Did you know that you can turn your everyday online shopping into support for RAMP?
Click here and shop at over 330 stores like Amazon.com, L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Barnes & Noble, Gap and many more! These stores give up to 26% from every purchase you make to your cause. Many of these contributions can be tax deductible for you.

SLANT Archives

(You will need Acrobat Reader to view  -  free download)

Volume 26, Issue 4 - July - August 2008

Volume 25, Issue 2 - March - April 2007

Volume 25, Issue 1 - January - February 2007

Volume 24, Issue 6 - November - December 2006

Volume 24, Issue 5 - September - October 2006

Volume 24, Issue 4 - July - August 2006

Volume 24, Issue 3 - May - June 2006

Volume 24, Issue 2 - March - April 2006

Volume 24, Issue 1 - January - February 2006

Volume 23, Issue 6 - November - December 2005

Volume 23, Issue 5 - September - October 2005

Volume 23, Issue 4 - July - August 2005

Volume 23, Issue 3  -  May - June 2005

Volume 23, Issue 2  -  March - April 2005

Volume 23, Issue 1  -  January - February 2005

Volume 22, Issue 6   -   November - December 2004

Volume 22, Issue 5   -   September - October 2004

Volume 22, Issue 4   -   July - August 2004

Volume 22, Issue 3   -   May - June 2004

NIU Student with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Beats the Odds
Ever since J.J. Wett was born, he has been beating the odds. J.J. was born in 1985 with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), type I, the number one genetic killer of children under the age of two. SMA is a hereditary and often fatal disease that destroys the nerves controlling voluntary muscle movement. Movements affected include crawling, walking, head and neck control, and even swallowing. One in every 6,000 babies is born with SMA. More

My Story - RAMP’s New Education & Advocacy Coordinator
Disability came into my life on January 20, 2002, a few minutes after midnight when my then 16-year-old son fell on his head while wrestling with a buddy at the home of a friend. He cracked his C-6 vertebrae into three pieces and smashed the spinal cord at the injury site. Surgery repaired the broken vertebrae, but medical science hasn't yet figured out how to fix the damaged spinal cord. David is paralyzed from the chest down and his arms work, but his fingers don't. 
In his junior year of High School, David was the starting center for the Rochelle Hubs and had been playing organized football since the age of 8. As a mom, I had worried all those years about injuries from football and then the paralyzing accident happened in a living room! You just never know what tomorrow may bring. More

On the Spot - John Beck
There are few people who are familiar with RAMP that don't immediately recognize the name John Beck. John has been with RAMP since 1985! To give you some perspective, that's the year that San Francisco won the Super bowl, Coca-Cola created "New Coke" in an attempt to attract younger consumers, Lionel Richie had Best Album of the Year, while Tina Turner rocked us with What's Love Got to do with It" as the number one record and The Color Purple was Best Picture of the Year. More

Volume 22, Issue 2   -   March - April 2004

Call to action!
This call goes out to everyone! If you are a parent, sibling, aunt, grandparent, friend or neighbor of someone with a disability or if you have a disability, this is for you. Every year the federal government plans where to spend our money. They look to us to guide them but if we don’t speak up, they wont hear us. You can’t wait for someone else to do something - you must do it yourself!
The education of our future is up to us. On Monday, February 2nd the President issued his FY ’05 Budget Proposal. President Bush has indicated that he intends to increase the amount appropriated for IDEA Part B by $1 billion. Despite this increase, the federal funding contribution will continue to fall short of the full congressional commitment to provide 40% of each state’s “excess cost” of educating children with disabilities. More

Rockford Mass Transit District Unveils New Route System
In what has probably been the most anticipated event in the last two years, the Rockford Mass Transit District introduced its new routes and schedules on Monday, March 1, 2004. Effective that date, RMTD introduced three new routes and changed some of its existing routes. The District has made these changes in an attempt to improve commute times and to expand the District's service area. The ultimate hope is that the changes will eventually lead to an increase in ridership. More

Man Rebuilds Life After Stroke
Matthew Scudder never imagined that, at age 47, he would be making a career change. Once a Shift Foreman and licensed Nuclear Reactor Operator at the Byron Nuclear Plant, he is back in school to become a teacher. 
Matt’s career change ultimately stems from a stroke fifteen years ago while on the job at the nuclear plant. The resulting brain damage caused the loss of his peripheral vision and short-term memory. “To understand how I see things now, close one eye and look through the hole of an empty toilet paper roll,” Matt described. More

Rockford Man Finds Independence
After two years of living in a nursing home, Jeff Pena, 43, of Rockford is on his own again. He was diagnosed in 1987 with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which today requires him to use a wheelchair and rely on the assistance of others for his personal care. More

Healing Inside and Out
Six-year-old Devin Folgate was your average kid with no worries. He loved playing with his twin sister, Tara, on the swing set in their backyard. However, their playing was interrupted in early April of 2002 when he developed a sinus infection. He was not properly medicated since his doctor diagnosed the problem as something else. His condition lead to something much more serious and he was experiencing a fever, a sore neck and nausea. Days later, when Devin began having mini strokes, he was taken to Rockford Memorial, where he lay in a comma for four days. When he woke up, Devin was paralyzed on his right side, his brain had been damaged and he was deaf in one ear. Doctors discovered Devin had bacterial meningitis. More

Def Leppard's Rick Allen and RAMP "Rock It" at the MetroCentre
The Wheel-A-Thon wasn’t the only exciting thing that happened on Saturday, June 21. Later that day, four RAMP staff and six RAMP consumers headed to the MetroCentre to meet Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard! More

Have comments about or problems with our site?
Contact the webmaster.