Regional Champion Spotlight: Jamie Clendening
In the rolling hills and lush green landscapes of Cumberland Valley lies the quaint town of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Located in the South-Central region of the state, Shippensburg features historic brick buildings, inviting mom and pop shops, a vibrant community, and is home to one of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation’s Regional Champion and Peer Mentor, Jamie Clendening.
Jamie was born with spina bifida and was able to walk up until a week before her 34th birthday. She walked into the hospital to have a standard tethered cord release surgery on her spine and woke up a few hours later with a T-10 incomplete spinal cord injury. She has been a wheelchair user for the past 11 years.
Jamie is a relatively new Regional Champion, but she is no stranger to the Reeve Foundation. Jamie explains, “What drew me to the Reeve Foundation is the commitment they have to the disability community as a whole. When I was first paralyzed, I was sent home with no wheelchair, ramp, or anything that I needed to be mobile, let alone independent.” That is when Jamie searched for disability resources to assist newly spinal cord injured individuals. She read up on the Reeve Foundation’s vast variety of free information, resources, mentoring groups and connections to everything an individual would need at the onset of a paralysis diagnosis, all is provided by the National Paralysis Resource Center (NPRC). “They help you every step of the way and that’s why I am here today,” she says.
Back in February 2022, Jamie saw a Regional Champions Webinar listed on the Foundation’s events page and eagerly signed up. She wanted to become a better self-advocate as well as advocate on behalf of others in the paralysis community. Jamie has multiple advocacy goals, one of them is to ensure that, “nobody has to go on this path alone and no one should be sent home without the equipment, guidance and self-care items that they need.”
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The Reeve Foundation’s Regional Champions make a crucial difference in advancing legislative priorities for individuals living with paralysis, their families, and caregivers. What gives self-advocacy its power is just allowing constituents to share their personal stories to their legislators. Being a part of the program, Jamie understands that it makes a huge difference for legislators to hear directly from people about what it means to have access to the NPRC or to have Quality of Life Grants going to non-profit organization or municipals in their home district. Being a part of the program helps forge bonds between Reeve Regional Champions and congressional offices.
Jamie states, “since joining the Regional Champions Program, it has sparked an interest in me to go back to college and study healthcare and medical humanities so that I can become a patient advocate and has sent my whole world in a new direction.” When asked about what tips she has for an individual who would like to get more involved with advocacy, she explains, “somebody once told me to always talk to your legislators like they are a normal human being because they really want to help you but cannot if they don’t personally know you. Once you share your story and form that relationship, they’ll hear you and change will happen.”
Jamie was also involved in helping the Reeve Foundation plan the first ever Regional Advocacy Training. The Foundation thanks Jamie for her efforts in advocating for change and being a dedicated Regional Champion for the paralysis community. “Life is pretty darn good, that is all I have to say,” Jamie says with a smile.
If you are interested in getting more involved in advocacy and learning about the Reeve Foundation’s grassroots advocacy programs, please contact Gerard Arnum, our Grassroots Advocacy Manager at garnum@christopherreeve.org.