Kids like Sheriauna want you to stand with them as they develop their super powers.
When 12-year-old Sheriauna dances in competitions with her prosthetic left arm, her mom, Sherylee, fights to stay composed. “It makes me want to cry all the time, happy tears, joyful tears,” she says.
Sheriauna’s world has opened up thanks to Holland Bloorview’s prosthetics lab, which designs and produces prosthetics for children and youth ages 2-18.
Over the years, Holland Bloorview’s clinicians and technicians have worked with Sheriauna to make prosthetic devices so that she can play guitar, play piano, ride a bike, ski, and swim. They consult with Sheriauna about how she wants it to feel and what she wants it to do, and create solutions that are as unique as she is.
Sheriauna’s prosthetic arm lends her an added dimension of mobility and balance that helps her develop the skills she needs to be a dancer.
“I’m just so proud because with her prostheses she doesn’t let anything hold her back, she’s fearless,” adds Sherylee. “She’s willing to take risks, fail, and keep trying until she succeeds.”
When Sheriauna hears music and starts to dance, she’s transported. For her, dancing is freeing. In that moment, she’s not thinking of anything else. She’s not thinking about the stares she sometimes gets, or the awkward questions, or teasing.
Sherylee has seen her daughter’s confidence skyrocket. Sheriauna loves dancing so much, she dreams of owning a dance studio one day. A back-up plan is to become an actor or singer, but she confessed that an agent hasn’t discovered her…yet.