Making her home more wheelchair accessible.

Natalie Jacobsen is organizing this fundraiser.

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Natalie's Story - You may have to turn on subtitles/closed captioning if it's hard to hear/understand.

Hello everyone! I’d like to introduce you all to my daughter, Natalie Jacobsen. Natalie suffers from a rare genetic disease called Friedreich ataxia (FA).

She has jumped over many hurdles and overcome a lot, through both her personal life and academically. She holds an Associates degree in Medical Assisting, a Bachelor of Science in Sociology, and most recently, a Master’s degree in Arts in Medicine. She was on her way to life of academics and professionalism when she met someone, and her life changed directions.

Fall 2020 commencement: UF College of the Arts (appx 39:29):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e44_chd2IYA&fbclid=IwAR1rPwq8WJ8RDds2TAEA5hg8UE5j2pcExOONXsX7v-5w3khdjebg77SEX1w

After her first son was born, her fiancé and her decided to move to a larger home, where there was more space than her tiny one bedroom apartment. She was contracted with vocational rehabilitation; VR was supposed to accommodate the house as long as she graduated with a MA from UF, to become a productive member of society. By VR accommodating the house, Natalie would have been able to safely enter and exit the home, take care of her own personal grooming habits, and cook and clean for her family. Once these issues were addressed, it would have made it more plausible for Natalie to go back to work and become independent. However, after four years of dragging their feet and going through several VR counselors, they've done nothing to accommodate her home for her wheelchair!

She created a post on some Facebook groups a few months ago, just looking for some affordable lumber to repair her wheelchair ramp. What she found was God‘s love… Trinity Baptist. These men are truly God’s hands and feet. They have worked with donated materials thus far to repair her wheelchair ramp and widen all the doorways of the interior of the home but are now looking for more financial help to make the interior of her home more wheelchair accessible.

The areas that need to be accommodated are:

- [ ] Her master bathroom: with a wheelchair accessible sink and shower stall, waterproof flooring, and other materials..

- [ ] Wheelchair accessible kitchen: Drive under kitchen counters and sink, pull out drawer cabinets, and accessible stove.

- [ ] Laundry room.

Part of Natalie's story was shown on ABC WCJB's TV20 News, in Gainesville, Florida. A link to that article and video are here: https://www.wcjb.com/2022/07/15/hampton-family-needs-help-making-home-wheelchair-accessible/

Natalie is extremely grateful for what Trinity Baptist, in Keystone Heights, Florida, has done thus far, and also extremely grateful to Frank Bondurant, for rallying the troops of volunteers, to get what they've done done. They are offering their team of volunteers, for free, to accommodate Natalie's needs but need the funds to purchase materials, including a roll-in shower (pan, enclosure), appliances, equipment, plumbing and installation materials, to accommodate the kitchen, master bathroom, and laundry room.

With Natalie living in Bradford county, there are little to no resources available, and no funding. There is no Habitat for Humanity, and Centers for Independent Living is also several years out, for things they provide. We’ve reached out to Habitat for Humanity on several occasions; their services, as well as many others, are not available for Bradford county.

The above video was made in 2018, for VR, when trying to get accommodations for the kitchen. We see Natalie struggling, to wash dishes and talk about how much pain she is in while trying to do dishes and things that she can and can not do, as well as possible solutions. Since this video is from 2018, before the doorways were widened, the pantry door is no longer an issue. So, keep that in mind.

Above are some of the projects that Frank @ Trinity Baptist have done or are working on. First, we see his team working on on the master bedroom door. It was originally a 27-28" door that Natalie scraped her knees on many times trying to go through; it was upgraded to a 36" door. Next, the baby's bedroom door. On the top portion, we see the old door in front of the new. This and the pantry room door was around 24", impossible for Natalie to go through. They've been upgraded. Lastly, the main entrance door, which Frank and his team of volunteers are going to be replacing with the door below it. The church is going to be coming later, to widen the older kid's bedroom door and the guest bathroom door too.

First time riding on the newly-repaired wheelchair ramp that Frank Bondurant and his volunteers repaired for Natalie.

The main reason mama needs a working kitchen.

Some of Natalie's artwork, before her FA took most of her ability to do this away, when she then moved toward writing and poetry. The first one 'Horse Drinking from a Creek' was the first pastel she ever did. Next is 'Fishing at Daylight' pastel on paper, followed by 'Lurking in the Night' pastel on paper, then 'His Life' pastel on paper, followed by 'Moonstruck' acrylic on canvas, followed by 'Mountain Silhouette' acrylic on canvas, and last, 'Happy Birthday' acrylic on canvas.

6/23/22 - Frank and his team of volunteers came out and opened up Natalie's closet, widened the doorway to the childrens' bedroom, and tidied up the pantry door install that they did a few weeks back, with new trim. Justin Hall@ KLC Flooring, in Starke, Florida, also donated vinyl plank flooring for the master bathroom install, once the roll-in shower comes in (it's currently on order.) Frank and his team will likely be coming back in July, to do more accommodations.

Some of Natalie's achievements

Natalie has volunteered in the school system as well as in the medical field

7/28/22 Frank and his team came out today to bring the master bathroom vanity and new stove. Unfortunately, the second time wasn't a charm. Frank spent all morning getting the stove mounted and connected, and the oven did not work. Maybe the third time's the charm?!? Frank also blessed Natalie with a roll-in shower chair. Lastly, Natalie procured a wheelchair lift for Frank/Trinity Baptist so that one of the people that the church is helping with ramp builds and other accommodations will be able to put their scooter or lightweight chair on the back of their vehicle and ride. Natalie believes that blessings need to go both directions, not stop with her.