When I first started school, I told the kids our pet alligator was a bad idea. It was hard as a 5-year-old explaining my story to other 5-year-olds!I played all sorts of sports, and was very active. However, I noticed that none of the other kids at school had a fake leg like me. I would often get frustrated that none of my friends were like me.

In high school, I was in a leadership program that required a big project that would “make a difference”. It was pretty open-ended, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I decided to start an organization to promote amputee awareness. After experiencing years of bullying for being different, and I wanted to be the voice for amputees in my community. I was able to talk to lots of students around St. Louis and share my story. I had a little girl come up to me at the end of one of my talks, and tell me that she finally felt proud to be adopted. She had never met anyone else that was adopted and felt very alone. I hope that changing just one child’s perspective can start to change many.

This started in 2010 as a high school project and has turned into a community I am so lucky to be at the center of!