBSITE TO DONATE TO SCI RESEARCH
Inspired by his spinal cord injury, a man from Brighton, Colorado created a website to earn income and give back to a local hospital.
Tim Minnick started milliondollarhomepagecolorado.com, a pixel advertising site where businesses can buy space on the homepage. It features 1 million pixels which Minnick sells for $1 per pixel.
"What this does is give Colorado businesses an inexpensive way to advertise for 10 years," Minnick said.
If everything goes as planned, Minnick could earn $1 million but it won't all go to him. He pledged to donate half of his proceeds to Craig Hospital which specializes in rehabilitating patients with spinal cord injuries.
He was inspired by his own story. Throughout high school, Minnick was hard on his body.
"I rode bucking horses, I did horse stunts, dive down saddles for no apparent reason," Minnick said. "I thought I was bullet proof."
Until it all caught up with him last December when he felt a pop in his neck and his arms went numb.
"Not only was it the pain and hard to lift the arms, but severe headaches and numbness and I couldn't sit, stand, walk and what have you," Minnick said.
His spinal cord was so injured the doctor said even a small accident could leave him paralyzed.
"That was probably the worst day of my life," Minnick said. So, he started the Web site to help himself and others with the same injury.
"It's a nice sort of entrepreneurial activity but at the same time, he has a good heart to want to give to a cause that's worthwhile and might be able to help a lot of people," said Dennis O'Malley, president of Craig Hospital.
And that was always Minnick's intention. "I want to make a contribution, I want to make a difference," Minnick said.
The advertisements will stay on the site for 10 years and more than 4000,000 people have already visited the site since May.
SHEPHERD'S `SHORT BUS' A COOL RIDE
By Rosalind Bentley
Let's just put it right out there: people stare at the short bus. They stare at who gets on and off.
That's the reality when you have a severe Disability and your main way of getting around is via that bus.
Cathi Dugger has seen the stares as well as the looks on the faces of her clients who depend on the bus. The stares are without malice, but almost always come across as rude. Her clients later tell her the gawking made them feel uncomfortable and self-conscious. And different.
