Every year, millions of Americans are impacted by some form of movement disability. Being restricted to a wheelchair, whether it’s been someone’s reality for their entire life or they’ve been thrust into this new reality after years of mobility, the hard truth is that reality is often unkind to those who cannot move for themselves, as well as their loved ones and caretakers.

Our Past

Our founder and executive director, Lisa Sexton, was hospitalized in the fall of 2010 for a rare autoimmune disorder of the liver. Though she pulled through, once she was sent home to recover, she discovered a truth that we are all aware of, but sometimes try to forget: being hospitalized in the United States is a huge financial burden. Strapped with financial debt from the facility that was supposed to help her, the constant fear and stress gave her insight into the struggles of the chronically ill and hospitalized and how they are largely failed by the systems in place. She decided at once that this needed to stop and soon after founded All Things Possible.

The original intent of the organization was simply to bridge the gap between the medical debt left behind and the fraction of costs that insurance may have covered. This is still an important issue, but it turns out there is a far more pressing need for those that ATP was trying to help: the price of transportation.

Our Present

As of today, All Things Possible has the goal of providing families in Charlotte, NC and the surrounding areas with good-quality, reliable, low-mileage wheelchair vans. These vans give a sense of normalcy and safety to those who need and use them. They are incredibly useful and helpful in getting wheelchair users to routine doctor’s visits and to emergency care facilities in extreme situations. But beyond that, patients and caregivers both report that what winds up making a surprisingly large impact is the ability to see family and friends, take a trip to see Christmas lights, or even just go to the store or the park like the average person. Many of these families crave normalcy in a life that will never truly allow it, and we’re proud to bring them one step closer.

To date, we have given away twenty-five vans. The receiving families never need to pay us back a cent for these vans and the vans are immediately titled in their names. All we ask is that they return the vehicles when they are no longer needed so that we can bless another family in need. Last year alone, we gave away ten vans. That’s ten families impacted for the better, and ten individuals who now have safe and reliable transportation for all their needs. We know that the number ten may not seem large, but it is actually huge when you consider that each van averages around $35k and all the memories and changed lives created by each van. Also consider the calm in the storm of the lives of those ten people and the families who hold them dear. In the last year and with $350k, we’ve generated an unimaginable amount of possibility, one van at a time.

Our Future

We may be doing well in accomplishing our mission thus far, but we are not in a place of complacency. We are planning to eventually expand beyond Charlotte to help even more families in need. More than anything, our current goal is to achieve more awareness. We want more people to know about our mission and the problem we are trying to help solve, so that we can gain more manpower and more financial strength in order to rectify the issue. Someday, we hope to be widely known and supported, so that our ability to help others will expand in turn.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to serve others and share our mission, and we are excited about the future and to have others come alongside us in this journey.