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Among the daily stories of disasters, destruction and
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Here you will find stories that make your heart sing and
you face light up. These stories are about the joys of
diversity and difference and the fullness that is the human
experience.
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Disability didn't keep Russell Schupp from serving
(By Brian Albrecht, 11.07.10) There's a reason Russell Schupp, a Kirtland farm kid, congenitally blind in one eye, wound up driving an ambulance at night, with no headlights on, over rugged Italian mountain roads, occasionally dodging tanks and artillery fire during World War II.
And that reason fits right in with the themes of honor, pride and duty to country on July 4, Independence Day.
Schupp, now 85, of Grand River, remembered the frustration of being classified as unfit for military service, 4F, during the war. After all, his father was a World War I Army field artillery veteran who fought in France, and his older brother had enlisted in the Marines and served in the Pacific theater.
"I tried the Army, Navy, Air Corps, K-9s, everything. I couldn't get in," Schupp said.
He remembered how people shot questioning looks him -- an apparently healthy candidate for combat -- and the cop who harshly asked, "Why aren't you in France with my boy?"
Then he spotted a small newspaper story about the American Field Service and its need for ambulance drivers for the war. (Today, AFS Intercultural Programs is perhaps best known for its foreign student exchange program, established after the war.)
During World War I, the American Field Service ambulance corps was formed by the American Hospital in Paris and fielded 2,500 volunteers in vehicles financed by private donations.
Come World War II, the call went out again and about 2,000 recruits served as noncombatant ambulance drivers who transported wounded and dead from battlefields in Europe. Some 36 volunteers were killed, 62 wounded and 13 captured.
Many drivers were not qualified for military service due to age or physical disability. Schupp recalled an early encounter with a fellow recruit who asked, "What is your particular maladjustment?"
Schupp paid his own way to New York so he could be shipped overseas and assigned to duty with the British Eighth Army fighting in Italy in 1944.
While en route, he wrote to his father: "I am on my way again to see more of this exciting, cruel, curious, humorous, sad world. One day registered 112 degrees in the shade and the ship's PA system plays Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas.' It's mental sabotage. I've been sleeping in damp conditions on the ground. Mom may use my car, if she keeps it polished!"
In Italy he lived out of his ambulance, sleeping on a stretcher, and adjusted to the eccentricities of English military life. "They stopped the whole war for tea, at 10 in the morning and two in the afternoon," Schupp recalled. "When I got home I never had another cup of tea."
To avoid becoming an easy daylight target, most of his driving was done at night with headlights doused to avoid getting shot at, as he carried casualties from the front lines or forward aid stations to larger medical facilities in the rear. Schupp said the drivers eventually developed keen night vision -- "that's what saves your life."
The threat of enemy fire was a constant companion. "About three or four times the German 88s [artillery] found me," Schupp said. "They did not hit me, but they were close and scared the . . . Well, I always carried a change of underwear with me -- No, just kidding about that."
Narrow roads were another challenge and Schupp quickly discovered that tanks always had the right of way. He recalled one ambulance that was sliced open by a passing tank, "just like a can opener."
Schupp was glad his role was strictly delivery, maybe lending a hand with stretchers now and then. Once, a forward aid station doctor asked him to hold a plasma bottle during emergency surgery. Schupp said he held it at arm's length, looking away, because the doctor "didn't know I faint at the sight of blood."
The observation still makes his wife, Trudy, chuckle at the idea of an ambulance driver who gets woozy at the sight of blood, driving with one good eye in the dark along roads marked with directional signs in a language he can't read.
Somehow Schupp made it work, and he's proud that he did. "It gave me the courage to face things in the future, from then on, to know that if I could do that, I could do this, too," he said.
That future included a career as a typesetter at local newspapers, including the Painesville Telegraph and Lake County News-Herald, and raising four children with his wife.
The past still periodically revisits at night, waking him, but not in a bad way. Just vivid recollections of Italy and war.
Looking back, Schupp said, "I'm glad I was in a position to help people, and not shoot them. I've got nothing against the guy who has to carry a rifle, because I tried to enlist and they wouldn't let me.
"But I was happy I could drive an ambulance. The fact that I could do it is a great blessing to me."
Source: http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/07/disability_didnt_keep_russell.html
A Level results: Shaun hopes he'll be an inspiration
22 August 2009
Teenager Shaun Turner has triumphed in his A-levels
after refusing to let his cerebral palsy hold him back at
school.
The 18-year-old studied at St John Fisher Catholic
College, in Newcastle, and was given a laptop and scribe
to help him cope with the demands of essays and other
written work.
Now he has achieved B, C and D grades at A-level after
taking English language, philosophy and ethics, and law.
He is now preparing for university next month and hopes
his success will inspire others. Shaun, who lives in
Gillow Heath, near Biddulph, said: "I've done brill. I'm
really chuffed. It's been quite hard work, but really
worth it. I was predicted Cs and Ds, so getting a B has
been a big achievement."
Cerebral palsy, which is linked to brain injury and
causes movement problems, affects people in different
ways. Shaun has remained relatively mobile, but seemingly
simple physical tasks can prove tricky. "I struggle to
write quickly and to make it legible," he said. "The
other main problem is tiredness. Later in the day, I've
tended to be really tired. It was a bit of a challenge in
the exams.
"I was given extra time in the exams and also had a
laptop, which the school provided." Shaun joined St John
Fisher half-way through his first year at high school
after finding it difficult to settle at his previous
school. He said: "My mum and dad and I were very
impressed with St John Fisher when we first spoke to the
staff.
"They have made me feel like my disability is not an
issue which can't be overcome. I have felt really valued
at the school. "The teaching staff have also been
brilliant and offered me a lot of support." As well as
providing the equipment to help with his writing, the
school teamed him up with a mentor, who helped him with
the transition into the sixth form.
Shaun, who also has 10-and-a-half GCSEs, has now
landed a place at De Montfort University, in Leicester,
to study English and journalism. Staff at St John Fisher
say he has contributed much to the life of the school
during his six years and he fully deserves his academic
success. Joanne Hughes, head of the school's sixth form,
said: "Shaun was deputy head boy last year and has played
a fantastic role. He was also one of our senior prefects.
He's a top young man."
Source: www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk
Student with disability awarded for perseverance
Cherie Rodriguez, Miami Herald
USA
Oscar Ortiz, a 10-year-old who attends Treasure Island
Elementary School, came to the United States two years
ago from Puerto Rico. Besides suffering from cerebral
palsy, he had to learn a new language and make new
friends.
"At first, it was hard, but my teachers helped me,"
Ortiz said.
Ortiz once was known as a student who hid from
schoolmates and teachers behind a language barrier. Now
they recognize him for his persistence and outgoing
personality.
"I never give up," Ortiz said. "I keep on trying."
This past school year, Ortiz was awarded the Award of
Excellence for Students with Disabilities. Oscar won the
county-wide award in the elementary school division. The
award is given by Parent to Parent of Miami, a nonprofit
that advocates for kids with disabilities, and the
Superintendent's District Advisory Panel for Students
with Disabilities, made up of parents of children with
disabilities, school officials and other education
advocates. The award is given to students with
disabilities that have demonstrated a high level of
independence, effort and progress in classes.
"We are looking for students that have made progress,
and develop friendships,'' said Isabel Garcia, executive
director of Parent to Parent of Miami.
Oscar's special education teacher Alexis Schonfield
and inclusion teacher Jilian Herrera sponsored his
application for the award, citing his significant
attitude improvement.
"When I first met him, he would refuse to speak to me
and only spoke in Spanish,'' Schonfield said. "He got rid
of his wheelchair and now only uses it for field trips.''
His mother, Jenniffer Del Valle, also noted a change in
Ortiz's personality.
"He has changed a lot because he was frustrated and he
cried,'' Del Valle said. "Now he tries to do everything
himself.''
Ortiz struggled with his academics at first, but he
later learned to thrive in the classroom, according to
Schonfield. With hard work, he became a member of the
Accelerated Reader Club, which recognizes students that
achieved an 80-percent score or higher on quizzes of
specified books.
"Before, he couldn't do anything on grade level,''
Schonfield said. "And now he is doing everything on his
own and you never hear him complain.''
The perseverance that Oscar shows also makes him stand
out to his classmates, Schonfield said. Now he proudly
sports a green walker instead of the wheelchair he
started school with.
"The kids see that he is a leader because even a walk
to the computer is hard for him,'' Schonfield said. "The
other kids see that he has to work twice as hard to do
basic things, and that they have nothing to complain
about.''
Ortiz continues to dream big, and his next goal is to
become a Hollywood actor.
"According to the application's description, when he
comes into a room, everyone knows he has arrived.''
Garcia said. ``He doesn't see his disability as a
barrier."
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