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From serving milkshakes to “ BECOMING RentABLE ” Lorraine Woodward is blazing new trails Written by St . Cloud State University student : Rebecca Petersen
Lorraine Woodward was born with Muscular Dystrophy and at the age of six , she and her family moved from her birthplace in Fresno , California with her parents , brother , and pets to begin a new life in Conway , Arkansas . Key to her formative years , Woodward had an active childhood . She was Vice President of her high school student body , involved in multiple clubs and was even the school ’ s mascot , a Conway Wampus Cat , a six-legged cat , four legs to fight with all my might and two to shoot around like the speed of light .
Lorraine did not travel far from home to go to college , located in Conway she attended Hendrix College , studied pre-law , and got her degree in
Who is Lorraine Woodward ?
Sociology . Lorraine remembers wanting to make changes for people with disabilities early on . In 1980 , she wheeled herself into the President ’ s Hall at Hendrix to personally greet each board member from the bottom of the stairs to draw attention to the institution ’ s lack of accessibility . She has not stopped her advocacy work since then .
While Lorraine had many smaller jobs growing up , she was excited to become a Congressional staffer after college for Congressman Ed Bethune ( Arkansas ). She then moved on to the marketing department at Cumberland Hospital where she later created the National Barrier Awareness Foundation . After her experience on