Celebrating Dreams
Ball lets area teens be Cinderella for a night
By Josh Eiserike
Saturday, May 27, 2006
When Terry Brown-Zapata picked up her daughter, Jessyca Brown, from an after school program a few years ago, the elementary school student was crying because the other girls wouldn't include her in a game of jump rope.
"Mom, I know I can't jump, but I can turn the rope," she said.
Jessyca was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in her spinal cord, and hydrocephalus, an abnormal accumulation of spinal fluid inside the brain. Now 16, Jessyca will never walk.
"For her, it's normal," said Brown-Zapata, 45. "She's very outgoing and talkative. I've only heard her say once 'I wish I wasn't in a wheelchair.' "
Brown-Zapata added that her daughter, who attends Freedom High School in Woodbridge, looks at things she can do, not the things she can't.
"A lot of people miss that with disabled children," said Brown-Zapata.
One thing Jessyca will be able to do is go to a prom, specialized for students with disabilities, thanks to The House in Woodbridge. The non-profit tutoring and mentoring program for teenagers has been in operation since last November.
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