MDA’s holiday gift guide has something for everyone
By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
Longtime readers of The Reporter may recall our coverage of Amy Shinneman and her family participating in the New York City Marathon in late 2021 and raising over $20,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in the process. More recently, Shinneman’s Team Humbly Courageous ran in the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on Saturday, Nov. 5 and raised over $10,000.
Shinneman
Shinneman is also one of the National Ambassadors for the MDA, and she has contributed to Quest Media’s first ever 2022 Quest Holiday Gift and Giving Guide.
The gift guide features product categories for anyone and everyone who either lives with a disability or loves someone who does, with products for any age and level of ability.
“I was asked to be involved in this because I am an MDA national ambassador,” Shinneman said. “It was a group of ambassadors who came together to come up with a first of its kind gift and giving guide tailored to people who live with disability.”
Quest Media Editor-In-Chief Mindy Henderson called out to ambassadors to put this guide together.
“The cool thing is that while a lot of these things are helpful for those living with disabilities, they work for everybody,” Shinneman told The Reporter. “Who doesn’t want a pair of silk pajamas? Having a guide for families to go to and get things for people in their lives is really helpful. I think all the ambassadors would agree that when we find something that makes our lives a little easier, we are eager to share those with others in order to help them out, too.”
Even though these are products recommended for people living with neuromuscular disease, they can be helpful for various disabilities.
“A lot of these things just give us more independence,” Shinneman said. “I know one of the things that could be helpful for many that is on my list is the Apple Watch. The reason I have it on there and personally have one is because I’ve had a lot of falls when I haven’t had my phone with me, and I’ve been kind of stranded until somebody found me. But when I got the Apple Watch I just always have this thing on so I can call someone from that. That gives a lot of peace of mind also.”
Many items in the gift guide are for quality of life or for peace of mind.
“The thing that I liked about this gift guide was that it just opened up a whole new conversation,” Shinneman said. “Maybe your family members of friends haven’t thought about how you even needed these things. Sometimes you don’t talk to everybody about that. Hopefully this will spark more things like this, and it will become more widely available as we go forward. I was really honored to be part of this first one.”
About the gift guide
The full guide is available at mdaquest.org/gift-and-giving-guide. The guide has links to shop for all the listed products.
None of the proceeds from these products go to the MDA, but if you are shopping on Amazon and want to use Amazon Smile (smile.amazon.com) you can designate MDA as your charity of choice for donations made at no cost to you while you shop.
At the bottom of that page there is a short form to fill out if you would like to receive the Quest email newsletter or the print magazine. There are also links to donate to MDA.