belonging: shine foundation helps youth with disabilities feel seen and heard
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marco pasqua, centre, with his wife karin at left and daughter stella, 4, beside him at a shine foundation event, working to inspire people with disabilities.
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marco pasqua remembers when police, an ambulance and a firetruck pulled up to his family’s house in surrey, british columbia. he was seven years old and got a chance to turn on the sirens and try out the bed in the ambulance with his older sister. this was the surprise delivery of his dream, provided by the shine foundation, formerly the sunshine foundation. the non-profit organization gifts dreams to young canadians who live with a severe physical disability.
for marco, his dream was a trip to disneyland in california with his family.
“this is my special day. i was always waiting for it and now it’s real,” he told the foundation representatives at the time. that was in 1992, marking an unforgettable highlight of his life.
disability is about adapting
“it showed me that you don’t necessarily need to be limited by something like the word disability, that there is possibility for myself, my mom, my dad, my sister of all different ages and abilities to be able to be in one space and actually do the same things together, just with adaptions,” he says, recalling how they got the royal treatment with a special breakfast with mickey and minnie and no waiting in line for rides.
now at age 40, he realizes the impact of the experience.
“i learned at such a young age that all you need to do is just adapt and shift a few things, and then the rest is history. i sort of opened up and changed my worldview.”
marco was born with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects movement, posture and muscle coordination. it’s the most common cause of physical disability for children in canada, affecting two out of every 1,000 babies. for much of his childhood, he was in and out of the hospital for numerous surgeries for reconfiguring his bones and muscles, learning the hard lesson that even though his situation was different from most, it was his choice on what he was going to do with it.
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choosing to succeed with the support of family
he chose to use a wheelchair to move with ease and more independence, and went on to compete in wheelchair track and field, horseback riding, swimming, weightlifting and wheelchair basketball, medaling at provincial events. as well, he got a degree in video game design and worked in the industry.
“i could either let it defeat and destroy me, or i could let it amplify me and build me up,” he says of his disability that led to negative attention from classmates in elementary school. kids would taunt him about being slow and using a walker.
“i chose the latter. but i chose the latter because i had such a great support system. you know, if i didn’t have parents who saw my disability as something that we could learn from and grow from, then i might not be where i am today.”
if you’re lucky enough to meet him, he’s a force of enthusiasm and joy.
he serves on the board of the shine foundation—“paying it forward”—and he’s lighting up the lives of others as an inspirational speaker on stages around the world. he’s a friend of rick hansen, the man in motion, who wheeled his way around 34 countries in 26 months (and celebrated the 40th anniversary of the feat this year). rick has been a mentor to marco in developing his business as a consultant for accessibility.
shine foundation helps transition youth to adulthood
at its core, the foundation is on a mission for youth with physical disabilities to be heard, seen and empowered, which is the message of a powerful new video campaign. the team delivers 65 dreams a year (with a goal of changing a life every day by 2030). the focus, though, has shifted to young people aged 11 to 21, recognizing that funding support for youth with disabilities typically stops at age 18. as a result, marco says a number of dreams have been about work opportunities as they transition to adulthood, like office renovations for accessibility, a new computer and getting dj equipment because their dream is to be a dj. he and his wife and daughter went to a recent dream event for a teen to see heavy metal rockers ac/dc in vancouver.
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“when shine approached me and said, ‘would you like to be a board member to help us fulfill dreams?’ that was such a full circle situation for me, to know that i could literally pay it forward by being somebody who could help to steer the organization that changed my life.”
the dreams are meaningful in unique ways, he says.
“what made my dream special is that it’s not marco pasqua with cerebral palsy. it’s the pasqua family. that’s the thing that i fell in love with when it comes to shine is, yes, the dreamer might be the individual that you’re fulfilling the dream for, but it’s really the ripple effect that it has on the entire family and their social circle that i really resonated with.”
his parents did so much for him growing up, taking him to appointments and seeing him through surgeries and all the rest, while helping him learn the value of hard work just like anyone else.
“oftentimes, disability is framed as a disadvantage. and i like to look at it as that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a disadvantage. it just means that you do things differently.”
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