Getting to Know You

Who's next?  Coleen O'Shea and John Harnett you both owe us one...

Here's where we will get to know alittle more about our members in their own words!  Listed alphabettically

Arturo de la Cerda             Warren Glaser	I have a diagnosis of Quadriplegic Spastic Cerebral Palsy. My parents did  not receive a confirmed diagnosis until the eleventh month of life, as a result of a premature birth. I have two older sisters that have, at times, made it easier to live with my disability. Growing up I felt like every kid. Like wanting to do or have what I see my friends doing or having. My father was very worried, because of my disability, from the time I was born all throughout my childhood.  He knew I had struggles socially], so he tried to please my every want as he saw fit. My mother tried to see that I received the same treatment as any other child. From head-start to my senior year of high school I have been in mainstream classes. Being mainstreamed throughout my primary education has presented struggles but I have managed to overcome these with the utmost resilience. I and my mom have had to deal with school administrators and teachers that had little or no will at all to taylor their environment and curriculum to a physically disabled student. Relocating every two to three years, do to my father’s career, was not an easy task either. Because we moved so often we always had to keep my mobility in mind, from housing to public transpiration. Through all these experiences, I have managed but it is not to say that I have help from a higher power, especially what laid ahead of me. In 1998 my mom had a n early fatal brain aneurysm and remained in a comma a day after the emergency surgery. This was an even a bigger heart break for all three of us. I remember  seeing her after the surgery  in the Neurology I.C.U.--her body had all kinds of machines hooked up to all kinds of machines. I felt like my life had been moving faster than I would have hoped to. After my mother’s recovery, I thought that we could not have any major family crises... Once again my faith was tested. In June of 2002 my dad was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a fatal neurological illness that took him from diagnosis to death in five months. His illness and passing took alot out of me, emotionally and psychologically. This was something I just refused to accept. As I came to the realization of what was taken out of my life, I realized the small things blessings I have had amongst all the turmoil. A year had past, after my dads death, and I thought hardships lest our lives, in 2003 my mother was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. I remember the night me and my sister were told that my mom was going into surgery the coming week, I felt very confused. I had a hard time believing all we have been through. Eventually I came to the realization that it was in control by faith. Today I attend Ventura College as a Political Science major with hopes to transferring to university within the coming year.   Born 1937, Letterman General, Hospital San Francisco. Dad in the Army Air Force flying the mail. In the next 17 years we lived in 14 cities or towns in six states, two countries and had lived in 19 homes. I remember ten different schools including fifth and sixth grade at So Cal Military Academy. We were the first ship load of dependents to go to Germany landing there less than six months after the war, Nov. 1, 1945. Mom was a transcriber at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, exposed me to that, the Czech village of Lidice (google it), Baden-baden, Buchenwald Death Camps. That and the sights and smells of war torn Germany made me he peacenik I am today.  Began to work at 13, to drive at 14. On my third stepfather when I enrolled at VC.  At VC I began to see friends drafted into the post Korea army, wanted none of the foxhole, collars, cuffs and ties so I ran down and enlisted in the Navy Ready Reserve, for 8 years. Fell into my second  aquatic job, beach (first was managing Ojai’s Oaks Hotel pool for two years at age 16)  lifeguarding, did so seasonally for for 28 years and in 1958 began my teaching career at the Santa Barbara YMCA. I had one class remaining to finish my degree and three of my four kids in 1961 when I had a teaching job with at Isbell School in Santa Paula fall into my lap, after having the District Superintendent take a scuba class from me at the Y, even with no degree and no credential, and thus began my public school career which continues today.  The kids and I had the privilege to work and live on Santa Cruz Island (Albert’s Anchorage Tahitian Village) most weekends, all vacations and all summer one school year.  We discovered our little corner of  Heaven. Two summers later I was asked to start the Junior Lifeguard program at Ventura State Beach. A few years later I began a long relationship with Dick Mason and YMCA Camp Surf in San Diego.  In the summers of ’79 and ’80, I was privileged to work for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia, teaching anything and everything wet.  Got two fre trikps around the world out of this as well as a good look at Arab and Muslim life.  At Nordhoff for 16-17 years had a complete aquatics program including SCUBA ad as icing on the cake, Bicycling and Backpacking. Biked down from San Francisco, backpacked most of Catalina Island, and canoed the Colorado River. Tough work, someone had to do it. Five years before retiring from Nordhoff H.S. I began a business known as OAARS, Outdoor And Aquatic Recreation Specialists, working in all aspects of outdoor and aquatic recreation and were the first kayak guides to the Channel Islands. By the time I retired from Nordhoff in 1993, I had taught 19 different classes, in 4 departments and then  owned and operated Oaars for 15 years until 2003 until my increasing disabilitiy, 3 new knees, two new hips, mrsa stapf in one hip, total spinal stenosis, 18 surgeries in 12 years, made Oaars physically  impossible. In 1998 Cheryl Holt, then Aquatics Director, asked if I would come back to VC and work with her. I had some tough classes, Beach Activities, Lifeguarding, WSI, Ocean Lifeguard, Swimming For Non-Swimmers (5-74 year old age range one semester) and then as budget cuts began to hit I was offered Adaptive Aquatics (disabled) and then Adaptive Weight Training and Conditioning. That love affair continues today and led to forming an Ecumenical Disabilities Fellowship, Building Bridges which continues today. God is great, life is beautiful...  So many parts of this puzzle, a picture of my life, have led to and pointed to where I am and what I am doing presently.  What the remaining pieces shall be I do not know.  I do know that becoming disabled and the changes in my life that has made have been perhaps the greatest gift ever and taught me more than I learned all my previous years.  This has also brought me closer to my Lord and Savior than I have ever been.  I am truly blessed
Larry Velasquez	In 1990, I had my stroke. I know, now, what it meant to be an able-bodied person.  That was 19 years ago. I'm in a wheelchair now, and I had to re-invent myself into the person I am today.   First, I had to let go of the old Larry(the old Larry who was a party animal, and who sometimes drank too much). Well the list is too long and too personal to talk about and so, I had to put on the new Larry, as he went thru a lot of changes these past 19 years.   I had to learn how to accept my disability. I kept telling myself that now that I'm in a wheelchair, and I don't how long God plans to use me this way. I better get use to it. I kept on telling myself that the wheelchair is my friend and is my transportation partner. I needed it to get from place to place. I rely on it. We became friends...   I had to learn how to communicate with others. I had to accept their help when needed. I had to be more of a positive person and change my attitude towards others. More of a kinder person...   I had to start using the new Larry, in the way he'd never experienced before, like painting the brick fence with one hand. Before my stroke, I was a righty but now I'm a lefty. It was a big challenge for me to paint...getting my mind to accept the brush in my left hand and paint. I had to change my way of thinking to get the job done right. I did it even though it took me a few months to complete, and I was left proud of the accomplishment....not only did I do painting on the fence but I managed to do some graffiti work....   I had to learn the basic life skills all over again. I was re-inventing myself thru all those years. I never knew it but I was changing myself into the person I am today.... Today, I'm trying to re-invent myself into a more knowledgeable person when it comes to dealing with life issues about the disabled...by listening to others and reading up on the latest disability issues, and listening to god.....
Harriet Weigel	God has done so much in my life. His grace has been so abundant. First, lets talk about being born again. Abuse is an ugly word...it's even uglier when you live with it, the days are saturated with angry words, threats and fear, guns held to your head, and an indescribable rage that controls your life and everything in it.. Even now, twenty-one years later the memories are difficult to cope with. My abuser was my husband, a man with many problems, many personalities. At one point he fired a gun close to my head, damaging the nerves in both of my ears. Eventually I left him, and moved into a small two bedroom apartment with my son Bill, Bill was in his thirties, disabled and troubled. We furnished our nest with items donated by family and friends. We lived on the income I made managing an employment service. We were together approximately half a year when it became quite apparent that I was having difficulty understanding words. An appointment was made, my hearing was tested. The doctor discovered substantial nerve damage in both ears. His recommendation was that I be fitted with hearing aids. The cost for both aids would be $2300.00. The recommendation was made on Friday. I was devastated. The doctor told me to call him on Monday to let him know what my decision was. I could borrow the money for the aids, but in doing so Billy and I would be existing on next to nothing for an extended period of time. There would be no dinners with my other five children, no gifts for the fifteen grandchildren. Nothing, only responsibility. I needed new glasses desperately, the existing ones were inadequate, the lenses scratched, the frames broken. There was no choice. In order to stay employed I had to be able to hear. On Saturday the decision was made. I would call the doctor on Monday and make an appointment to be fitted for the aids. I had been away from the church for over thirty years, but I knew that the hearing aids weren't the only thing that I needed. I needed God. Early Sunday morning I set out for the Channel Island Vineyard Christian Fellowship, a church my daughter Patty attended. I knew that I could slip in wearing my tennis shoes and sweats, that my old car would be acceptable, that no one would notice. I entered the sanctuary and sat down just as worship began. I watched as the people around me stood with their hands raised over their heads. Something happened, I jumped to my feet crying, all that I could say was, "I can't do it anymore God, I can't do it alone." I sniffled and sobbed like a child and then slipped back into the chair I had jumped from. It was 11:15. a.m. I listened to a sermon by the Pastor, Steve Robbins, and left the church as soon as the service was over. I felt better, but emotionally drained. As I walked through the door of the apartment I noticed the light on the message machine was blinking. My office had called, they had an emergency. I called them and they informed me that I had won a thousand dollars, a local shopping center had a Cinco De Mayo celebration and I had won their grand prize. I went to the center expecting to be disappointed, it would be a scam, no good could come from it. The proprietor handed me a basket filled with tightly rolled scrolls of paper.  One by one I unrolled the papers, there was no money...instead, every concern I had, everything that I would have to give up to obtain the hearing aides was provided for me. There was a gift certificate for children's clothes, flowers, food trays, shoes, a camera, film even a certificate for new glasses, from my own optometrist who just happened to be located in that shopping center. I left the shop crying, walked about thirty feet and looked at the basket again. My name had been drawn the same time that my hands went up, the same time that I said, "I can't do it anymore." If it had been a check I would have been pleased, it would have helped. But the basket was better. I hadn't mentioned my concerns to anyone, only God could have known my fears. I knew, there was finally someone I could trust, someone to love and not be afraid of, God was real. He touched me on Cinco De Mayo, broken, old and alone, and He led me to Victory.. I'm still at the Vineyard, and other things have happened but He continues to touch and direct me. He has brought me into the world of people with disabilities, and the terminally ill. He has given me a life and a calling that is incredibly sweet. There are a dozens of other stories to tell you, but this is the most important one. Never be afraid of what happens to you, it's there for a reason. Step beyond your disability, learn from it and use the experience to help others. Nothing in life is accidental...everything can be used to glorify God. He has empowered people with disabilities...heed His call...allow Him to speak through you...and in doing so be healed!