Twins Take the Prize in Wisconsin BPDD's Storytelling Campaign
Madison, Wisconsin (PRWEB) October 17, 2013 -- The Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities (BPDD), http://www.wi-bpdd.org, announced today a special winner in its storytelling campaign, Better Together: Sharing stories, Sharing lives. The campaign celebrates the many ways ordinary people come together to support one another across their personal and professional lives. Its newest winners, twin sisters, Laura and Melissa Nattinger, of Sheboygan, WI, are recognized this month and will receive a cash prize for their original story.
In their story submission, Laura and Melissa relate the unusual experience of growing up together as twins with the same disability. Faced with the challenges associated with their disability, the sisters were able to lean on one another for support. And while some people may struggle to understand the disability experience from the outside, the twins had the unique opportunity to empathize with someone with personal knowledge of facing, and overcoming, shared life challenges. Although they fought like sisters, their shared experience made them stronger and provided a special bond that helped them overcome common obstacles.
Growing up with the complexities of the millennial era can be difficult under the best of circumstances. Disability often adds an additional layer to the uncertainty that can accompany coping with adolescence, setting a career path and developing lasting professional and personal relationships. Laura and Melissa’s story emphasizes how important it is to the success of people with disabilities to receive support beyond their families, including educators, employers and communities.
Laura and Melissa encourage others growing up with disabilities to “…find someone to talk to; find someone to share your life with. Living with a disability can be difficult, but like anything, it is more difficult when you’re alone. You need someone to turn to who can help you face the world. Problems are easier when you can face them together.” As Better Together’s first winning co-authors, Laura and Melissa will split the cash prize.
The BPDD is looking for its next winning story. Anyone can participate. People living with a developmental disability - or who have a family member, friend, coworker or employee with a developmental disability - can visit http://www.bettertogether.wi-bpdd.org or the BPDD’s Facebook page to share their story and learn more. Storytellers have until October 30 to submit a story for the next prize drawing.
One storyteller a month will receive a prize for a story about a life touched by disability. Prizes include Kindle Fires, cash prizes and more. Stories can be submitted through the BPDD’s Facebook page or the Better Together website, http://www.bettertogether.wi-bpdd.org. Stories should be short personal accounts of about a page or less relating their experience of a life touched by disability.
Sponsored by the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities, Better Together: Sharing stories, Sharing lives is a cooperative, multimedia initiative launched to increase awareness of the many ways people with disabilities can – and do – contribute to our greater communities. Throughout 2013, Better Together will use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media to spotlight the importance of including people of all abilities in our communities by collecting and sharing stories from those whose lives have been touched by disability. One in six children in the U.S. grows up with a developmental disability¹. Better Together seeks to highlight the many ways people with disabilities contribute to our communities and our lives.
¹CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/developmentaldisabilities/index.html
Joshua Ryf, Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities, http://www.wi-bpdd.org, 888-332-1677, [email protected]
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