Haley- UCP- Day Five

Today was our last day volunteering at United Cerebral Palsy.  For our last day, we worked at Link Point again, the facility for adults with disabilities.  Every Friday, they go on outings or fieldtrips to local businesses so they can practice daily living. Because today was really rainy and cold many members were not able to go out and some just did not want to.  For this reason, only one of us KU students could go on the trip with them.  I volunteered to participate in this event.  We went to a mall called the Galleria and did laps around and around.  There were three participants that ended up coming as well as two faculty members.  Their names were Don, Robin, and Andrea.  Don is an old man who is in a wheelchair and he is hilarious.  He kept telling me that he wanted to be a doctor so he could find a cure for cancer.  However, he said if that did not end up working out then he would settle as a middle school or high school principal so he could stop violence and people bringing in weapons to the school.  I thought that was so cute.  I pushed him around and stopped when he wanted to look at something.   Robin is in a wheel chair as well.   He is known as a “ladies man.”  He can only talk if his computer is on.   He is so happy all the time.  I was told they have never seen him in a bad mood.  I think that is awesome and that shows that people that do not have disabilities should never complain.  Now Andrea, she is a wanderer.  She is not in a wheelchair, so if you are not holding onto her, she will wander everywhere and it is easy to lose her.  I could not communicate with her though because she did not speak and she did not use a computer device like the others do.  Andrew is the name of one of the faculty members who came with us.  He is in charge of all the Friday outings.  He is so cool.  I liked him a lot.  He was pushing Robing throughout the mall, and him and I got separated from the rest of the group.  He took me to a Alabama store so I could buy an Alabama shirt.  Don and Robin helped me pick a cute one out.  I had a lot of fun today and it was a great experience.  It was so sad at the end of the day.  It was hard to say bye to everyone.  It is weird to think that I will probably never see any of them again.  However, I would like to go back there one day and volunteer!