Finding Her Way Back: Kasondra’s Story

“If I see a coin that’s tails-up, I’ll flip it. Heads-up means keep your head up. And if someone finds it, I hope it’s a sign they needed.”

Kasondra does this often—pausing her power chair, bending down carefully, and turning a small, ordinary coin into a quiet message of encouragement. If it’s already heads-up, she pockets it herself. If it’s not, she leaves it behind for someone else.

This is just a snapshot of Kasondra offering others the encouragement she once struggled to offer herself.

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A Long Road Back

She’s a suicide attempt survivor who moves between wheelchair use and ambulation.

“My injury was caused by myself,” she says. That belief shaped the years that followed, blurring the line between her mental health and her physical recovery. It made showing up to community spaces feel complicated and heavy.

When she was twenty, she survived her suicide attempt and was airlifted to Harborview with multiple injuries. She tried attending a spinal cord injury group early on, but most people there had been injured through accidents or unexpected circumstances. Her story felt different, and that difference became a quiet barrier.

So while she slowly opened up in other parts of her life, she kept her distance from SCI groups and mobility disability spaces. That began to change in April 2024.

A Chance Meeting

Kasondra was leaving an event at TACID when she passed by The Here & Now Project table and ran into cofounder Kenny Salvini.

“How do I not know you?” Kenny asked.“I don’t know you either,” she laughed.

Only then did she realize she was already in the H&NP Facebook group—she’d come across the page at some point, joined, and hadn’t been active.

Before showing up in person, she joined a virtual meeting where Kenny connected her with cofounder Ian Mackay. Her first in-person experience came this year at the 5K for Today at Rogers High School, which she attended by herself—her first time participating in a 5K.

“I almost gave up on getting out and meeting people,” she admits. But she went anyway.

Showing Up, Even When It’s Hard

“The 5K was overwhelming—but not in a bad way,” she says. She worried about her wheelchair battery and whether she could keep pace.

But she kept showing up. As her involvement grew, so did her relationships. Through Kenny and the extended Here & Now community, she eventually met Ian—and later, Ian’s mom. During Sea to Sound, an adaptive ride Ian helps organize, Ian’s mom offered her a two-hour ride home. On that drive, she said something that stayed with Kasondra: “If you can get here, we’ve got you. Tell us what you need. Once you show up, we’ll make sure you’re supported.”

That simple act of care—no judgment, no qualifying questions—nudged Kasondra closer to community again.

Learning She Belongs

As she continued to show up, Kasondra joined several Zoom calls and attended the Here & Now Project Resource Expo.

“I accept myself more now. Even if no one else shares my exact story, we still relate physically. We still understand what it’s like to live with a spinal cord injury or mobility disability.”

At the Resource Expo, someone spoke openly about their depression—a moment that stayed with her. She’s had honest conversations with Kenny too—the kind that make space for the parts of her life that aren’t always visible.

Being around others changed her relationship to her injury—and to the pressure she used to put on herself.

“I tend to overthink everything. So I’m trying to just jump in now and not be so uptight.”

Part of what makes that feel possible is watching others: “Seeing people show up in whatever way they can—it reminds me I’m not alone. We’re all figuring it out, and somehow everyone makes it work.”

When she was newly injured, she sat through classes and groups without absorbing anything. “I didn’t think it applied to me,” she says. “Now? It does.” These days, she’s learning how to maintain her body long-term—things she didn’t have the emotional space to learn back then.

A Second Chance

Kasondra talks a lot about wanting to “do good.”

“I got my second chance,” she says. “Life is already too serious. I want to uplift people, make them laugh.”

She dreams of becoming a motivational speaker and an author. In the meantime, she’ll keep flipping coins to heads—a quiet habit that reflects the perspective she’s grown into.

What Community Makes Possible

When asked what she’d want people to know about supporting The Here & Now Project, Kasondra speaks from her lived experience:

“Your support turns into motivation. Into someone finally feeling confident enough to leave the house. For some, it’s feeling ‘whole’ again. That’s what it did for me.”

Support looks like:

• A 5K where someone decides—for the first time in years—to go on their own and ends up staying because they’re treated with respect.

• Zoom meetings people join in whatever way works for them.

• Conversations that make space for everything—mental health, daily challenges, and the realities of life with a mobility disability.

• A ride home from someone who genuinely wants you to feel included.

The community she’s found here holds a wide range of experiences: people born with mobility disabilities, people whose lives changed unexpectedly from injury or illness, people whose injuries came from self-harm or medical events, and everything in between. No one’s story is too similar or too different to belong.

And for someone who might still be in the dark place she once knew, she offers one message: “You’re not alone. You don’t know it until it sinks in—but it’s true.”

Sometimes all it takes is showing up once for that truth to click.

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Coming Alongside Journeys Like Kasondra’s

Giving Tuesday is coming up on December 3—a global day of generosity that takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It's a chance to support the communities and values you care about as the year comes to a close.

This year, we’re inviting you to come alongside journeys like Kasondra’s by supporting The Here & Now Project on Giving Tuesday.

Your gift helps sustain the spaces where people can choose to show up in ways that work for them—spaces rooted in peer connection, shared experiences, and judgment-free conversation. It keeps our programs accessible, our outreach consistent, and our community grounded in the voices of people living with spinal cord injuries and mobility disabilities.

Kasondra’s story is her own—full of agency, humor, hesitation, growth, and choice. And she’s one of many. Across our community, people are navigating life with mobility disabilities, managing mental health alongside physical realities, rebuilding relationships, redefining identity, and figuring out what connection looks like at their own pace.

Your Giving Tuesday gift helps ensure those spaces continue to exist—and remain welcoming, accessible, and grounded in peer support.

Mark your calendars for December 3 and join us in giving here.

Whether it’s $15, $50, or $150, you’re helping sustain a community where people living with spinal cord injuries and mobility disabilities can come as they are—no explanations, no judgment—and define what belonging looks like for themselves.

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Ready to learn more? Visit our Events page to see upcoming meetings and community events (including our latest open recruitment for Here Now Next!)