New comfort levels, page one: Norwich University emagazine

New comfort levels:

Volunteers make a difference
in lives of people with disabilities

by Lisa Brucken, staff

photos by Jay Ericson

Abby Young, student leader for Norwich University’s alternative spring break [ASB] trip to Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield, N.H., was the only group member who had worked with people who have disabilities before.

At the first night’s reflection, Young, a sophomore nursing major from Beecher Falls, Vt., challenged the group not to feel sorry for the center’s clients. “We can’t change their past or what’s happened to them,” she said. “But we can help make the rest of their lives positive and anything we are doing here this week adds to that.”

Freshman Marbelin Cepeda, an international studies major from the Bronx, N.Y., worked mostly with nonverbal patients who had limited movement. She admitted it was a struggle at the beginning. continue