Variety has been serving children with special needs for over 75 years, and we have found that what these children want most is to be active members of their communities. In order to achieve this, they need what most of us take for granted: access. For children with disabilities, this means having the freedom to go where they want to, either on their own, or if they need assistance, reducing the impact they make on those helping them. With the advent of many new mobility technologies, this access is becoming available to more and more children.

Many of the local Variety chapters have seen this need, and have already been focused on providing children in their communities with prosthetic limbs, walkers, wheelchairs, and specially design adaptive bikes. In the coming year, these diverse efforts will be unified into a single national program, Variety’s National Mobility Program. And while it is a national program, it will still be true to our roots: enabling local communities to better serve their children with special needs.