March/April 2025 edition
BE THE GOOD BULLETIN Easterseals MORC Announces 2025 Ability Champion In honor of March being Developmental Disability Awareness month, Easterseals MORC is pleased to announce Lisa Barger as its 2025 Ability Champion! Despite having cerebral palsy, Lisa has always maintained the determination and perseverance to never let her disability get in the way of accomplishing her goals. She finished school, pursued a degree, and was happily married to the love of her life, Jerry, for eleven years until he unfortunately passed away in 2003. Lisa currently lives in her own apartment with the assistance of support staff. She considers being able to live on her own her greatest accomplishment and she is always advocating for herself to ensure she has the proper supports to continue doing so. While Lisa has a degree in Information Technology from American Intercontinental University, she quickly found that doing computer work wasn’t really her passion. She realized what she really loves doing is working with people. After her husband died, Lisa was encouraged to become a Peer Mentor, and she completed the training in 2016. Being a Peer Mentor is definitely her calling and she loves spending her time working with other individuals with disabilities to help them navigate the system, express themselves and be heard. When she’s not working as a Peer Mentor, Lisa enjoys hanging out with her dog, Maggie, having bi-monthly dinner dates at Applebee’s with her good friend, and doing latchwork. Lisa is a prime example of her favorite motto, “With will and determination, you can accomplish anything you want in life.”