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School Visits and Book WritingOctober 3rd, 2012It’s been 3 months since my last post. After the Abilities Expos, I took some time off to focus on being a mom. Now it’s October, National Disabilities Month as well as Spina Bifida Awareness Month. I’m ready to visit some schools again. It’s time for me to get back to what I do best, which is teaching children acceptance, ability awareness and to end bullying. School visits can be set up by emailing me directly at Angela@wendyonwheels.com. The self-cath book I worked on for 180 Medical’s Kids Club had a very successful launch at the Spina Bifida Conference in the summer. Here are a few pictures. The second picture is my sister, Wendy on Wheels’ inspiration, Amanda with the purple bag.
There were two versions of the book, “Ethan Can Cath!” for boys. “Emma Can Cath!” is for girls. Both books show instructional pages to help little ones learn to catheterize themselves. From what I heard, Ethan and Emma were a huge hit. If you have a child with Spina Bifida who needs to learn to self-cath, I recommend contacting 180 Medical and joining their kids club.
Chicago Abilities ExpoJuly 6th, 2012Last weekend, I had a blast at the Abilities Expo in Chicago! Auti, from the Sundance Channel’s new show the Push Girls, had a dance workshop every day. People of all ages joined the dance circle to show off their favorite moves. It was so great to see. Auti is so nice!! This little girl, Anna came by my booth. What a cutie!
Saturday was my workshop where I introduced Wendy on Wheels and read Wendy on Wheels Takes a Stand. I started off talking about my inspiration for Wendy on Wheels.
A lot of times in our lives, things bother us and make us mad. We feel like something must be done. When we feel furious and upset, we are closed off from anything good that may happen. In order to make change, we have to shift our mindset. This is why I created Wendy on Wheels in the first place. I’ve been following Cure for Chloe on facebook for a couple years now. I remember when Chloe was a cowgirl on a horse for Halloween and got her new wheelchair. At the expo, I finally got to meet her. It made my whole weekend!! I was so excited!!!
St. Catherine Laboure’s Ability Awareness DayMarch 17th, 2012Yesterday, I had the pleasure of presenting Wendy on Wheels to the kindergarteners and first graders at St. Catherine Laboure School.
The first group of kindergarteners had already heard Wendy on Wheels Goes to the Zoo, my favorite book for Ability Awareness Days. One kid yelled out, ”I know what’s going to happen,” before I even started. During the story, some were saying parts of the story with me. It was awesome!! Then I read Wendy on Wheels Takes a Stand. Since it is new, no one had heard it yet. They loved it! The students chanted along, ”NO BULLY NO!!” They loved the signs. Speaking of signs, they had decorated the halls with signs for Abilities Awareness Days.
A possibilist. I like that!
This one is my favorite.
While I was reading to the second kindergarten group, one little boy said the boy next to him, “We’re not talking about Star Wars!” That made me laugh. In one of the first grade groups, I started out talking about my sister and how I was inspired to write Wendy on Wheels. One boy raised his hand and said, “Are you going to read the books?” Ha. I guess he didn’t care what I had to say. He just wanted to hear Wendy on Wheels. That’s good. I prefer it that way. It was a great day! What a wonderful group of children! I present at the Abilities Expo in Los Angeles in two weeks. I can’t wait!! HERE SHE COMES TO SAVE THE DAY!!!March 2nd, 2011Wendy on Wheels Saves the Day features two characters that were inspired by a mother, Amy, and her son, Eli. Amy has commented on my blog and is a facebook friend. On my first blog, she gave a suggestion about having a little boy who is nonverbal in future books. I started reading her blog. I saw some pictures of when Eli was in the hospital. The love they shared was radiating out of the photos. His smile was amazing! When I was writing Wendy on Wheels Saves the Day, I made sure to include Eli and Amy. I just read Amy’s latest blog about the book. WOW!! It feels wonderful to touch someone I’ve never actually met, in a different part of the country. Here’s a picture Amy sent me. Eli fell asleep while his dad was reading it to him.
Self publishing makes all this possible. It’s wonderful! I control the whole look of every page in the book. So, why not make the image resemble the people who inspired it? I celebrated Dr. Suess’s birthday with the World Premiere Author Reading of Wendy on Wheels Saves the Day at Southview Special Education School. Wendy on Wheels was a hit at Southview! Since it was the first time I’ve read this book out loud, my delivery was a little choppy. The audience still enjoyed it. Well, Wendy on Wheels Saves the Day was released last week. It came out of couple weeks earlier than expected. I’m so excited about it. The Friday before last when I got the proof copy, I was so happy I was almost crying. This is the book I wanted to write for the last year. It looks better than I imagined! Books are available on Amazon. If you’d like to order autographed copies, please email me. I can ship them out to you. Welcome, Wendy on Wheels!February 16th, 2011What a welcome!! The kids in the Adventure Club at Bristol Elementary made this. Cool, huh? Aren’t they cute? These visits are amazing!! I love reading to kids. Last week was a good week for public relations. The St. Louis Post Dispatch mentioned Wendy on Wheels in an article about Blades Day of Giving. A little boy said Wendy on Wheels was his favorite. I had a great interview with Publishing Coach Shelley Hitz. If you are interesting in self publishing, please take a look at her site. She has a lot of good information on there. Wendy on Wheels Saves the Day was submitted for publishing late last week. I’m waiting to receive the proof copy. I’m so excited to get it. I’m working on the launch party. Book four has been discussed and is in progress as well. More information will be given at a later date. Just know that it is coming… I’m really excited about this one as well. Everyday SuperheroesFebruary 1st, 2011It’s Snowpocalypse in St. Louis. I’ve been hearing the ice hit my windows for the last few hours. I just finished putting Wendy on Wheels Saves the Day together. Now I just need to get it over to the designers. This book is the book I wanted to write and publish since I started the series, but wasn’t fully ready. Niether I nor the audience was ready. I have Wendy dressed up a superhero to symbolize everyday people who do great things and make our lives better. In this story, Wendy feels an overwhelming desire to make other people smile. Here are some examples of heroes in my life. I appreciate these people very much. Despite what’s going on in their lives, these people still do what they can to make this world a better place. Even if some of the above are “doing their jobs,” they are still helping others. We need to take time to be grateful for people who make our lives better. So tell me, who are some superheroes in your life? Blade’s 100% Giving DayJanuary 27th, 2011This morning, I was fortunate enough to participate in Blades Elementary School’s 100% Day of Giving. A young man in the office handed me an envelope when I got there. It contained a map of the school, a schedule of all the presenters and classes, an invitation to lunch in the teacher’s lounge and nice gift for me.  How cute are these? I know its a small picture, but it says “From the desk of Angela Ruzicka.” That’s really sweet!!! I presented in front of several different groups in a row. Some were 1st and 4th graders, then 2nd and 5th grades. I started out talking about giving, I talked about the different ways to give, ie. money, time, energy etc. I told them how some of the profits from Wendy on Wheels Goes to the Beach goes to the St. Louis Variety and some of the profits of Wendy on Wheels Goes to the Zoo go to the MDA. For the last group, I talked about how whenever you give you always get back more than you gave. I said I hoped the children and groups I read to get as much out of my visit as I do. My cousin’s little boy, Kyle, attended school there and was in one of the classes. The books were well received. They loved Wendy. After the presentations, they had lunch in the teacher’s lounge from Bandana’s BBQ and some snacks and dips from Dierberg’s. It was a very nice lunch! I met some of the other presenters. At the end of lunch, Kyle’s teacher told me her class was making posters to promote Wendy on Wheels and said I was welcome to come by the room to see them. They were making Wendy posters!! AWESOME!! Of course, I had to check that out.
Of course, I wanted my picture taken with them.
This was one groups poster. LOVE IT!!
This is adorable!!
This one was still in progress. The girls worked hard on it. I love it!!
Here’s me with some super creative girls!
Here’s me with Kyle and his friends and the poster they made.
Here is the final one. How wonderful!! Overall, this was a great day. I guess the answer is yes. Yes, the students enjoy having me there as much as I enjoy being there. Book 4 has been written.January 20th, 2011I got back from my honeymoon in Costa Rica late last night. Costa Rica was amazing!! We stayed at an all inclusive resort some of the time, then ventured off to explore the next week. I sold some books while I was there. Not intentionally though, just talked to people and they wanted to buy them. I love to travel. Whenever, I travel I feel like I learn more and am much more creative. My thinking becomes clear. Wendy on Wheels book four has been on the tip of my brain for the last couple months. Friday, I woke up at 5:30 am in Tamarindo, book 4 was finally begging to be written. I went in the next room and typed for a while. Andrew woke up around 6:30 or 7. “Sweety, where are you?” “I’m writing book 4,” I replied. I was finally in the zone. I wrote half of it, then got stumped. The story focuses on a serious topic and I wasn’t sure which direction to take it. So I left it and we walked down the beach. Later on in the day, I came up with the rest of it. Within 24 hours, book four was done. I’m not sure about a title for it yet. I’m excited about it. It’s good quality. I estimate that January 10th 2010 was when I came up with the idea for Wendy. I thought about Wendy on Wheels on her birthday last week, as I heard the waves. The beach had been my inspiration for the first book. It had been a good year. I’m so glad I followed through with the first book, which led to more. Inclusive Schools Week 2010December 10th, 2010This week, December 6th through the 10th was Inclusive Schools Week. I celebrated by presenting Wendy on Wheels at several schools in St. Louis, where I live. I started off the week on Monday with a visit to the Parents as Teachers program at an Windsor Elementary. It was a very small group, about 7 little ones, average age was about 2. They seemed to appreciate Wendy Goes to the Beach more than Zoo. Thursday morning, I visited a couple classes at the Southside Day Nursery. They were so little and cute. Some children were learning English. I asked how they liked the story. A couple raised their hands and started speaking in another language. It’s good that I got them to talk. Several kids gave me hugs. Two said, “I like you.” In the afternoon, I went to read a class of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders at City Garden Montessori Charter School. When I walked in to the class, one little girl walked up to me and said, “Hi. I’m Holly. Welcome to our class.” Then a second girl introduced herself and welcomed me. I’d never been welcomed to a class before. Very impressive! This group did very well with the discussion questions. They had some very good ideas about how the teacher and zoo could have treated Wendy and Brandon differently. When it was time for their next speaker, they did a really cool cheer for me, complete with hand motions. Something like “CLAP!! CLAP!!! SNAP!!! SNAP!!! RAISE THE ROOF FOR ANGELA!!! YOU’RE ON FIRE!!! Then they sang a little thank you song. This morning, I presented to several classes at the University City Children’s Center. My mom and my sister, Mandy, came with me. These children were between the ages of 2 and 5 depending which class it was. The first group was a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds. After the reading, a few kids walked up and touched Mandy’s wheelchair and shirt. It’s so good for them to be exposed to Mandy and her wheelchair!! I’m so glad Mandy and my mom were able to attend. After reading to all the classes, the three of us went out to lunch at Ginger Bistro in University City. My sister and I opened a package we had received from Henry Elementary School. It was a bunch of thank you notes from the class we had entertained in October. Here are a couple of sweet ones. Introducing Wendy on Wheels at all these schools has been a wonderful experience. I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity!!!
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