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My name is Larry Byrd, the owner of Disability Dream Weavers. DiDW is a 501 (c) 3 Tax Exempt non-profit organization.
Disability Dream Weavers (we call it DiDW) is dedicated to improving the lifestyles of underprivileged people across the globe. It is one of the unique organizations that cater to the everyday struggles of individuals with disabilities. We believe no one is perfect. Everyone comes to this world with some sort of shortcomings or disabilities. And that’s exactly what DiDW assists people with. Our mission is to empower persons with disabilities to fulfill their dreams by transforming the impossible into possible and thus enhance their quality of lives. We accomplish our mission through our life enrichment programs that provide disability education, information & resources and services for purchasing essential items.
Well, it all started with the founder Alisa Shuman, who had a dream to create a platform for helping persons with disabilities. Alisa was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her spine and it left her paralyzed from the waist down. Life after that was nothing but struggle and constant battle for survival. Ms. Shuman's father was an engineer with General Motors. He noticed that Alisa was an extraordinarily ambitious child and he made sure that nothing obstructs her in the way of leaving an imprint on people’s lives. He built her the first equipment that gave her the freedom to fly like a free bird- a powered wheelchair. This miraculous equipment turned all her Dreams into Reality! Not only did it help her but many others out there. So Ms. Shuman started this amazing organization for just that reason- “Turning Dreams into Realities”.
Alisa graduated from San Diego State University with a Masters degree in Disability Education and DiDW is where she put her education to work. Also, she was incredibly involved in politics and she took on the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) laws by the State of California. Alisa and I would travel to the State and meet with the lawmakers concerning individuals with disabilities. Her untiring effort to fight for the rights of such individuals is the actual goal of DiDW- to make the world a better place to live for individuals with disabilities.
Alisa took passion for wheelchair dancing to another level through this organization. Ms. Shuman always wanted to dance. So, she became a member of a nonprofit called, “Anyone Can Dance”. It is a Dance studio located in La Mesa, California. She got trained by a very well accomplished dancer. Soon Alisa became a great wheelchair dancer and was awarded for her excellent performance. Alisa was invited to a competition in Hawaii and she won first place with her outstanding performance. At the same time, Ms. Shuman had her own team of great wheelchair dancers with DiDW.
She spent years of life helping many people in “Turning Dreams to Reality”.
Ms. Shuman had to get an operation on the metal rod that held her spine in place. Unfortunately, after the surgery, she caught pneumonia and she left us in the state of hopeless despair. She closed her eyes with unaccomplished goals and unlived dreams in them to help the disabled community across the societies of the world. Before she went for the actual surgery in 2015, I promised her that I would continue to live up her dreams and carry forward the journey of Disability Dream Weavers.
It was only then that I realized a big responsibility on my shoulders. I looked around and actually found out that every person was dealing with some sort of disability or the other, be it my close friends, family members, children, adults, senior citizens, literally everybody! And most of them came with absolutely zero awareness about it. I felt it was too alarming a situation, and took no time to pull
Alisa Shuman allowed me to play a vital role in building the foundation for Disability Dream Weavers. I am, hereby, privileged and honored to inherit this outstanding organization. It gives great satisfaction to be able to serve humanity.
Alisa and I met at a world peace organization and its mission is to change the world by respecting life through Peace, culture and education. DiDW was influenced by this philosophy of this organization.
Over the next few years, I took courses, went to workshops, set in webinars, and different types of research to take DiDW to another level. DiDW is advocating for disaster preparedness for children, disabled and the elderly. DiDW has built a website that supports social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get the word about to the local communities. It is these types of action that will elevate the consciousness awareness amongst all people of the society. We want people to understand the benefits that come with enhancing their lives through self-awareness.
Disability Dream Weavers volunteers at various events such as wheelchair dancing, wheelchair surfing, wheelchair marathon, musical gigs, dance competition, arts and crafts show, talent promotions, beauty pageants and fashion shows, etc. We also organize various workshops and sessions like meditation, yoga, different types of healing modalities, disaster preparedness, first aid, fire safety, etc.
Under our mission "Turning dreams into Reality", we're organizing various ongoing campaigns to help the people from the underprivileged sections of society turn their dreams into reality. We've a weekly program called " Let's go see the World", wherein we randomly choose a person with less mobility to get a chance to go out with us and have fun for few hours on Sundays!
We've also gotten into collaboration with M.I.F. Studio in order to produce a Reality TV show called, "Love and Cooking. The show features an amazing young man who unfortunately became disabled in a car accident. His dream is to become a celebrity chef and to be on TV. DiDW is helping him to turn his Dream into Reality by producing this TV show.
We definitely have a number of other programs, curricula, workshops, events and sessions etc. in the pipeline. Currently, we have very limited activity because of Covid-19 restrictions. We obviously put health and safety above all. However, we’re spreading the awareness on the situation and particularly help our disabled community fight the pandemic.
We truly appreciate all the support we’ve received so far and continue to be blessed with. We gladly accept any and every donation to be able to reach out and help as many needy people out there as possible.