I was there . . .
Nancy Salendra
Philadelphia to Washington DC, 2003
Nancy Salendra reads her narrative.
Free Our People March
The biggest day of my life was approaching after 6 months of 24/7 butterflies. I
believe most people never thought this march would take place except for Daniese
from Delaware and Crosby from Maryland.
September 3rd, on the eve of the march at the Holiday Inn in Philadelphia, I was
speaking to a room full of ADAPTers, about to make history. We were marching 144
miles with 85 wheelchairs to charge a night and 65 tents to set-up and break
down every day. This would be the first time in history that 200 disabled people
would march all 144 miles to Washington DC sleeping outside in tents every night
(except 2, and one of those nights was on an ice skating ring that was wet and
freezing cold).
We traveled with 12 port-o-potties (Royal Flush). Without them and one of the
workers, Mike, we would not have survived.
The first day we roll out onto Market Street in Philadelphia in pouring rain
with smiles on our faces. The first day between the weather, chairs that broke
down because of the weather, bad directions given to the van drivers, no
port-o-potties at our lunch stop and the smallest quarters to sleep in but we
figured things could only get better.
Second day Erik from Philly had a stroke and had to be taken to the hospital.
Jimmie, Erik’s partner and our food director, would not be able to continue on
this march and we were about to embark on the longest day of the march - 17
miles. Things were going great.
One of the amazing things throughout this march was how the public treated us.
We did get in the newspaper (Philadelphia Inquirer) on the first day, but we
never got any television coverage. Somehow people knew we were coming, because
they would be out on the streets to greet us, give us money and water and
cheers. I don’t think the public has ever treated ADAPT so well. We were
traveling on highways, not residential neighborhoods. So how would people know
about us? When we told them we were marching so people could live free in the
community and not die in nursing homes, they were just taken aback. In one small
community, Aberdeen Maryland, we were given a $200 check and a proclamation from
the city council.
We slept at the state troopers barracks in Delaware and had a pig roast, (no pun
intended). But ADAPT sharing bathrooms with state troopers who would have thunk
it? We slept on the grounds of the firehouse in Arbutus Maryland. While we were
there, Sparky from Texas went to a convenient store around the corner. They did
not treat him nice in the store and were throwing him out and he said to them
that a bunch of his disabled friends were around the corner. Of course they
didn’t believe him. So he left and returned with some of his 200 friends and he
was treated much better.
Not being a religious group we had many encounters with churches because in our
14 day march we stay on 7 church properties. We were fed some of our best food
by the churches. People said they ate better on the march than they do at home.
We looked forward at the end of the day - going to our tents and finding our
belongings and seeing the Philadelphia neighbor, Texas neighbor, Denver neighbor
and so on. We were truly a city with blocks of the different states and their
tents. People were going about their business, getting ready for dinner or the
next day’s events. What a site to behold from the roof of the firehouse we were
staying at.
I had a friend who is from an activists group in Philadelphia that has done many
marches. They came to visit us on our last day. I got up at 6 AM to go to the
bathroom at our camp site in DC and I thought I was hallucinating when I saw my
friend from Philly. I said “what are you doing here?”
He said: “Nancy, I just had to come and see this for myself.” He had been
walking the campsite in total amazement. He could not believe that we had all
these tents, wheelchairs, an industrial generator, 12 port-o-potties and that,
with most people in wheelchairs, we could pull this off. He said that on his
marches they never walked the entire way and they always slept indoors. He said
after seeing this, if any of his people never complained he would tell them what
we endured and went through to further our cause.
I must say, what amazed me the most was the commitment from everyone to do this
march. We left people whose chairs broke down in the middle of nowhere and they
would just smile and wave goodbye and wait till the van picked them up. It could
be minutes or hours in the hot sun with no food or drink, but they would endure
whatever it took for their brothers and sisters in nursing homes. I was just
blown away by the courage of those individuals whose chairs tip over on the
highway. The big state troopers would help pick people back up and they would
say they were fine and onward they went, with the state trooper’s mouth hanging
open. They didn’t know how strong disabled people really are.
People were focused on the mission to get more attention to MiCASSA and get it
passed. We obviously didn’t get Community Choice passed, and we didn’t get on
national news but the disability community around the world knew about the
march. It was the greatest adventure of our lifetime and it showed that anything
is possible.