To help individuals with high level disabilities obtain wheelchair accessible vehicles needed to get to work and achieve their dreams for independence.
Come visit Drive For Independence in Booth 116. We are extremely excited to be there! We were invited to be a part of the Expo and cannot thank our sponsors, Meeting Well and MobilityWorks, enough for making this trip a reality! Meeting Well MobilityWorks
You’ve seen Chris test out the Mobility SVM truck at the New York/New Jersey Expo, here’s your chance to come see all the great products to make life easier! Best of all, Admission is FREE!!!!! Check out all the exhibitors here: Abilities Expo Exhibitors
We’re holding a Gingerbread Class! Our board member Tammy Bradney is an award winning cake decorator and is ready to share this great class with you! Come ready to be creative! Each mommy/child team is $25.00. The class is Saturday Dec 19th 10am- 12pm at Valley View Alliance Church (200 Alliance Ave, York, PA 17406). We have room for 12 Mommy and Me teams for this class! We currently have 7 spaces available!
You can sign up using the contact form below and pay using the friends and family link on Paypal (driveforindependence@gmail.com) or you can send a check to:
Drive For Independence
PO Box 20752
York PA17402
Checks should be made out to Heather Sloat with a memo of DFI Gingerbread class.
FYI: We’re changing up the silent auction a little bit. Each person who comes in the door will get a ticket. To receive a second ticket bring an item for Able-Services. To receive any additional tickets to bid on items we will be doing a “Fill the Bucket”. Each Dollar donated gets you another ticket. With $10 donated you will receive 12 tickets. With every $20 donated you will receive an arm span of tickets.
*Drive for Independence Holiday Bazaar Press Release*
We are delighted to announce a Holiday Bazaar on Saturday November 21st, 2015 to benefit Drive For Independence. Our mission with Drive For Independence is to help those with high level disabilities obtain wheelchair accessible vehicles needed to get to work and achieve their dreams for independence. We started Drive For Independence while Fundraising for Christopher Sauerbaum’ s wheelchair accessible vehicle. Chris, along with his wife and many other dedicated individuals have raised the funds for a down payment on his vehicle which was recently converted for his specific needs. After meeting his goal they decided to immediately work on paying it forward and helping others meet this same goal of being able to drive themselves to work and lead an overall more independent life.
Please join us to help support Drive For Independence and giving adults their driving independence. The event will run from 10:00am-4:00pm on November 21st and will be held at the Agape Professional Center: 907 Roosevelt Ave York PA 17404. Funds raised at the event will go towards program needs and helping future clients. Various vendors are signed up to attend the event, ranging from one-of-a-kind handmade goods to favorites such as Thirty-One Gifts, Origami Owl, and Younique, as well as food vendors. There will be a silent auction with donations from our vendors. We will also have pictures with Santa so bring the kids along! We will also have a limited supply of our 2016 Drive For independence calendars available at the bazaar. They feature cars from our first 2 Upshift Summer Bash car shows. Be sure to come and get these great Christmas gifts for the car lovers in your life!
Want to help out another great organization? We are holding a supply drive for Able-Services. We will have a box at the event for donations. They offer adult day services for adults with disabilities (a Leg Up Farm program). The organization is in need of card games, board games, fitness items such a exercise mats and small weights, Wii Fit games, art and craft kits and supplies such as glue sticks, Sharpies and clothes pins. Check out their Amazon Wish list for more details.
Join us in what we hope is our first of many successful events. Our goal is to keep this going yearly and to be able to help other individuals with limited mobility to reach their dreams of working and driving as well!
For more information go to: https://driveforindependence.wordpress.com http://www.facebook.com/driveforindependence
FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/402398013303747/
We can be reached at driveforindependence@gmail.com or
717-991-5921.
For online donations please check out: http://www.philanthropicendeavors.org. If donating, please mark Drive For Independence in the notes section in Paypal so it can be donated to the correct fund.
We are announcing some of our upcoming fundraisers. We’ve created the calendar and our Holiday Bazaar is Saturday Nov. 21st.
Calendars are ready! They are $12.00 a piece. They are a standard 12-month wall calendar size, 11″×17″. The calendars feature winners of our first 2 Upshift Summer Bash car shows. We have a PayPal link below to order.(there is a shipping charge if we need to ship). When you go to order you will have to input $12.00 for each calendar you want (ex 1 calendar would be $12, 2 calendars would be $24 etc.) If you need a shipping quote or have questions please use the contact form to get in touch with us before ordering. You can also order by sending a check or money order made out to Heather Sloat or Chris Sauerbaum with a note stating Drive for Independence Calendar. Send the check/money order to Drive For Independence, PO Box 20752 York PA 17402. Orders and money due by Thursday, November 5th, 2015.
We will be holding our Holiday Bazaar Saturday November 21st, 2015 10am-4pm at the Agape Professional Center, 907 Roosevelt Ave, York PA 17404. We are looking for vendors, including a few food vendors. We are planning to have a Santa with a photographer. We are also looking for volunteers to help with a gift wrapping station. If you can give an hour or 2 of your time to help in the gift wrapping station, please let us know. Please contact us via driveforindependence@gmail.com or our Drive For Independence Face Book Page.
We would also like to help out our friends at ABLE-Services ( part of the Leg Up Farm Family) by collecting needed supplies for their program for Christmas. We will have a box at the bazaar for donations and if you have a business where you would like to place a box to collect items please contact us. here is a list of the types of items they are looking for. This is their Amazon wish list but items do not need to be purchased from Amazon and similar items may be purchased. Games, Art kits, and fitness items are favorites of Able-Services participants. Able Services Wish List
With the press of a button on the key fob, the driver’s side and rear doors of Chris Sauerbaum’s pearly white GMC extended-cab pickup truck popped open and began to move outward.
About a minute later, the door was in position — about four feet from the truck body — and the wheelchair lift was on the ground. Sauerbaum, 33, of York City, maneuvered himself into position for the ride into the driver’s compartment.
Another minute or so later, Sauerbaum, who has a physical disability resulting from chronic inflammatory polyneuropathy, was in position behind the steering wheel, joysticks in hand and ready to roll.
Chris Sauerbaum of York City demonstrates the door lift on his custom GMC pickup truck at Cousler Park Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015. Sauerbaum, who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, has no legs and had the truck outfitted so he could operate it. Bill Kalina – bkalina@yorkdispatch.com
The truck, especially when the doors open, is a head-turner.
“You might as well be driving a Lamborghini,” Sauerbaum said.
But driving anything is what makes him happy. It’s something he’s wanted to do for more than a decade.
Driver: The journey to getting Sauerbaum behind the wheel of his own car started 11 years ago. The process has cost thousands of dollars and borne numerous setbacks.
He originally bought a Chrysler PT Cruiser with hopes of converting it to work with his disabilities. But it couldn’t be outfitted with the needed joystick controls.
Finally in 2013, Sauerbaum and wife Heather Sloat started an appeal for donations to raise money for a down payment on the pickup truck.
They raised the needed $10,000, including a $2,500 donation from Oletowne Jewelers, 2157 White St. in West Manchester Township, and made the down payment on the GMC Sierra pickup a few months ago.
The truck was then sent off to undergo a $91,000 conversion, which was covered by the state Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, and the family of four finally took delivery of it about three weeks ago.
Chris Sauerbaum of York City demonstrates the capabilities of his custom GMC pickup truck at Cousler Park Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015. Sauerbaum, who suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, has no legs and had the truck outfitted so he could operate it. Bill Kalina – bkalina@yorkdispatch.com
“Think of it as a big (remote controlled) car. An 8,000 pound R/C car,” Sauerbaum said of the added electronics that allow him to operate the truck.
The pickup features two joysticks in the driver’s compartment. One allows him to feed the engine gas and to brake, and the other controls steering.
It took Sauerbaum a week and a half of training to get ready for the road.
Easier life: Driving not only gives Sauerbaum the freedom of the road but also frees up Sloat’s day.
In the past, she’d have to drive him to work, racking up 80 miles on the odometer each day, she said.
Now that Sauerbaum has his truck, he and Sloat want to help others in similar situations get behind the wheel.
They are working to gain 501(c)(3) status for Drive for Independence, a nonprofit organization they are starting to help people with disabilities navigate the process of getting a converted car that meets their needs.
“It’s just one piece of the puzzle to get people to work,” Sloat said.
The truck also met with approval during a recent car show in Mountville, Lancaster County. It took home first place in the street truck/SUV class at the Turn Up the Pink Car Show, Sloat said.
Sauerbaum and Sloat’s two 6-year-old boys, Tucker and Harley Sauerbaum, were anxiously awaiting their ride in the truck. But first, they needed new car seats.
Harley wasn’t always so keen on the truck.
Sloat and Sauerbaum showed the boys a video of Sauerbaum testing out a similar truck. As the doors slid open and Sauerbaum prepared to get in, Harley got a horrified look on his face and started crying.
“Harley said, ‘Why is that Transformer eating Daddy?'” Sloat said.
We made a lofty goal of $2000 for this year’s event
and have fallen just a little short.
We need your help! To help raise the remaining $200,
we have added a few incentives!!!
Donations are being accepted in person, by mail and via PayPal. For your convenience, use the Paypal link below to donate or use the contact form to contact us for our mailing address or to set up an in person meet. When making your donation, please be sure to include your mailing address. This will help us to send your gift out to you! If you are local and would like to pick up your gift, please let us know!
The donation incentives are as follows:
For each $5 donation, we will send you one of the commemorative Upshift Summer Bash drawstring backpack!
For each $10 donation, we will send you a Lower ’48 Tucker Reproduction by Rob Ida poster and the commemorative Upshift Summer Bash drawstring backpack!
For each $15 donation, we will send you one of our Drive for Independence Key Chains, in addition to the commemorative Upshift Summer Bash drawstring backpack, and Lower ’48 Tucker Reproduction by Rob Ida poster!
Thank you for your ongoing support of Drive For Independence!
What a successful day! The 2nd annual Upshift Summer Bash was a great success! We cannot say “Thank You” enough to our sponsors, vendors, volunteers, and members of the community who came out to support Drive For Independence. We had a great time and our show field nearly doubled from last year’s size!
We would like to thank our sponsors again: Apple Nissan of York (Platinum), Ida Automotive, Preston Tucker LLC, Mobility SVM, Ride-Away, Aadvantage Insurance (gold Sponsors), Royal Manchester Golf Links, Amsoil by Mike Marx , Saba by Kala Sechrist (silver), Perfectly Posh by Stephanie Fritts, and Markets at Hanover (bronze). Also in memoriam sponsorship in memory of Tyler Shumate donated by Jim and Polly Shumate.
Upshift Summer Bash was very successful and we reached our goal! With nearly $2,000 raised we will now be able to proceed with our 501(c)3 (non-profit) status. In the coming months we will be hiring a lawyer to get set up so we can start serving our community and adults with disabilities! We are so excited to have reached this goal and it would not have been possible without the support of our community and sponsors! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Also we will be making a calendar just in time for the gift giving season. Winners from this year’s Upshift will be featured in the calendar. Watch for more details and pre-order information soon!
Here are some pictures from the event (people’s choice and Best Truck winner not pictured):
(we’ll be adding another post with many more pictures soon so keep an eye out!)
Join us on Sunday August 2nd 5-9pm for Our Dine For DRIVE event at Isaac’s restaurant in East York (across the street from the Galleria beside Big Lots). TWENTY-FIVE percent of each check will go to Drive For Independence if you mention you are there for our event and present the flyer below! Even take-out and online orders are eligible for the fundraiser. Please check the flyer below for more information on how to have Drive For Independence receive credit for those orders. If you purchase a gift card during the fundraiser 15% of the purchase price will be donated to us.
Radio Host, Author, Motivational Speaker, Father and Tireless Advocate for the Disabled, Greg Smith’s Life and Work is Showcased in this Inside Look at the Joys and Frustrations of Life as a 65-pound Disabled Dynamo
This film will be screened online throughout the month of July at http://www.onarollmovie.com as part of the national celebration of the 25 year anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We need your sponsorship support to make this happen.
Two million Americans use wheelchairs. 54 million Americans have a disability. From his state-of-the art radio studio in his parents’ Mississippi house, Greg Smith—“the wheelchair dude with attitude”—uses his popular nationally syndicated radio program to offer advice, encouragement and inspiration to not only the huge number of disabled Americans but all Americans. His upbeat, tough, and often humor-filled message closes the gap between the abled and disabled by stressing that we all need help from each other, everyday. Directed by Joanne Caputo, ON A ROLL will air nationally on the acclaimed PBS series Independent Lens on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 at 10 P.M. (check local listings) in conjunction with Black History Month.
Greg Smith sounds like a normal dad as he talks to his daughter on his cell phone and calls her “sweetie pie,” but interviews with his three kids prove opposite: “He needs help using the bathroom and getting in bed. He can’t play baseball that good.” Yet daughter Berkeley also knows what he can do: “He can move and drive… and talk.” It’s an accurate description as we hear Smith telling listeners about his new power wheelchair that can zoom around at 8 miles an hour.
Smith looks tiny and emaciated, but with a deep announcer’s voice he interviews Christopher Reeve, then blows the whistle on Clint Eastwood, Nike and Rush Limbaugh, all guilty of insensitivity to people with disabilities. We soon realize that he is no ordinary 65-pound man. He’s the host of On A Roll Radio who began broadcasting after a disability job discrimination experience in 1992.
By 2000, more than 40 cities air Smith’s program, but without major syndicator support. It’s part of the “institutionalized bigotry” that people with disabilities face regularly, according to Smith’s producer, Mike Ervin. Becky Ogle (former White House Disability Task Force director) and Judy Huemann (The World Bank Disability advisor) tell us about more concerns fueling current disability activism—nursing homes, independence vs. interdependence and the power of the growing disability voting bloc, now at 40 million.
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