After being featured in a short documentary produced by Stratford’s Ballinran Entertainment, Mitchell’s McKenzie Hinz is showing others living with disabilities that anything in life is possible with the support of organizations like Facile Perth.
Thanks to the help of Facile Perth and numerous other supports, Mitchell’s McKenzie Hinz is living a fulfilling and rewarding life.
Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age, McKenzie, who uses a wheelchair and has limited speech, has been working with facilitators at Facile Perth since his final year of high school to help realize his dreams, identify his strengths and passions, and create a plan to achieve whatever goals he and his close circle of supporters can envision.
“I had no idea what facilitation even was, but I thought … it’s going to help McKenzie one way or another, so we’ll take a shot,” said Vicky Wolfe Hinz, McKenzie’s mom who is now a member of Facile Perth’s board of directors. “So we met with (lead independent facilitator) Mirjam (Schut) … and, after that first meeting, (we felt like) the stars were the limit. There’s no limits to the possibilities for McKenzie.”
That plan for McKenzie’s future was developed with input from McKenzie’s family, caregivers, educational assistants and the circle of people who know him best.
From that point, it was the people at Facile who knocked on doors, spoke with community members, connected McKenzie with various support agencies and helped him find the people who would be best suited to help him in his day-to-day life. Easy staff also searched for opportunities for financial support that would allow the young man to achieve his dreams and live to his fullest potential.
“We brought all the people who were part of McKenzie’s life together and we were like, ‘Hey, let’s brainstorm to see what are those activities he enjoys,’” Schut said. “So we came up with a whole list and then basically we got to work. We tried different things and then we knocked on doors. So he got a job at Ritz Lutheran Villa (retirement community), we connected him to Partners in Employment who helped het him get a job shredding paper, and then there was already a connection to Joe’s Diner (in Stratford) because his support worker at the time has a relationship with Joe’s.
“So McKenzie would go to Joe’s and he would shred boxes and then get lunch. He loved it so much that we said, ‘Hey, could this be a job opportunity?’”
Lex Brooks, McKenzie’s former support worker and the server at Joe’s Diner who helped McKenzie get the job at the diner, says she and the entire staff absolutely love working with McKenzie.
“We all look forward to Thursdays and he knows he’s coming here,” Brooks said. “It’s so much fun. He always puts a big smile on your face no matter what mood you’re in. We have a lot of laughs. If you drop a cup or a piece of cutlery, it’s just the funniest thing in the world to him, and he gets to see everybody at the diner.”
McKenzie is also putting his skills and interests to work to benefit his community. He regularly volunteers at the West Perth Library in Mitchell, where he led a fundraising effort a few years ago to help make the Lions Pool more accessible.
“In the end, he raised over $20,000,” Schut said. “So not only were they able to install a lift, but now also the doors are accessible and there’s a change table. So it’s fully accessible and, this summer, he swam in the Mitchell pool.”
It’s important for McKenzie to be an integral part of the Mitchell community.
McKenzie is a people person. Just ask anyone who knows him. His mom says he loves to sit outside by the side of the road near his home and wave at drivers as they pass by and honk their horns. He also enjoys watching construction, selling tickets at hockey games and chatting it up with customers at Joe’s Diner.
“The relationship building is super important,” Schut said. “We see that a lot of people, when they leave high school, they become very socially isolated because they have their connections in school. They leave school and then that’s gone, so that’s a big part of what we do to help build those social connections because we need people in our lives to lead good, healthy lives.”
To that end, Schut said Facile works to connect area families supporting loved ones with disabilities, helping foster social connections while giving families a chance to learn about new funding opportunities, resources and support programs.
Facile is also active in advocating at all levels of government for greater disability supports and other necessities, like more affordable and accessible housing, to encourage a system that people with disabilities can navigate so they can live to their full potentials.
Easy does all of this without any government funding.
“We hope to get the word out about we do because we’re a non-profit organization and we don’t get any government funding, so it’s really difficult for us to be able to do our work without the support of our community, Schut said. “We’d love to help more people live that full life because we all deserve that.”
To promote the work at Facile Perth, McKenzie was recently featured in a documentary produced by Stratford’s Ballinran Entertainment.
The documentary shows that McKenzie is able to work, volunteer, participate in recreational activities, maintain a social life. and serve as both a community leader and an example of what others living with disabilities can aspire through the support of the Facile Facilitators and others.
“One of my professors said to me when I was in school that she doesn’t like the word disability and disabled,” said Nikketa Albrecht, the support worker from Community Living Stratford and Area who works with McKenzie. “She likes to describe it as differently abled and McKenzie is a direct reflection of that.
“I’ll be honest. Before I started working for Community Living and supporting McKenzie, I had that same mindset of, ‘There are so many limitations. He can’t do that and he can’t do that.’ But really, that’s not the case. So continuing to share McKenzie’s story and all of the things that he can do is so important. He can do everything. He can do anything he wants. We just have to find a different path.”
For more information on Easy Perth and to find out how to support the organization either by donating or offering employment, volunteer or other opportunities for area residents with disabilities, visit easyperth.ca or call 519-271-6565.