In the past few weeks I have had the privilege of being a guest to several diversity committees as Ms. Wheelchair Washington. The first was the Elma Diversity Committee. Elma is a very small town and has very little diversity, but the people on the Elma Diversity Committee really have a passion to open the minds and lives of the youth in Elma to more experiences with diversity. We spent the meeting brain storming ways to bring guests into the schools and taking the youth on trips to new and more diverse locations. The goal is to expose the youth to new experiences and people in order to press them past their comfort zone and set them up for success in interacting with the world. Elma School District has plans to have me as a guest speaker in the Fall. I was also a guest at the Tacoma Diversity Committee. It was so refreshing to hear the plans and efforts to celebrate diversity in Tacoma from advocacy efforts for the disabled and to education effort in the Tacoma Schools. I shared my story, my Ms. Wheelchair Washington platform and my future dreams with everyone in the committee. After the meeting ended I had several invitations to speak at events coming up this summer. Lastly, I attended the Pierce Transit Council meeting regarding the upcoming route cuts in public transportation. In order to give a voice to myself and others who rely solely on public transportation, I made a public comment “public transportation is the back bone of a community and we need to make every creative effort to salvage the Pierce County Transit system.” The committee later referenced my comment during their meeting which was a big victory! I feel so privileged to have this platform and the opportunity to have a voice in advocacy efforts in my community!
2016 Ms. Wheelchair Washington
Nicole Martini
Diversity
In the past few weeks I have had the privilege of being a guest to several diversity committees as Ms. Wheelchair Washington. The first was the Elma Diversity Committee. Elma is a very small town and has very little diversity, but the people on the Elma Diversity Committee really have a passion to open the minds and lives of the youth in Elma to more experiences with diversity. We spent the meeting brain storming ways to bring guests into the schools and taking the youth on trips to new and more diverse locations. The goal is to expose the youth to new experiences and people in order to press them past their comfort zone and set them up for success in interacting with the world. Elma School District has plans to have me as a guest speaker in the Fall. I was also a guest at the Tacoma Diversity Committee. It was so refreshing to hear the plans and efforts to celebrate diversity in Tacoma from advocacy efforts for the disabled and to education effort in the Tacoma Schools. I shared my story, my Ms. Wheelchair Washington platform and my future dreams with everyone in the committee. After the meeting ended I had several invitations to speak at events coming up this summer. Lastly, I attended the Pierce Transit Council meeting regarding the upcoming route cuts in public transportation. In order to give a voice to myself and others who rely solely on public transportation, I made a public comment “public transportation is the back bone of a community and we need to make every creative effort to salvage the Pierce County Transit system.” The committee later referenced my comment during their meeting which was a big victory! I feel so privileged to have this platform and the opportunity to have a voice in advocacy efforts in my community!
