In Challes Reese’s dreams, her face is bathed in a spotlight as she dances freely across a stage.
In Challes Reese’s reality, she is a 15-year-old with cerebral palsy who relies on a wheelchair for mobility.
But she has long refused to let her neurological condition, which permanently impairs muscle control, block her dream of dancing.
That dream started when Challes was a little girl in Chicago, before her family relocated to Dubuque, Iowa. And it persisted when she moved into Hills & Dales, a local residential facility for young people with profound physical and mental disabilities, a few years ago.
So when the Stephen Hempstead High School dance team held tryouts last fall, the freshman, one of nearly 1600 students, steered her motorized wheelchair to the center of the floor. She was ready. A wheelchair in a dance routine? Skeptics were soon won over as Challes moved her arms and spun her chair around, “dancing” in sync with the music. It was an unconventional routine but one she performed to near perfection.
Told she was the newest squad member, Challes, a young woman of few words, unleashed a scream of joy. The dream was on.
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