Keep Bonnie Rolling Into 2021
Donation protected
Bonnie is a force of nature. She’s the sort of person who gives her friends, community, and city more than most people could ever dream of giving. When someone is sick or injured, she’s there with love and whatever they need to heal; when big events happen, she’s there to organize, lead, feed, and celebrate; when systems need to change, she’s there with advocacy and compassion. If you know her, you know she wants to take care of you and of the world. This is our chance to help take care of her: we want to help her buy a minivan with an integrated wheelchair lift and hand controls for driving so that she can continue to be independent and save the world.
Bonnie’s trusty Prius got her everywhere she’s been for the last five and a half years: every social event, every rock climbing competition, every Somerville city meeting or art/music event, every disability activism event. While her Prius was a welcome sight at those events -- the roof-mounted wheelchair lift that held her folding wheelchair was visible everywhere -- it wasn’t the easiest or best solution for her mobility, comfort, efficacy, or life because it necessitated her to use a folding wheelchair which, like folding umbrellas and folding strollers and folding bikes and folding tables, is less durable or comfortable than a rigid chair. Additionally, that wheelchair lift gave her vehicle unnecessary height that made it hard for her to enter and leave many parking garages safely, an added insult to navigating an inaccessible world.
At routine maintenance of her Prius recently, mechanics determined that the roof-mounted lift had cracked the roof of her Prius. Instead of spending a lot of money fixing an imperfect solution that would sustain her reliance on a car that doesn’t fit in garages and forces her to primarily use a subpar wheelchair, we’d like to help her upgrade her four-wheeled and two-wheeled transportation to a minivan with an internal wheelchair lift and hand controls that can allow her to travel with her better wheelchair, and sustain her independence and travel for the next decade or more.
Because she’s Bonnie, she has already identified a specific minivan that is well suited to her needs and has a plan for financing the van itself, so we’re fundraising for the internal wheelchair lift and hand controls installation, the combined cost of which comes to $7,500. She also owes an additional $2,000 on the current loan for her Prius’s wheelchair lift and hand controls. Anything raised above these costs will go towards lowering the loan costs of the vehicle itself. Please contribute what you can to help Bonnie, with dollars and/or by sharing this fundraising page, and please be in touch if you think you can help lower costs for Bonnie another way. Thanks for any help moving Bonnie forward into what we all hope will be a better new year.
Bonnie’s trusty Prius got her everywhere she’s been for the last five and a half years: every social event, every rock climbing competition, every Somerville city meeting or art/music event, every disability activism event. While her Prius was a welcome sight at those events -- the roof-mounted wheelchair lift that held her folding wheelchair was visible everywhere -- it wasn’t the easiest or best solution for her mobility, comfort, efficacy, or life because it necessitated her to use a folding wheelchair which, like folding umbrellas and folding strollers and folding bikes and folding tables, is less durable or comfortable than a rigid chair. Additionally, that wheelchair lift gave her vehicle unnecessary height that made it hard for her to enter and leave many parking garages safely, an added insult to navigating an inaccessible world.
At routine maintenance of her Prius recently, mechanics determined that the roof-mounted lift had cracked the roof of her Prius. Instead of spending a lot of money fixing an imperfect solution that would sustain her reliance on a car that doesn’t fit in garages and forces her to primarily use a subpar wheelchair, we’d like to help her upgrade her four-wheeled and two-wheeled transportation to a minivan with an internal wheelchair lift and hand controls that can allow her to travel with her better wheelchair, and sustain her independence and travel for the next decade or more.
Because she’s Bonnie, she has already identified a specific minivan that is well suited to her needs and has a plan for financing the van itself, so we’re fundraising for the internal wheelchair lift and hand controls installation, the combined cost of which comes to $7,500. She also owes an additional $2,000 on the current loan for her Prius’s wheelchair lift and hand controls. Anything raised above these costs will go towards lowering the loan costs of the vehicle itself. Please contribute what you can to help Bonnie, with dollars and/or by sharing this fundraising page, and please be in touch if you think you can help lower costs for Bonnie another way. Thanks for any help moving Bonnie forward into what we all hope will be a better new year.
Fundraising team (2)
Elizabeth Boskey
Organizer
Somerville, MA
Bonnie Denis
Team member
