Utawna Leap's daily mission is simple: to publicize the plight of people with disabilities.
Her 5-year-old daughter Lianna, who has mixed-type cerebral palsy, is her inspiration.
In a collaborative effort to bring awareness and understanding to the issues of the handicapped and disabled, 1993 Miami graduate Utawna F. Leap spoke to students and faculty at 7 p.m. Nov 29 in ART 100.
Miami students in Kathy McMahon-Klosterman's Introduction to Disability Studies class invited Leap to speak. According to McMahon-Klosterman, disability awareness is the first stepin education.
For the past few years, McMahon-Klosterman and her students have been working to raise awareness of disability rights and the lack of handicapped accessibility at Miami. Leap came to Miami to help further the cause, telling her story and Lianna's.
"I want to prepare the world for Lianna ... to do this I need people to hear my story," Leap said. "I need to educate them ... this is a story you can't get in a textbook."
Leap is known by many as a "mother on a mission." She said she wants students to know that anyone can become disabled.
"Disabilities can happen to anyone ... I once thought that you had to do something to become disabled, however as I have learned that's just not true."
Leap's daughter Lianna suffered from complications at birth, resulting in a lack of oxygen to her brain that caused her cerebral palsy.
Lianna, who needs constant assistance to move and communicate, is not mentally affected by her condition.
"She is very smart and gets frustrated because her body won't comply with her mind's wishes," Leap said.
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Aside from the obvious personal challenges facing Lianna and her family, Leap and her daughter are currently without their own home.
Recently divorced from her husband, Leap and Lianna now live with Leap's parents. The house, however, is not accessible for Lianna. Due to the home's inaccessibility, Leap has to provide constant care for Lianna, rendering her unable to finance renovations to their existing house or work on the possibility of building a new one.
While the Leap family still hopes to get a ranch-style, handicapped accessible home in the near future, it will not come without a cost. They will need to use trust funds set aside for Lianna's lifetime medical bills to finance the building of a new house.
Upon learning of Leap's situation, Miami students in McMahon-Klosterman's class began working together to help the Leap family create a video and application for a chance to be on ABC's Extreme Home Makeover.
According to junior Mandy Mirtich and senior Alex Park, two students who helped to organize the event, the goal is to get Lianna and her family on the television show.
The students have voluntarily worked with the Introduction to Disabilities class and McMahon-Klosterman in an attempt to make the Leap family's dream home.
"Getting on Extreme Home Makeover is a tough process. I don't know that it will happen; however, if we don't try then it definitely won't happen," McMahon-Klosterman said.
The video has not yet been submitted to ABC's Extreme Home Makeover, however it can be viewed at www.youtube.com.
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