HUMBOLDT — Michelle Mason understands how difficult it can be for someone with a disability to obtain medical equipment.
Her daughter, Desi, age 30, has disabilities that sometimes require the use of a wheelchair. Mason searched for programs that would provide help with the cost of a wheelchair and found the need far exceeds capacity.
Mason, though, knew there were other ways to help.
When she lived in Washington, she volunteered with a non-profit thrift store that offered food, clothing and assistance for those who were homeless.
She also had experience as a special education teacher, and now runs a telehealth counseling business. One of her social workers suggested she bring that thrift store model to her new home in Kansas.
“It’s not fair that people who are disabled — and who have no money left after they pay their bills — have to figure out how to get this equipment,” she said. “I thought, if no one else is doing it, I might as well.”
She shared her plans with Chris Barton, a fellow volunteer at the thrift store in Washington and Desi’s godmother.
“I’m on my way,” Barton responded.
And that’s how Desi’s Dream was born.
MASON AND Desi spent five months traveling across the U.S. in a motorhome.
Mason’s telehealth counseling business was going well, and it gave her the freedom to work from anywhere. She sold her home.
“That was a lot of fun,” she said.
Each day, she checked Zillow to see if her dream house existed.
A 1906 home in Iola popped up. It had everything she wanted: A large, fenced yard and enough room for all of their fur babies. Original floors. Original windows. “All that old-timey charm.”
She fell in love with the house before she ever walked through the doors a little more than a year ago.
