“I’ve Finally Found My Place”

Today, 3/25/22, is National Cerebral Palsy (CP) Awareness Day, and we’d like to introduce you to JWB volunteer, Rachel Glander, who lives proudly and independently with CP.

Rachel has given her time to JWB since August of 2019 after a contact of hers at St. Petersburg College showed her a call for volunteers on a notice board.

“I was looking for something to do with my day after I finished at SPC in 2018,” Glander said. “Particularly after my Dad died, I needed something to keep my mind busy.”

She came into the office for an interview and was such an obvious fit that she was asked, “Can you start next week?”

Glander generally volunteers twice a week—Tuesdays and Thursdays—and is ready for any task.

“I’ll try anything that needs to be done,” she said. “Some things I struggle with because of my fine motor skills—like threading strings into tags for Welcome Baby bags—but I tried it, and figured out I can tie the knots just fine!”

In fact, she once tied knots on more than 100 bags in a sitting!

Glander says it’s JWB staff’s openness and acceptance that keep her coming back.

“You give me a chance to be a functioning member of society. It meant a lot to me when I saw that my wheelchair didn’t matter here. I thought, ‘I’ve finally found my place!’”

When she got a new motorized chair that can raise her 12 inches to get dishes from upper cabinets and other formerly out-of-reach items, she was proud to take a tour around the building and let her JWB friends celebrate with her.

“It helps me be more independent,” she beamed as she demonstrated a few of its features.

Even on rainy days, like the one when we interviewed her, when she feels more aches and pains, she’s eager to get to JWB and see what needs to be done.

“I love what JWB does: helping people. I like to do whatever I can do to help people, too.”

“I love it all,” she said, but her favorite work involves preparing the books to be given away to kids. “I’m in my happy place with books. I love to read now and have books scattered all over my home, but I struggled with reading as a kid and had extra help to learn. I like seeing all the new books that are going to help kids love to read too.”

It’s especially fun, she said, to prepare some of the titles she loved as a kid to go to new readers.  

Without Glanders’ dedicated volunteering, it wouldn’t be possible for JWB to reach as many kids and families as we do with Welcome Baby bags, backpacks, books, and more. She may have CP, but it doesn’t stop her from putting kids first!