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.”