Celebrating the 31st Anniversary of the Capitol Crawl on March 12, 2021

This week in March is an anniversary for many things that many of us would rather forget. And though Covid brought us all a year we would rather forget, there were some positive events that are worth noting and celebrating.

For instance, March 10th is important to me because it was the day that the children’s book “All the Way to the Top”, the true story of my involvement in the Capitol Crawl, was launched at Tattered Cover Book store in the Aspen Grove Shopping Center in Littleton, Colorado.

All the Way to the Top Book Launch 2020 Annette & Jennifer

The author, Annette Bay Pimentel, had made a special trip from Idaho to be here with me for the book launch and school presentations.  The virus was still a serious issue, but the world was still cautiously “going about its business”. Annette and I, with the help of Sourcebooks and Tattered Cover had planned in-person school visits for six schools around Denver and the suburbs for the week. Mobility of Denver hosted a book party the following day and I was ready and anxious to do book readings for the schools and show off my awesome wheelchair accessible van, the APEX, as brand ambassador for Mobility of Denver and Vantage Mobility International. I was able to do four out of six school visits before our state was closed down and health concerns became an issue.

School visit at C-3 for All the Way to the Top March 12, 2020

Local artist Gina Klawitter had joined our “team” with the art sculpture “All the Way to Freedom”, a physical re-enactment of me as an adult doing the Capitol Crawl, as both a tribute to the Capitol Crawl and the Passage of the ADA and to honor the 30th Anniversary of the ADA. Jackson Thom, our media consultant, had joined the “team” to assist with media interviews, website creation and document the activities. And despite warnings to the public about concerns about Covid, my “team” and I were determined to make the launch and the school presentations a success.

I had already waited 30 years for this, thirty years for the ADA and Capitol Crawl to be recognized as an important historical civil rights event for disability rights; thirty years to be able to tell my story, my involvement from my eight year old voice and now as an adult, who is still struggling for disability rights for myself and for others; thirty years for someone to say “I would like to hear from you Jennifer, to hear how you felt about being a child activist  because I think what you did was important and made a difference in the lives of people with disabilities”.

So today, I celebrate the book and the educational opportunities it has brought to me and to others. I celebrate the opportunity to start my own business: Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins LLC and JKC Legacy and the opportunity to work from home through Zoom and other assistive technology that has enabled me to travel across the country from my kitchen table. I have met more wonderful students and “activists” and visited more states in the past year, than I have physically visited in my entire life! I celebrate the anniversary of the Capitol Crawl and the ADA and the opportunity to continue the legacy of teaching about social justice and Civil Rights for ALL, to students and educators across the country.

I celebrate “All the Way to Freedom” and Gina Klawitter’s exceptional artistic ability to capture the re-enactment of the Capitol Crawl and its purpose to honor the ADA and to show that the work to end ableism and physical barriers needs to continue in order for there to be true inclusion. Please support her continued advocacy and work to have the sculpture viewed in museums across the country!

“All the Way to Freedom” By Gina Klawitter 2020

I celebrate the work and artistic expression of Annette Bay Pimentel and Nabi H. Ali and Source Books and their support and belief in the creation and attention to detail for “All the Way to the Top”.

I celebrate Jackson Thom and his exceptional media skills and encouraging me to take the leap and form an LLC and Mobility of Denver and VMI, my “partners in independence”.

Today, while listening to the news about all of the negative things that happened in 2020, I found a video about social justice created by The Hathaway Brown School Second Graders, to me, this is what its really all about.

Today, I celebrate the importance of children’s voices.      JKC