Connecticut siblings work toward better disability access

From The Greenwich Post:

Last summer, when Carolina Gonzalez-Bunster (pictured) learned that her brother Luis (pictured) couldn’t access the pool at the Greenwich Family YMCA due to the fact that he was in a wheelchair, she got mad. Then she got down to work.

Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster, 26, wrote letters and articles, made phone calls and sued the YMCA in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to force the organization to install a ramp that would make the YMCA handicap accessible.

“They had an amazing state-of-the-art pool that they were making wheelchair accessible,” she said. “But there was no way for a wheelchair-bound person to get into the building.”

The situation reminded her of the need for increased awareness of the challenges faced by people like Luis, 33, who was paralyzed in a car accident two weeks after graduating from Brunswick’s Upper School in 1994.

It was then that the 2001 Greenwich Academy graduate decided to form a nonprofit organization called The Walkabout Foundation.

“I wanted to help educate people about how a step for you and I is something we don’t think twice about, but it’s a huge hurdle for someone in a wheelchair,” she said.

Her decision to create the foundation came shortly after another important choice: Leaving her Dubai-based job with Goldman Sachs in light of the financial meltdown.

“It was the perfect time to leave the banking world and do something I’d wanted to do for 15 years,” she said.

It took Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster about six months to get the foundation up and running, including partnering with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. When the preparations were complete, she knew she wanted to hold a unique kick-off, but not a costly one.

“It didn’t make sense to spend money to raise money, so we thought, ‘What can we do?’” Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster said. “We thought at the end of the day, it’s all about walking.”

So she made plans to go for a walk ... a long one.

She decided to walk with family members and friends along the Camino de Compostela, taking an 800-kilometer route that runs from the border of France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela, a city in northwest Spain. The Camino has been a popular path for pilgrims for more than 1,000 years.

“I was very moved,” Luis said of his sister’s idea. “We’d always been close, but all that effort that she put into the walk and the foundation takes serious determination and serious passion.”

Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster and her mother Monica walked the entire route and Luis completed it on his handbike, and was accompanied for the first portion of the trip and the last two weeks by his father Rolando, who biked beside him. The group averaged 20 miles a day for 31 consecutive days in August. Brothers Diego, 18, and Matis,16, joined the family on the path for a portion of the trip.

As she walked, Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster shared her story and information about the foundation, and passed out stickers and bracelets with the foundation logo. She also kept a blog to help family and friends at home stay connected to the journey.

“It was the most unbelievable experience of our lives, and it was really inspiring to see my brother traverse the entire country on just two arms,” Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster said. “He got a lot of local press and every town we approached people knew he was coming and people wanted to meet him and shake his hand and people were really intrigued by it. He left a positive and lasting impression.”

One wheelchair-bound man heard that Luis was headed his way and waited by the side of the road for a chance to speak with him.

“It’s little things like that that you don’t expect, but they’re great when they happen,” Luis said, adding that riding with his father was another especially meaningful time during the journey.

The siblings, accompanied by family and friends, reached Santiago de Compostela on Aug. 31.

“It was the most unbelievable feeling but completely bittersweet,” Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster said. “There was the happiness of getting there, but we also knew that the trail had become such a part of us. You personify it.”

Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster now is enrolled at the Said Business School at Oxford University, where she hopes to earn a master’s in business administration while continuing work on the foundation. She is in the process of incorporating the foundation in the United Kingdom.

“The idea is to make it truly global,” she said. “This has been beyond satisfying and fulfilling. People who have had accidents and who were paralyzed have contacted me and my brother saying we’re an inspiration and saying we’re giving them a new hope.”

Since July 10, the foundation has raised $115,000. The money will help fund research on nerve regeneration and also will help purchase wheelchairs for impoverished people in the Dominican Republic and Argentina. Ms. Gonzalez-Bunster hopes to eventually sponsor annual walks, open to the public at locations around the world. Next year’s walk likely will take place in South Africa.

Despite the fact that he is likely the first person to complete the Camino on a handbike, Luis doesn’t consider himself a role model.

“It wasn’t something superheroic, but it was just something that I needed to do,” he said adding that Carolina is a true role model.

“She’s the real inspiration to me,” Luis said. “I’m a flagbearer but she’s really the heart and soul of it. We make a pretty good team.”