PAGE 8, WEDNESDAY JAN UAR Y 11, 1984, WH ITBY FR EE PRESS F ~Dis abiliynoh dia for coordinator E Corne in and take your cholce from the large selection of great newj cars and llght trucks we5 have in stock rlght now. Vou'll get Immediate delivery and you won't have to make any payments for 90 days from the date of your or- der. WVisitors to the Tourist SInformation Centre i Whitby are usually greeted with a warm smlle by the Centre's Sattractive, young co- ordinator, Lucie Ron- deau. What most people do not realize is that Lucie is an amputee. She lost a leg as the resuit of a rare disease wbich af- fects the skin and muscles. However, she has neyer let her disability prevent her from Ieading an active life. In ber free time, she swims, takes fishing trips, canoes, hikes and snowshoes.. Thie daughter of a miner i Asbestos, QueW~, Lucie is one of ten children. She was a lively child.who would neyer walk anywhere if she could run. One day, shortly after starting sehool, she was walking home from the dentist with her4sister when she feit so' tired she could ' not continue. She flopped down into a snowbank and her sister i:ll ( With this kind of deal you can afford that win- ter vacation or pay off those Christmas bis. But you must act fast! This offer is good only fromn Dec. 27th to Jan. 31lst, 1984, inclusive. Details at your dealers. >ndeau greets visitors to Whitby's Tourist Information Centre. carried ber to bed. After this, ber physical con- dition worsened. She was onily able to walk on tiptoe andber knees and ankies buled under- her and remained bent. She spend many mon- tha visitingdifferent bospitals and ber paren- ts were told not to ex- pect ber to live past the age of eleven. Lucie was eventually admitted ta the Sbriners' Hospital in Montreal where' she spend the next year. She was given sebool lessons i English whicb soon replaced french as ber first language. Wbile she was in the Sbrinersl' Hospital, she underwent an operation ta straighten ber legs but one was so badly i- fected that it bad to be amputated. Lucie still remembers waking up after the operation. "I JANU CLEÀAR SMITSUI VUDEO CASS HS-304UR * 8 Function Remote Control * 12 Position Tuner * 5 Motors & Direct Drive * Front Load * 14 Day 1 Event Timer Try Before 1 HS-70OUR * Semi-Portable wI 3 Way Powei * Camera Input * 3 Function Remote * 12 Position Tuner * 5 Motors * New Front Load System VHS &BETA MOVII wasn't upset about losing the leg, I remein- ber looking down at i ny other leg wbicb seem -cd very long in its cast ai id then seeig the stur.xp covered in thick ban- dages. Then I asked for a drink, " she recalîs. Lucie's parents were worried about ber goig back to a regular school. "They didn't want me pushed down -and teased, " she says, "so tbey found me a place at AIIY ANCE 'DÎME, RECORDER NEW $649 (ou Buy 'r Supply NEW $799 EDEMO $639- IRENTALS 93 WINCHES"TER £ the MacKay Centre for Deaf and Crippled Children, a residential sehool iMontreal. " She remembers arriving at the school. "I was used- to children using crutches and wheelchairs at the hospital but I'd neyer before. I was fascinated jby the deaf children. " The first person she met was a deaf girl named Marjorie. "She took me under her wing and introduced me to her'friends who were also deaf" says Lucie. Marjorie and *Lucie became 'close friends. Lucie: soon Ilearned to sign and still ber bands when she is talking. Today, she is a volunteer sign language interpreter for local community groups and still i touch witb Mar- jorie who is married and living inPickering. When she was 17, Lucie returned home and went to a local high scbool. "I was more worried about slipping on the snow and ice than not being accepted by the other students," she remembers. "People in Ontario don't really know what snow is. At home, it sometimes goes, right over the roof." After leaving scbool, Lucie came to Ontario where she took a Medical Secretarial Course .at ,Durbam College of Applied Arts and Tecbnol6gy i Oshawa. One of her first jobs -was at the .Ontario March of Dimes' Oshawa office where, in addition to doing regular secretarial work, she was involved in setting up awareness, displays in malîs to teach the public more about the needs and abilities of disabled people. In 1982, she came back to the Ontario March of Dimes again to work as a consultant on a federally-funded. Barrier Free Design project. Through this program, represen- tatives of businesses, schools, churches and other public buildings could obtai free advice on making. their fa-iiesacesIL-t munity ,development, and research into ways in which computers can help disabled people achieve greater in- dependence in their daily lives. These programs are made possible through the generosity of public donations during the Ability Fund campaign which takes place each year i January and February.I RAISED ;.PRI NTINMG MARIGOLD LINCOLN MERCURY (We wont to double our sales.) DRIVE-A WA Y WITH A GREA T DEAL A T c77tarqo(ô -~ LINCOLN MERCURY SALES LIMITED 1120 Dundas St. E., Whitby Il E IIAISBIE:VINGiit 668-5893 hi --r= LýL 11 j L'I