Quadriplegic woman who seeks hunting licence among those being helped by Sask. group

Kaitlyn Hoar, a Saskatchewan woman with physical disabilities, has dreams like anyone else — and one of them includes hunting.

She wants get a restricted hunting licence, which might seem ambitious, considering she has cerebral palsy and is a quadriplegic.

However, thanks to a Regina charitable organization called Being Astonished!, she's well on her way to achieving that goal.

"[Her family] got her into doing that," said Hoar's mother, Wendy, who's one of the program's founders.

"They'll put the headphones on her, bring her the shotgun, she'll look towards them when she wants the skeet pulled, and then they will help her pull the trigger."

It demonstrates there's no reason Kaitlyn can't follow her dreams, Wendy said.

"She's non-verbal, but she … functions mentally very, very well," said Wendy.

Before Being Astonished!, Wendy found most of the programs available to Kaitlyn were designed for people with intellectual disabilities, and that her daughter was regressing, rather than growing by participating.

"We had to do something," she said. "Kaitlyn and [her friend] started planning what they want to do for the rest of their lives, and planning towards their goals, and this is how Astonished! got started."

As favourite pastime of Kaitlyn's family is hunting, pursuing a restricted hunting licence was among the things she wanted to do.

Kaitlyn communicates mostly with her eyes or through nodding, which will make the hunting licence test more challenging, but that's not going to stop her. 

"She'll be able to nod when she hears the right answer for the multiple choice, and for the written component, they'll go through the alphabet, and she'll nod at the letter she wants written down," explained Wendy.

For Kelsey Culbert, motivational speaking is the dream

Being Astonished! was started roughly four years ago, after several Saskatchewan families became frustrated by a shortage of meaningful programming for their children.

Another participant in the program is Kelsey Culbert, who wants to become a motivational speaker.

"I love to educate people about having a disability, that it's OK to have a physical challenge. We're all people first, and it's important to be inclusive," said Culbert, who was born with cerebral palsy.

Being Astonished! is all about helping young adults with complex physical disabilities identify their strengths and dreams, said the program's executive director, Bonnie Cummings.

Young people are teamed up with companions who help people like Culbert lay out a path to success.

"I've been able to give my goals structure. Without it, I wouldn't know where to go next" said Culbert of joining the program.

Culbert is currently "trying to learn a new computer," and printing business cards to hand out around the city.

'This was my dream'

There are currently four other people enrolled in the program, including Kennen Dorgen, whose current goal is one of her most ambitious yet.

"Kennen was born 10 weeks premature with cerebral palsy. She's technically classified as a quad... and pretty well all her muscles are affected," said Kennen's mother Heather Dorgen

She is non-verbal, but "very smart, and very persistent," Heather added. 

"She would like to text and would like to get her own cell phone, but in order to get going with her own phone, she would like to learn how to read," said Heather, who added that the skill is crucial for Kennen to meet one of her other goals: living away from her family.

"It's huge, otherwise we'll be terrified all the time that she needs us and can't get a hold of us, just for her psychosocial well-being, but also for our own, it's a really big deal."

Heather doesn't know why Kennen never learned to read in school, but suspects a lack of resources and expertise were part of the problem, which is why she's so happy Astonished! came along. 

"I think, it was maybe a year after Astonished! started, my daughter was getting married, and I dropped Kennen off for Astonished! and just sort of had this 'Oh my gosh!' This was it, this was my dream."

"I dreamt that I would be able to go and run to buy shoes for my daughters' wedding, and Kennen would doing something that meant a lot to her, and she's OK. I don't have to worry about her."