UNITED SPINAL ASSOCIATION’S Roll on Capitol Hill Travel Planning Tips Volunteering A Rancher’s Life: Letters from Rural America life beyond wheels newmobility.com JUN 2019 $4 THE DIFFERENCE YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR “ It becomes part of your body and ” not part of what you are pushing. - Alan Ludovici | Designer, Rider, Ethos Creator DISCOVER ETHOS AT www.kimobility.com CONTENTSIssue 309 - June 2019 life beyond wheels COVER STORY FROM WYOMING WITH LOVE 24 What started as a simple inquiry about a potential profile developed into a beautiful correspondence between two longtime wheelchair users about life on the ranch. TIM GILMER and HENRY POLING wax poetic about everything from what kind of moms cows make to being stranded 17 miles from home to surviving a cold winter and much more. Cover and Contents Photos by Kirk Williams FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 4 BULLY PULPIT 16 ROLL ON CAPITOL HILL PREVIEW AARON BROVERMAN introduces four of the advocates planning to 5 BEHIND THE STORIES attend this year’s Roll on Capitol Hill and shares what they hope to 6 SHARE accomplish at United Spinal Association’s annual signature event. 8 NEWS COMMENTARY 20 TRIP PLANNING TIPS 10 UNITED SPINAL NEWS LILLY LONGSHORE takes us through Germany and Austria, 12 HOW WE ROLL sharing ideas, resources and tactics to help you plan the inter- 14 LIVE WELL national trip of your dreams without breaking the bank. 36 HOSPITAL MEMBERS 38 OUTDOOR TRACKS 33 GET POLITICAL There’s more to politics than knocking on doors 40 PARA/MEDIC and posting on social media. ABE MUNDER looks 42 ERVIN at the many ways you can get involved and find 47 CLASSIFIEDS your political voice. 48 LAST WORD life beyond wheels BULLYBy Ian PULPITRuder NEW MOBILITY IS THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF UNITED SPINAL ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REVIEW PRESIDENT & CEO: JAMES WEISMAN VP OF PUBLICATIONS: JEAN DOBBS A wise man once said, “Life moves pretty who work full time on the magazine, but fast. If you don’t stop and look around it’s true. Getting to know each of them once in a while, you could miss it.” better and work with them to solve the EDITORIAL Between the never-ending crunch of inevitable day-to-day issues that come up PUBLISHER: JEAN DOBBS trying to put out a magazine every month with an undertaking of this magnitude has EXECUTIVE EDITOR: JOSIE BYZEK and the realities of adjusting to a new role, been a great experience. EDITOR: IAN RUDER “fast” seems like an understatement to I know many of you were worried Tim ASSOCIATE EDITOR: SETH MCBRIDE describe the 12 months since I took over Gilmer had sailed off into the sunset of EDITOR EMERITUS: TIM GILMER as the editor of NEW MOBILITY. SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: BOB VOGEL Taking a second to look back on the year reveals a period defined by continual “People always seem change and, I would argue, a consistent surprised when I tell them CUSTOMER SERVICE commitment to bringing you fresh, interesting and helpful content. Here’s a there are only five of us Toll-free 800/404-2898, ext. 7203 reminder in case you missed anything: who work full time on the • We added Posts, a new bimonthly look magazine. ADVERTISING SALES at colorful stories from around the wheeler ” 718/803-3782 world; Everyday Ethics, an insightful ex- MANAGER, CORPORATE RELATIONS: amination of everyday dilemmas; and Ask retirement and taken his insight and prose MEGAN LEE, EXT. 7253 Us, a help column where our knowledge- with him, but now you must know that AD MATERIALS: DEANNA FIKE, EXT. 7250 able staff answer your questions. couldn’t be further from the truth. If any- • We replaced our Contributors page with thing, he’s written more content in the last PRODUCTION Behind the Stories to give you more insight 12 months than he has during any similar PRODUCTION MANAGER: DEANNA FIKE into the people who shaped that issue. timeframe. His excellent series on doctors • Wheelchair Confidential debuted along- and nurses stands out among the many CIRCULATION side Please Remain Seated to form Last highlights of the year. CIRCULATION MANAGER: Word, our new back page. So what’s next? BEVERLY SMITH • Teal Sherer started as a new columnist, We’ve got a great slate of stories lined CIRCULATION COORDINATOR: MARIA KURTZ offering her unique insider perspective on up for the second half of 2019 and, after all things media. a year of working together, our team has POSTMASTER: Send address changes to New • Additionally, nine new contributors a better understanding of what we need Mobility, 120-34 Queens Blvd, #320, Kew Gardens penned features for us, as did a number of EW OBILITY NY 11415. Subscription rates: $27.95/year; $35.95/ to do to keep N M trending in the year in Canada; $67.95/year international via excellent new bloggers. right direction. airmail. New Mobility (ISSN 1086-4741), Volume If you extend the look back a little fur- As always, we are counting on your 30, Issue 309, is published monthly by United Spinal Association, 120-34 Queens Blvd, #320, ther to January of 2018, we’ve updated 14 feedback and suggestions, and we genu- Kew Gardens NY 11415. Copyright 2019, all rights of our departments with new looks, writ- inely want to hear what you’d like to see reserved. Reproduction without permission of any material contained herein is strictly prohibited. We ers or entirely new content. That’s a whole us cover and how you think we’re doing. welcome comments; we reserve the right to edit lot of change, but I’m hoping that it went as If you read online, please take the time to submissions. smoothly for all of you as it did for us. comment, share or message us through Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, NY and additional mailing offices. If so, all the credit goes to the awe- our website or social media pages. If you some team we have putting together NEW read in print, please email me at iruder@ www.newmobility.com MOBILITY. People always seem surprised unitedspinal.org. I’m excited for the future www.unitedspinal.org when I tell them there are only five of us and I hope you are too. 4 NEW MOBILITY life beyond wheels BEHIND THEWith Ian Ruder STORIES CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL COLLINS MIKE ERVIN ROXANNE FURLONG ALEX GHENIS life beyond wheels RICHARD HOLICKY KATE MATELAN When Tim Gilmer shared his correspondence with Wyoming rancher Henry Poling, we ALLEN RUCKER knew we had something special. While we had initially been drawn to the unique na- ROBERT SAMUELS ture of Poling’s story, the back-and-forths between the two overflowed with candor, ERIC STAMPFLI insight and compassion. They told a story that is quintessentially what we like to call ELLEN STOHL “a NEW MOBILITY story” and did so in a simple yet elegant way. For anyone wondering BOB VOGEL what “a NEW MOBILITY story” LOREN WORTHINGTON looks like, I’ll leave it to Pol- ing: “This story, unlike others that have focused on me, ac- COMMUNITY PARTNERS tually reaches a target group that can truly relate to life in KIM ANDERSON a chair and all the challenges CHRISTIAAN “OTTER” BAILEY that come with it,” he says. MARTY BALL “My hope from it is that it TIFFINY CARLSON might lend some encourage- LAWRENCE CARTER-LONG ment to others trying to re- RORY COOPER capture some of their prior JASON DASILVA life and realize that, though DEBORAH DAVIS Photographer Kirk Williams meets rancher Henry Poling. there are definite adjust- TOBIAS FORREST ments, you can stay on the path that you wanted to go down in life. Most people limit JENNIFER FRENCH themselves far more in their mind than their physical limitations.” ALLISON CAMERON GRAY In the last year alone, photographer Kirk Williams has put over 25,000 miles on the MINNA HONG camper van that doubles as his mobile home and studio. For the photos he shot for this MARK JOHNSON month’s cover feature, Williams only had to tack on a few hundred miles from his Boul- GARY KARP der, Colorado, base of operations. They were well worth it. In addition to great photos, NANCY BECKER KENNEDY he came away with plenty of epic stories of survival and adaptation in an unforgiving CORY LEE environment. “I’ve met a lot of pretty hardcore wheelchair users, and I joked that Henry BRITTANY MARTIN Poling is the Chuck Norris of all of them,” says Williams. LINDA MASTANDREA LYNN MURRAY We get more pitches for travel stories than almost any other ASHLEY LYN OLSON type of article. Everyone wants to share their awesome ad- TEAL SHERER ventures (and get paid for it!). Two of the things that set Lilly TARI HARTMAN SQUIRE Longshore’s pitches apart are her focus on affordability and MITCH TEPPER her attention to detail. Life as a wheelchair user is rarely af- REVECA TORRES fordable, and travel can be cost prohibitive, but Longshore ANTHONY TUSLER goes out of her way to provide budget-saving ideas to rein in KARY WRIGHT costs. Some of that comes from her upbringing as one of 10 kids. “We learned to pinch pennies,” she says. “Now, it feels good to be able to help others do the same when it comes to seeing the world.” Read about her trip to Germany and Aus- tria in this issue and her further travels at lillylongshore.com. UNITED SPINAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS: www.unitedspinal.org/about/ Please send queries, manuscripts or feedback to Ian Ruder: [email protected] our-leadership/ JUNE 2019 5 UNITED SPINAL Normie Etiquette Galápagos Adventure Body Language SHARE ASSOCIATION’S “The article on nursing is excellent.” life beyond wheels BATTLING BIAS, FINDING THEIR NICHE: Nurses on Wheels Nurses Rock or diseases.