Urbandale woman named Ms. Wheelchair Iowa

An Urbandale woman has been named Ms. Wheelchair Iowa 2000 and has been given the task of making the needs -and abilities- of people in wheelchairs better known.Jamie Barker was born with cerebral palsy and has lived all of her 24 years in a wheelchair. She works as a customer service rep for a Des Moines pharmacy says she enjoys being disabled. She jokes about the perks of being confined to a chair., saying there’s great parking, front-row concert seats & first-class airplane rides. Barker says one of her favorite activities is going dancing without her chair. She says “I just find some strong, cute man to pick me up and throw me around.” Over the next year, Barker will speak at schools & to civic groups about the many things people who’re labeled as disabled are able to do and how the rest of us can help them..and learn from them.Barker will represent Iowa in the Ms. Wheelchair America Program in August in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. To have her speak at your event or to your group, call the program’s state coordinator Judy Hoit at (319) 351-8375 or e-mail to [email protected].