Nonprofit Creates “Blissful Bedrooms” for Graduating Kids with Disabilities

• Martha, a physical therapist for severely disabled children, noticed that their support system usually vanishes when they graduate.
• When she prepared a surprise bedroom makeover for a student, it inspired her to do the same for kids about to graduate.
• This led to the nonprofit Blissful Bedrooms, which transforms and customizes kids’ bedrooms to their preferences.

A physical therapist for kids with disabilities was inspired to give them a graduation gift to make it a bit easier for them to transition to adulthood. That is how the nonprofit Blissful Bedrooms started.

Martha shared her experience on the Facebook page Humans of New York.

She wrote, “Their observation skills are so keen. They understand more than you know. But they rarely get spoken to, or hugged. Often they aren’t even treated like humans. When the world can’t understand what you want, it kind of ignores you.”

She then shared how she became good friends with one student named Tamisha.

Tamisha is completely nonverbal, can only move her eyes, and uses a wheelchair. But she can express her thoughts and sarcasm with an eye roll or a quiet giggle.

Martha shared how she saw Tamisha as a butterfly, trapped in this body but with a soul that has “so much depth and so much future.” So she helped dress Tamisha as a beautiful butterfly for Halloween.

Martha also noticed how the support system for kids with disabilities tends to disappear when they graduate. These kids could feel trapped in their own home, so Martha wanted to do something that could lift their spirits at home.

With the help of her husband, Alex Gold-Dvoryadkin, Martha planned to give Tamisha’s bedroom a surprise makeover.

When Tamisha finally saw her transformed bedroom, “she started going wild. Her eyes lit up. She’s making all kinds of vocalizations. Her father is holding her, and he’s crying. It was a miracle,” Martha shared.

That inspired Tamisha to launch the nonprofit Blissful Bedrooms to do bedroom makeovers for graduating kids with disabilities.

Using their own money and enlisting the help of unpaid volunteers, the nonprofit has done about 20 makeovers so far.

Martha shared that they begin with an interview to get an idea of what makes the person happy. They ask questions like “What colors do you love? What are your favorite things?”

“We figure out exactly what they want,” she added. “We let them design their dream room. Then we become the instruments who bring that dream to life.”

Each bedroom is truly unique and customized. One room even has a full-sized motorcycle mounted on the wall!

This is truly a wonderful graduation gift. Thank you, Martha and Alex, for bringing happiness to the lives of many.

Source: Inspire More