Mobility Impairment - Day in the Life with Melanie Dunn

 Melanie Dunn is a double amputee, advocate, and passionate writer who has transformed a life marked by serious infections, 80+ surgeries, and major changes into a story of resilience, purpose, and helping others. Through her connection with the Aimee Copeland Foundation, Melanie discovered a new sense of purpose in helping people with disabilities experience the outdoors and participate in adventures that might otherwise feel out of reach. From parks, beaches, and trails to weddings, hunting trips, and other outdoor experiences, adaptive equipment and all-terrain wheelchairs are helping people with disabilities create memories, reconnect with nature, and share experiences with the people they love. In this episode, Melanie shares her journey and the powerful realization that sometimes finding your own way forward begins with helping someone else find theirs. 

This conversation is honest, warm, and full of hard-earned perspective. Melanie talks about illness, grief, healing, humor, writing, taking risks, and why “everybody deserves a chance to play.”

Transcript

Taylor: 00:00

Welcome to the Day in the Life series on the Accessible Community Podcast, where we explore disability and accessibility in everyday life. Each podcast episode is a new lens to broaden our understanding and drive inclusion. For show notes, go to accessiblecommunity.org slash podcasts. Let's make accessibility part of every day.

Melanie: 00:27

I was always sick as a child, always had upper respiratory infections, always had something going on. But I didn't let it stop me when I was a kid. To this day, I still love to dance. That's one of the things I miss so much. When nobody's looking, I have little private dance parties in my room. It's not pretty to look at, but to me, it's part of freedom.

Taylor: 01:10

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the Day in the Life series. Today I'm going to be speaking with a woman named Mel, or do you prefer Melanie?

Melanie: 01:22

Melanie. In some work instances, I use Mel. It's just a nickname.

Taylor: 01:31

Gotcha. Well, we're going to be speaking with Melanie today. Melanie Dunn, is that correct?

Melanie: 01:36

Yes.

Taylor: 01:37

All right, wonderful. We're going to be learning more about her and what she does, which is very exciting. Melanie is actually the first repeat guest on the Accessible Community Podcast. She already has an episode for Accessibility in Practice, and now she's also appearing as a guest for the Day in the Life series. I'm excited for that and for her to share more about herself and what she does. I've learned a little bit about it, and it's very exciting, so I'm looking forward to furthering her message. Before I turn it over to Melanie to introduce herself further, I'm your host for this series, Taylor Dorward. I am a certified accessibility professional. I'm a Caucasian male with short brown hair, blue eyes, and a short brown beard. Today I'm keeping it pretty simple with a medium-to-dark yellow shirt. Pretty comfortable, so keeping it simple. With that, I'll turn it over to Melanie.

Melanie: 02:39

Hi, everybody. I'm Melanie Dunn. I am a Caucasian female. I have dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, and I have on a solid navy shirt.

Taylor: 02:56

Awesome. Well, thank you for that. That's helpful for anyone with an audio, but also for me, give me more context to who I'm looking at. Because another interesting thing about me is I have cortical blindness.

Melanie: 03:08

Oh goodness.

Taylor: 03:09

So it can be a little challenging to see who I'm speaking with. So it's always nice to have that visual context. Absolutely. Uh yeah, so let's get on into it. So that was a very helpful, accessible introduction. Uh, but can you tell us more about who Melanie is and who you are, what what do you want everyone to know, and all also what you do is very important.

Melanie: 03:33

Okay. I am from Atlanta, Georgia. That's where I was born and raised outside of Atlanta, um, in a small town um called Covington, and went to school, um, had a very, very good childhood and um learned lots of things about life. And as an adult, I have done event planning, I've owned a restaurant, I have um done sales marketing mostly in my career. Um I sold real estate for a while when I lived in Delaware and Maryland. And now I'm I've been back in Atlanta for about 15 years and it's home. That's where, you know, that's where my family is, that's where everybody I love is. So back in Atlanta. Um I I am a double amputee. I am a late life um and coming into the disability realm of life. Um so I was working at least 60 hours a week and running a sales team. Um and just really loved it. I love I loved and I love to work and stay busy um and have things to do. I went to in 2011, I went to Washington, DC for my cousin's funeral. And I inadvertently stepped in a water puddle getting in the cab to go to the airport. And I did not know that I had a crack in the cowus on my big toe on my right foot. By the time I got back to Atlanta, my foot was completely red. Um, I didn't give it a second thought. I thought, you know, flying, air pressure, all those kinds of things. I'd been on my feet and wearing heels and just, you know, not atypical for me to have my red, my foot kind of swollen. Um by the end of the week, I was planning my parents' 40th wedding anniversary, and we were at the party, and I couldn't, I couldn't get my foot in a shoe that was not a flip-flop. Um, and my mom saw my foot and she was like, oh my gosh, you're gonna have to go to the doctor. I said, Well, I maybe a spider bit me. I didn't know because my toe was extremely red and huge. Um, I can't, I can't stress that point enough. And so I went to the doctor. They admitted, they immediately admitted me to the hospital because they thought I had diabetic um foot infection. And I am a type 1 diabetic as well. So they did a surgery, it's called a debrievement surgery where they go in and they clean out any infection. After that surgery, they sent me home and the wound was actually open. They did not close it. Um, they wanted to give it air, they wanted it to breathe, whatever. It turns out that that breathing stage caused this infection that the doctors have called a perfect storm. My my body had to be so depleted of what it needed to function and meeting with this terrible infection that it spread throughout my entire body. And it is in my bloodstream, it stays with me. It is anytime I have a spot in my body that is weak, that's where it goes. Um, I ended up having a number of surgeries on my right foot, and then the infection started to spread to the left foot, and the doctors still weren't exactly sure what was going on. And then I finally got to an infectious disease doctor in Atlanta, and he tested me, and it was MRSA. I mean, that the doctors had figured out earlier on, but it was a type of MRSA that is not typical. It is very, a very rare uh strain. And so from there, the infection would go between my right foot and my left foot, and then it went to my hand, to my wrist on my right hand. Um it just it bounced all over. Um, to date, I've had 80 surgeries just coming off my 80th in um March. I had cervical spinal surgery. The infection got in my spinal column, and I that was a little bit later after I had already lost um my right foot to necrotizing fasciitis, my left leg um a couple of months later, and I've had four revision surgeries on my amputated leg on my left leg because the infection just kept growing. So I would have to have more of my leg amputated to get the infection under control. Um, I have lived on IVA antibiotics and oral antibiotics, oral antibiotics my whole life. It turns out that I have a condition that is called hypogamma globulamia, means you basically don't have much of an immune system. So I was also IgG and IgA deficient, which explained a lot because that's a genetic condition. It's um mostly it, I think I remember it is on the mother's side. My mother's family has a long history of autoimmune disorders. My mom herself has lupus, and so that explained a lot. I was always sick as a child, always had upper respiratory infections, always had something going on. But I didn't let it stop me when I was a kid. You know, I played soccer, I danced, I uh wanted to be a Broadway dancer at one point in my life, and that's what I loved, you know, and to this day I still love to dance. That's one of the things that you know I I miss so much. But um when nobody's looking, I have a little private dance parties in my room. So because it's not pretty to look at, you know. Um, but to me, it's part of freedom.

Taylor: 10:48

So I'd like to shift into how that got you into what you do now, because I'd love to hear more about that.

Melanie: 10:57

Getting sick definitely changed my life. I was married at the time, and my ex-husband was not a great caretaker. He wasn't there for me the way I needed him to be. We ended up divorcing, and I moved home and lived with my parents, who I adore. They have taken care of me through all this craziness I call life. When I lost my left leg, I had already lost my right foot. I had followed Aimee Copeland—if you're from Atlanta, you probably know Aimee, and now she's known nationwide and worldwide. She had a similar type of infection. She was zip-lining in grad school, fell off the zip line, and cut her leg in a river. Within four or five days, she lost all four limbs to necrotizing fasciitis. Her life changed on a dime, and my life changed on a dime around the same time. I followed her story. It was in the news because necrotizing fasciitis was not something people knew much about then. At that point I had not had necrotizing fasciitis; I had only had MRSA infections and several surgeries. But when I lost my leg in January, that spring Aimee had a gala for the foundation she created. My mom saw it on the news, recorded it for me, and said, “I think you need to call her.” I said, “Mom, she's busy. She's not going to want to talk to me.” But at that point I had had necrotizing fasciitis, and we had something in common. I emailed her because I was in a very dark place. I had lost two limbs, my life had changed, I was divorced, I was living at home with my parents, and I didn't have a job or the thing that kept me going nonstop. Then came Aimee. She emailed me right back and wanted to meet for lunch. My mom took me, because I couldn't drive for obvious reasons, and we met Aimee at this cute market in Atlanta. She came bebopping in with her wheelchair, just a ray of sunshine, and it was exactly what I needed. She is full of light and positivity. We talked about my illness, her illness, and her foundation. I told her what I had done in my previous life, and she said, “Come work with me. Come volunteer with me. You can do social media for me.” So I did. It developed into a friendship and a love of the foundation because it was something I could give back. Aimee told me that day at lunch that in order to heal, I had to get out of my head and help others. It certainly helped. I've been with the foundation now nine years. That volunteer position lasted about five years until I became Aimee's assistant, and then I had a title. During that time, I planned a gala, and then COVID hit, so we couldn't have it in 2020. It didn't actually take place until September 2021, a year and a half after I had planned it. That was my first big event for the foundation, and it was amazing. We raised money, which we needed because Aimee had a vision for a program. Initially, she wanted to create a park where people in wheelchairs, or people with any type of disability, could go and enjoy nature. Then she thought, why limit it to one park in one area? Why not do it throughout the whole state or the whole country? Her vision gave me purpose again. I was able to take my pain and hurt and turn it around by talking to other people who had been through similar experiences or were born with disabilities and were having trouble negotiating life. It is very difficult when you become disabled later in life. When you've lived as an able-bodied person, the world is created for able-bodied people, and if you don't stop and realize it, you never think about it. The first time I tried to go into a restaurant that wasn't a big chain restaurant, my wheelchair wouldn't fit through the door. We're in a small town where many things are grandfathered in, so a lot of buildings don't have accessible access at all. I remember one restaurant where I had to go through the kitchen to be able to eat. Things like that make you realize the world needs to be created for everyone, not just one type of individual. There are a ton of different disabilities out there, and we wanted to help everybody. So we raised the money at the gala, and there was already money in the foundation that had been donated. Aimee decided to purchase 10 all-terrain wheelchairs. We partnered with Georgia Parks and Historic Sites, put 10 chairs in 10 parks, and launched our program in November 2022. It's called All Terrain Georgia. Our program was the first nonprofit in the country to put accessible wheelchairs in any type of state or national park. Right now we're in 19 state parks and three national parks here in Georgia. Our little group of beta testers started with 12 people who would go out and test trails for us. During COVID, everybody was outside, so they could test the chairs and the trails we had pre-mapped. That little group of 12 has grown to more than 800 members. It thrills me when we get someone brand new who goes gangbusters and wants to visit all the different parks. Aimee's vision has become a reality, and it's thriving. I'm very grateful she gave me the opportunity to volunteer with her, because it's incredible.

Taylor: 21:47

That's awesome. I love your mission. You started with those 10 chairs. How many chairs are you up to now?

Melanie: 22:00

Twenty-four, I think. Twenty-four or 25. We have two chairs at Cumberland Island down on the shore, which everybody loves. Cumberland is a beautiful barrier island with wild horses and the beach. All of our parks are amazing. They were chosen because they were places people wanted to go. Now, if there's a park you want to visit and it doesn't have a chair, we can arrange for a chair to be delivered there so you can have access. We've done that quite a bit. We've also taken chairs to weddings so people could access outdoor weddings. We have a new program launching called Tow and Go. We have a little trailer with an all-terrain chair inside. You can pick it up and take it with you on vacation to the beach, or for a weekend if you want to go hunting. It's a self-contained unit. You just have to meet our requirements, be certified to use the all-terrain chair, and provide some information about where you're going with it. That's really exciting. There are several Tow and Go programs across the nation, including Waymaker Off-Road in South Carolina, which is amazing, and David's Chair on the West Coast. They were really the first to do that type of program. We've patterned our Tow and Go program after programs that are already successful. When we started, I got calls from every state in the nation, from DNR organizations, state organizations, and other nonprofits that wanted to do what we were doing. Aimee said, “Send them our stuff.” So I sent the blueprint of what we did, how we put the program together, and how we run it. I've sent it nationwide. Sometimes I'll see websites for different states and realize, “Oh, that's our program. That's our manual.” It's really cool to see something we built from the ground up spread so far. Now I think every state has at least one accessible all-terrain vehicle. Texas has a huge fleet. I knew Texas was big, but I didn't know their program was so large. It's amazing to see people who want to give back and help others make this type of program spread nationwide. We also put Extreme Motus chairs in our national parks here in Georgia. The Extreme Motus chair is not battery-operated. It's a manual, person-powered wheelchair, but it looks like a jogger stroller. It's larger than that, with big wheels that can go over different terrain, limbs, stones, and basically anything the motorized all-terrain wheelchair can do. It's engineered for people who don't have the upper body strength or control to maneuver the joysticks on the all-terrain chairs. You can put your loved one or friend in the Extreme Motus chair, and you can just go. We have them in all of our national parks. There are two on Cumberland Island, one at Ocmulgee Mounds National Park, and one at Kennesaw Mountain. We've got the south, middle, and north of the state covered somewhat right now with Extreme Motus chairs, though not nearly to the extent that we have all-terrain wheelchairs. Those are the original Trackchair chairs. We're proud to be partnered with them and with Extreme Motus. I don't even remember the question you asked me.

Taylor: 28:23

I don't either, to be honest with you. I got lost listening to that. That's incredible. I love the journey you went through on your own, then connecting with Aimee, and then the journey you all have gone through with the foundation.

Melanie: 28:38

Yeah.

Taylor: 28:38

What I loved so much was you sharing that you reached out to her. Something as simple as that needs to be pointed out. If you hadn't taken that leap, what would have happened?

Melanie: 28:56

Sometimes, if you don't listen to the little voice, you miss the thing you're supposed to do. Take the leap. Just do it. I had always lived my life that way. I was always ready to take a risk, try a new adventure, or uproot my life and move to Delaware. I didn't even know where the hell Delaware was. That's a saying, by the way: “Where the hell's Delaware?” I moved to Connecticut sight unseen, based only on pictures of the apartment I was going to rent. Some people might call me a dreamer. Some people might say I have my head in the clouds. I've been told that. But sometimes you've got to get your head in the clouds. You've got to think about more than what's just in front of you. You've got to plan and ask yourself, what do I want for the rest of my life? What do I want to accomplish? What do I want to achieve? What do I want to give back? There are a lot of things to consider when you want to take that leap, but just take it. Don't be afraid. If I hadn't emailed Aimee that day and met her for lunch—which I dreaded so much—things would be different. Sometimes the things you dread the most create the best circumstances for you. My mom always told me, “I know you're dreading it, and I know you don't want to do it, but you're going to be glad that you did.” That voice is always in my head. She's always on the phone with me too, but also in my head saying, “Take the leap. Don't be afraid of what's on the other side.” So get outside. Listen to nature. After I lost my leg, I sat in my wheelchair outside for months. I just sat there every day listening to the trees, feeling the sun on my face, feeling the wind, listening to God or whomever your higher power may be. Just get outside and feel it. You can come to a lot of realization and discernment about your own life when you stop and think. For me, and for so many others I've talked to, being outside was the way we felt grounded again. That's why our slogan at the foundation is, “Everybody deserves a chance to play.”

Taylor: 32:23

And they do.

Melanie: 32:25

And you should be able to do it not far from your own home. That's why we'll take a chair where you want us to go. If we don't have a chair in a park, if you want to take a chair somewhere else, or if you want to take it to the beach for a week, we can make that happen. That is our mission. That's what we've been called to do. When I get frustrated because something I planned didn't come to fruition, or something I wanted didn't happen, I have to realize that if it didn't happen, it wasn't part of the plan. As long as I put my best foot forward, I have to understand that the outcome is part of the purpose. I love getting pictures and videos from people, especially first-timers, and we try to share those on social media. I remember when I got in a chair for the first time. I turned it all the way up because I wanted to go as fast as it could go.

Taylor: 33:53

I did the same.

Melanie: 33:55

It was amazing. It was like I was running again. It was awesome to be able to go across barriers I couldn't cross in my regular wheelchair. That's what gives me purpose. You have different parts of your life. You have your everyday purpose at home with your loved ones, and then there's the purpose of what you want to accomplish for yourself and for the people around you, your community, your county, your state, whatever it may be. First, you have to start with yourself. You have to get out of your head and listen to that little voice. If it's telling you to run for office, do it. Don't be afraid. I've thought about it, but then I realized I would not be a good politician. You just have to get out of your head. I will never forget Aimee saying that. Other people had said it to me, but it wasn't until someone who had been in my shoes, been through way worse than I had been through, and was still so bright and shining could say to me, “It's time to heal. To do that, you've got to get out of your head.”

Taylor: 35:55

Yeah, I think that's a really good message for people—one of the many great messages you've shared. There are a lot of clippable moments here. You're sharing incredibly valuable insights, and I immensely appreciate that. It's exciting hearing about the things you all have going on, like the Tow and Go program. That's really cool. Referencing the Accessibility in Practice episode you were on, I remember you mentioning you were working on a database for people to locate these types of services. Any updates on that?

Melanie: 36:42

Yeah. I'm working on a national steering committee with individuals from different parts of the disability community, and we actually have a meeting this afternoon. We're working to create a database of every kind of organization out there—states, nonprofits, and small groups that have accessible equipment available to use for free. There are many accessible sports avenues for people to pursue, but a lot of those cost money. While they're wonderful, and if you have the funds to participate, that's great, we want people to be able to find organizations, events, and different opportunities in one place. We're working to build a one-stop shop so you can find, for example, accessible skiing in Vermont or accessible surfing in California. We want individuals with any type of disability—physical, intellectual, or invisible disabilities—to be able to use this database and find something they can do to access nature, get outside, have those aha moments, create memories, and still be able to do what their family or friends are doing. I keep coming back to skiing because one of our All Terrain Georgia members is a skier, and she goes accessible skiing in the winter. She's very young, and I just think that's amazing. This group is working hard to get the database together. We're looking for funding and researching grants so we can host this type of website and have someone maintain it and put the final touches on it. We have people from all across the country involved, including the head of David's Chair, the head of the accessibility program in Texas, Michigan, and different areas of the country. I think I'm one of two nonprofit representatives. It's really exciting to help create this because if it had been available when I became an amputee, I definitely would have looked to see what I could do, what would be fun for me, and what I could still feel comfortable doing.

Taylor: 40:24

That's awesome. I absolutely love that idea, and I'm excited for it. I'm sure it's going to be a forever-evolving project because new programs will be discovered and added constantly. I look forward to hearing more about that.

Melanie: 40:41

Yeah, of course.

Taylor: 40:43

I look forward to seeing what there is in South Carolina that I could try out.

Melanie: 40:50

Yeah. I've done some research, and there are things in South Carolina you can do on the beach. You've got Waymaker Off-Road, and you can use an all-terrain chair if you want to. I know there are other programs out there too. People don't always think about the fact that they're going on vacation, they're going to be at the beach, and if they're in a wheelchair, how are they going to get on the beach? Most beaches have those wheelchairs with the big giant tires, but they're very difficult to maneuver, especially in wet sand. My poor boyfriend tried to pull me out of the water in one a couple of years ago and almost gave himself a hernia. With the Trackchair, you can actually get down to the water. The battery sits about six inches off the ground, so you just need to keep that dry, but you can get to the water yourself. You don't have to have somebody else push you, which is amazing too.

Taylor: 42:23

That's awesome. I've seen those chairs, and when I saw them, I thought, I take good care of myself and I work out a lot, but I don't think I could really get around in one of those for very long. I would get exhausted very quickly. The manual ones with the big wheels that you see at some beaches.

Melanie: 42:49

Yeah.

Taylor: 42:50

It's interesting having those all-terrain chairs. That's one thing I wish: that accessible equipment would not be so terribly expensive.

Melanie: 43:04

That's why, as a foundation, we own 25 chairs that we let people use for free. Even being disabled and needing certain things just to live daily life, like my prosthetic leg, which is way too big and needs to be redone, that's an expense. Then you have shower chairs, wheelchairs, walkers, and any type of equipment that isn't covered by insurance—if you're lucky enough to have insurance that will pay for it. It's all just terribly expensive. We want to be able to give that little bit of, no, you don't have to pay. I get that question all the time: “How much does this cost?” People know it's a game changer, and I say, “It's absolutely free,” and they're amazed. I just wish there was more out there that was free for individuals with disabilities to be able to participate.

Taylor: 44:19

That's one of the many things I love about what you all are doing. When people think of access, they often think of having access to something because it's there to use. But there's also access in the sense of being able to use it financially. Like I said with the tandem biking, I technically have access to it, but it's not necessarily accessible financially. That's one of the many things I love about what you all are doing. I'm not surprised people ask how much it costs, because it seems like something you would need to pay for, but it's incredible that you don't have to.

Melanie: 45:07

Yeah.

Taylor: 45:07

Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. And I look forward to seeing that database. I'm excited for that.

Melanie: 45:14

It's going to be great. It really is.

Taylor: 45:17

If you're listening and you're interested in that, follow Accessible Community, the Aimee Copeland Foundation, or Melanie, and I'm sure you'll be able to stay up to date on it. I look forward to helping amplify your mission.

Melanie: 45:36

I appreciate that. I meant to mention earlier, when I was talking about overcoming and getting past certain things, that I had always wanted to write a book. I didn't know what it was going to be about, but my whole life I said, “I'm going to write a book one day.” My mom and her best friend always joked that we should have written a book called You Can't Make This Stuff Up, because things happen that are just kind of crazy. They don't normally happen to normal people, but they seem to happen to me. I did write a book, and it was very cathartic for me. Getting the story out helped me speak about it without becoming so terribly emotional. There's a lot of my story that I obviously didn't share here, but doing things that help you overcome your hurt, your pain, and that ache inside is important. You've got to find an outlet to become whole again. When something tragic happens in your life, it wears on you and wears on you, and eventually you have to let it go. You have to let the hurt of it go. You don't have to let the situation go, but you have to let the hurt go in order to heal. I learned that a while back. I wrote my book in only five weeks. I handwrote it with a Kindle and then transferred it onto my laptop, and it turned my handwriting into text. I think that's how I wrote it as fast as I did, because it was almost like journaling. Do things that help you get over the hurt. If that means writing a book, creating a business, going skiing, or going on a trail in an all-terrain chair, do something that helps your heart and helps you start to get out of the funk, so to speak. Get out of the dark places, because we all have light within us, and you need to let your light shine. Sometimes the light is dampened. That's life. It happens. But you've got to get out, and you've got to let it shine again.

Taylor: 49:00

Yeah, I think that's a beautiful message, and I fully agree with that. For a long time I would hold things in, and it was harder to accept my new situation and accept those emotions because I didn't ever speak them or write them down like you did. I've also been trying to write a book. I think I have one chapter done, and that's been about two years, so we'll see how it goes.

Melanie: 49:30

You'll get there.

Taylor: 49:32

Yeah, I'm trying. I tried to be a little bit more concise, but once I got started, I just went crazy and thought, all right, that was way too much.

Melanie: 49:44

Way too much for one chapter. You wrote the whole book.

Taylor: 49:48

I mean, there is so much more, and I thought, I have to condense that a bit. I might do that and then have a review process or something like that. For your book, is that something that's publicly accessible?

Melanie: 50:03

Yeah, it's actually on Amazon. I just pulled it up a minute ago. It's called Finding Grace in Times of Uncertainty. It's on Amazon for $15.97. It's on sale today, apparently. And if you want an autographed copy, you can go to my website, which is melaniedunnllc.com.

Taylor: 50:33

We'll make sure to include both of those in the show notes so people can access them.

Melanie: 50:39

That'd be great.

Taylor: 50:41

Yeah, and really any other resources that we've heard about today, like a link to the Aimee Copeland Foundation, the foundation, the Trackchairs, or any other things people would love to stay in touch with or stay up to date with.

Melanie: 50:59

So we've had we have one member that's from Switzerland.

Taylor: 51:03

Um wow.

Melanie: 51:05

They sent their ID, and I thought, this isn't an American driver's license. But they were coming to Georgia for vacation, and they had heard about us. That's the kind of reach that I think we, as organizations, want to have. That's the kind of reach we want this new database to have. We want it to be worldwide. If you're coming to the U.S. and you're looking for something accessible to do, and you don't want to have to pay for it or pay a lot for it, then you go to this database and find what you need. That's our goal: to make it worldwide and help people know about it.

Taylor: 51:57

That's wonderful. Thank you so much, Melanie. I appreciate everything you shared, and I look forward to helping amplify your journey as well as everything you're doing with the Aimee Copeland Foundation and everything else we discussed. Thank you so much for joining us.

Melanie: 52:15

Well, thank you so much for having me. If anybody is in Georgia or coming to Georgia and needs something accessible and fun to do, just go to our website at allterraingeorgia.org.

Taylor: 52:31

Nice. Awesome. Thank you all so much for listening and/or watching, and we'll see you all for the next episode of Day in the Life. Thank you.

Melanie: 52:41

Thank you.

Taylor: 52:43

Thank you all for joining us while we explore accessibility and disability. If you enjoyed this podcast, check out more episodes and show notes at accessiblecommunity.org slash podcasts. Remember, be accessible, be inclusive.