I’ve worked hard to build, over time, more independence in my life, after being told I’d never be gainfully employed and never live independently. You see, I was labeled with many trauma and injury related disabilities in my youth and I took a risk to move 2500 miles away in pursuit of transforming my life. In the process, I found my niche in consulting on accessibility and designing adaptive systems to support diversity integration in the community and workplace. I get to travel to speak on the new best practices I help set in my industry of supported employment and even advocate on public policies. I’ve travelled internationally and piqued the interests of designers, artists, and musicians worldwide for my unique mixed media creations. More personally, I’ve achieved med freedom, overcome adrenal fatigue, have identified my chronic pain triggers, and am tackling trauma integration. In the process of applying my intense health studying, I’ve built a lifestyle full of yoga, meditation, drumming, singing, dancing, running, and creating, which all has drastically benefitted my work with advocates navigating community and workplace accessibility and inclusion.

I’ve conquered many of my milestones and am amidst another sizeable transition point to achieving self-sustainability. I am in the process of reaching my dreams of getting off of public benefits in the midst of my growing vitality and a recent leadership promotion in non-profit disability work, which I’ve created an art for across the span of nearly 11 years. Unfortunately, within the challenges of 2020, my ability to fulfill my work has again been threatened and despite my increased strength and greater health, or more accurately, partially because of, I now understand a big source of illness that has insidiously increased across the past 20 years and has recently hit a tipping point. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/05/business/led-hid-headlights-blinding.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR1QWKjBm2LUK--72k5bLSLD0yMv8wqqrEytiY2_bqck4lYl7Cd8q_M0fIg

LED lights are my kryptonite, they make me sick and dizzy within minutes and extended exposure leads to intense physical pain, migraines, fatigue, and panic attacks. Unfortunately more people are becoming sensitive to a variety of aspects of this technology and LEDs now dominate the lighting market at a 60% and growing penetration rate: LED Lighting Market Size & Share | Industry Trends (2021 to 2026) - Mordor Intelligence. Ever increasing too, are the demands of LED/LCD screen use amidst our social distancing requirements and fast paced lives. The list of places I cannot go and needs I cannot take care of expands with the growing popularity of intense flicker lighting and my ability to drive is dwindling with trending headlights, signage, street lights, and other outdoor commercial and residential lighting. Doctors, dentists, banks like WECU, and even grocery stores like Bellingham Community Food Co-op, are ironically, a medical hazard. The Bellingham Central Library remodeled and will reopen with new LEDs for others, but I will have to stay behind. The stack of hobbies I can no longer enjoy builds as well: movies, digital art, photography, music videos, and anything else enhanced by color until I finish designs for an adaptive color monitor. 

Luckily I can engage by text with the world on a grayscale e-ink monitor and I’m pursuing trials of assistive lenses, but I also need to change my living environment out of medical and financial necessity as my rent will be increasing outside my means as of September 1st. I’ve made ends meet by living in old damp homes and basement rentals  for nearly a decade in the mossy and beautiful Pacific Northwest, which has been both the platform for so much of my success, but also, it turns out, is contributing to a toxic mold problem in my system that, paired with the lack of natural light in such dwellings, is exacerbating my light sensitivity. With the housing crisis providing limited options, living in Bellingham proper is no longer attainable for most humanitarian unless in mass shared housing, and is getting too bright for me to stay. Shared housing ads are now requiring medical certifications that I also cannot access because of my health risks. I'm out of places to go.

Like most, I have a dream to use my earnings to feed my own life. I’ve spent $80,000 in rent in the past 12 years and since I’ve been pinned by earning and saving constraints attributed to being on public assistance since childhood, I have had no way to save for my future until now. Financial institutions are declining my proposition due to low assets, despite their raves about offering diversity equity loans and overlooking my nearly 11 year track record of community work and partnership. My options left to save for a self-sustaining residential future involve car camping or rallying my community to kick off my tiny home vision full of sunshine and opportunity.

I have a once in a lifetime chance to purchase a 1966 Roadmaster AEC Double Decker Bus nearby, link here: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/812180209515880/ and https://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/cto/d/post-falls-1966-aec-london-routemaster/7298844590.html. This bus would be the perfect platform to begin building my mobile tiny home because renovations to convert it have already been started, it provides plenty of light with 2 floors of windows and a full skylight and provides ample room for all of my needs including art and music studio space. I would have more versatility in where I anchor my bus home being on wheels as there is more availability to rent land just out of town both with more contact to sunlight and further away from artificial lighting exposure from other dwellings and city life, further advancing my safety.

Once the bus is acquired, designing and building will start right away with salvaged materials to respect the environment and promote the historic integrity of the bus. I will further utilize my unique style to recognize my supports on a “Coat of Sponsorship” art piece on the outside of See-Bus depending on level of contribution. Each and every person is necessary in making this dream happen! I need around 300 community members to believe in this project at $25-$100 range or by purchasing art and a few companies willing to stand by their values of ACCESSIBILITY and SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY to advertise on this 14 x 30 foot eye catching rig! This vehicle will turn heads and it will be used for personal travel, professional conferences, as well as festivals to promote my art and music projects since my accommodation options outside of my home are dwindling. This bus will literally be rockin’ with Grendel the drumkit on deck and could come to an event near you once we’re up and running!

This is a time sensitive promotion, there really aren’t many double decker buses in this country and I’ve been watching this supreme specimen for around 7 months; the price just keeps dropping. I’ve been in contact with the owner who is willing to negotiate and in the off chance I do not raise enough money before another interested buyer finalizes, all proceeds will fund the same project, simply with a different sizeable eye catching vehicle selected, or contributions will be refunded. If I raise more than the expected amount, it will simply give me higher chances of negotiation and/or provide for construction to commence even sooner.

I do hope you will consider this opportunity to expand both mine and your own ripple into the world at large. My reputation continues to grow as being known for building community in creative ways, a literal poster child of disability advancement, impacting hundreds of lives with my innovative and experience lead style of relating and teaching.  I will reach thousands, maybe millions more, as I continue my journey as an artist, author, and consultant. I bridge gaps in the community that haven’t been approached before with ideas most are not brave enough to seek out and consider. I’ve helped make our community spaces, even public transportation more accessible. I stand for the slim chances to open doors for more to integrate into society because it’s what every human deserves. I have so much work to do to help others with light sensitivities cope with the daily challenges of navigating around them, awareness projects to kick-off, and a color alternately lit monitor to build with a design team to make accessible for other screen sickness sufferers. Please partner with me to open the doors to the See-Bus dream and beyond; its going to be a wild ride!