WENDELL FOSTER CAMPUS
If you are running the Color Blast 5K this year, you might notice Shelly Bozarth’s smiling face cheering you on from her motorized wheelchair. Shelly and a group of her friends from the Wendell Foster Center formed a team last year, complete with team shirts. Supporting the Color Blast is just one of many ways Shelly gives back to the community.
“I love to do things in the community,” Bozarth said. “I love giving back!” Like most people at the Wendell Foster Campus, Shelly has learned how to focus on her abilities through her disability. Since moving to the Wendell Foster Campus four years ago, Shelly has been living a very full life; she serves on the Regional Human Rights Committee, she’s Vice President of the Wendell Foster Residential Government, and she’s on the Behavioral Intervention Committee. But Bozarth’s true passion is her involvement with the “Stop the R Word Campaign.”
“That’s my calling,” Shelly explained. “It gives me a chance to go out to the schools and show the kids that I’m just like them.” Last year, the Stop the R Word campaign spoke to 2,500 students through school assemblies in seven counties. At those assemblies, Shelly reads a storybook to the students and then shares her own story, explaining what life with Cerebral Palsy is like and how the “R” word hurts her feelings. Then there’s a question and answer time where the students get to ask Shelly questions, which the kids always enjoy. Shelly ends with reminding the children of the “Golden Rule” and explaining that “Respect” is the new “R Word.” So far, there are 26 dates set for this year’s campaign, running throughout the month of March.
Wendell Foster serves 500 outpatients a year. 83 residents live on campus in intermediate care cottages. Shelly’s house is very well kept, with a nice porch out front. “The first time I came here, it felt like home,” she says.
Carolyn Ferber, the Volunteer and Community Education Coordinator at Wendell Foster said her favorite thing about Shelly is “her wonderful sense of humor and her great outlook on life. I know where she’s been, and I’ve seen how much she’s changed and how outgoing she’s become since she came here. She’s so independent now. She just dives right in.”
Apparently, that wasn’t always the case. Shelly is from Hancock County and described herself as introverted and bashful before she came to Wendell Foster. She used to be uncomfortable in large crowds, but now she says she “just busts right through them.”
Shelly’s case manager found her a job at Hugh Sandefur, where she inspects and ships small plastic pieces that are used to make mini blinds. She has worked there for four years and was recently moved to a bigger workshop. On her days off she enjoys shopping, eating out, and lots of other activities.
Her favorite thing about living at the Wendell Foster Campus is being independent. “Here I’m able to do what I want,” Bozarth explained. “This place opened up a whole new world for me. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Wendell Foster is honored to be a recipient of a portion of the proceeds from this year’s Color Blast 5K. By participating in the Color Blast, you are helping people like Shelly fulfill their dreams and find purpose for their lives; spreading the joy they’ve discovered with others. To quote Shelly Bozarth, “It’s just what we do!”
– Danny May