Oh boy, this is a fun video.
This is an announcement that is a little bit different from our normal videos,
but we could not be more excited to tell you.
This has been in the works for so long.
So long, like years.
Yeah.
But it finally happened. You're all thinking, what are they talking about?
We are beyond excited to tell you that Laughing At My Nightmare,
the nonprofit that I began with my cousin Sarah, in partnership with BraunAbility, the maker of
wheelchair accessible vehicles like ours, the Chevy Traverse that we have.
They partnered up last year for BraunAbility's 50th anniversary and behind
the scenes BraunAbility expressed that they would like to donate a
wheelchair accessible vehicle to someone living with muscular dystrophy, and that they
wanted Laughing At My Nightmare to facilitate. And we did.
Yes, last year Laughing At My Nightmare put out a call for applicants for this van and one of
the main people behind this project who cannot go unnoticed or unthanked was Sarah,
she really like did all of this behind the scenes.
Yeah, she facilitated everything.
Exactly. She really was the facilitator of this. So huge shout out to her.
Yes, thank you Sarah.
This project was one of the biggest projects Laughing At My Nightmare
has ever participated in. The application selection process was slightly different than our usual
application review. With BraunAbility making it possible for Laughing At My Nightmare
to assist in giving a grant of this magnitude, we decided to create a special board
appointed committee for the sole purpose to review applications specific to this van.
And as it always is, the application review process is very tough because there's a serious need
behind every single application we review. However, when reading the application we
received for Fynlee Armstrong, all committee members felt this application
was incredibly deserving of this van. Fynlee had been using a manual wheelchair
up to this point in her life and her family did not have an accessible
vehicle that could accommodate that wheelchair. So every time they went anywhere, they had
the lift Fynlee, they had the lift to a wheelchair, all of her supplies into their
van and then lift her back out whenever they arrived anywhere. It was just a
very difficult process for them and Fynlee is about to move into a power
chair which will make all of that impossible.
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Gotcha, and so currently when you guys do travel together,
like Fynlee gets put in the car and then you have to like fold up the wheelchair put
it in the car all of that stuff?
- Yes. - Gotcha.
We usually use a wagon for now just because she's still small enough we can put all her
equipment in a wagon for her because we go two hours away, do all her
appointments and usually have to coordinate all day for those, and her Spinraza shot,
we're gone all day, and things like that.
So right now we just typically throw everything in the wagon
and put her in it and go, but we've been really looking at wanting to
get her more independent and just be able to go and do what she wants to do
when she wants to do it.
Okay, and Shane you had you had another question.
I did, yeah, so I just wanted to let you guys know that Laughing At My Nightmare and
BraunAbility have officially selected you as the winners of the van giveaway.
- Congratulations. -Congratulations.
Oh my god, Fynlee.
That is something I was not expecting at all to be honest I really would have
presented myself a little bit better.
We got you. We got you with the fake questions.
Yep. Oh my gosh. I have no words other than just thank you. You have no idea.
We've been through so much since her diagnosis. She lost her twin at two months so this is amazing.
We're so honored and happy to be a part of this and BraunAbility has been an
amazing partner to work with and just their generosity in donating this
vehicle is amazing. We're so happy it's gonna help your family.
Yes you have no idea how much this will help. I can't even... I can't even fathom this right now.
This is insane. (laughs)
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Shand and I say all the time to each other how grateful we are for our wheelchair
accessible van, if we didn't have it we literally couldn't go anywhere and so
we're so grateful that we have that and we know so many people don't have that resource.
Yeah, I think that's really... it says a lot about BraunAbility that they
are committed to giving back, you know, they do so much in the disability community.
For their 50th anniversary they gave away different products to a bunch
of different disability communities so, you know actually their founder had
SMA as well so I think it's neat that like the founder had it, Laughing At My Nightmare
founder had it and then the recipient of the giveaway also had SMA.
Just a nice little tie-in, you know. We are so grateful to be able to give a van
to this family and help them in this way but we could not have done it without
BraunAbility's generosity and amazing wheelchair accessible vehicles and all of you,
Laughing At My Nightmare would not be here if not for all of you so if you want to
learn more about BraunAbility or Laughing At My Nightmare we'll have all that info
below. Thank you again everyone.