MMI physical therapist travels to Washington, D.C.

Jenny Kronberg-Haire, a physical therapist at UNMC’s Munroe-Meyer Institute traveled to Washington with 11 students with disabilities from Burke High School. Pictured with her is 18-year-old Jack Futrell, who was featured in a May Omaha World-Herald article about the trip. Click here to read that story.

Cerebral palsy. Muscular dystrophy. Spina bifida. Their disabilities were numerous, but they had only one goal: to advocate on behalf of themselves.

Eleven students from Burke High School made their way to Washington last month to lobby local senators, educate government officials and see the sights of the nation’s capital, including the White House, the Washington Monument and Arlington National Cemetery.

Traveling along were parents, teacher Marilyn Hinkle, who organized the trip and Jenny Kronberg-Haire, a physical therapist at UNMC’s Munroe-Meyer Institute contracted by Omaha Public Schools.

The students, dubbed “Rockstars,” held elections and established their own student government over the past school year. They also learned about local, state and national government. To cap off the year-long lesson, the students helped to raise $27,000 for a six-day trip to Washington.

While in D.C., they sang God Bless America in sign language to Sens. Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson and handed the two Nebraskans packets about advocacy, which read:

The students, teachers and parents visited the White House, the Washington Monument and Arlington National Cemetery while on their six day trip to advocate for people with disabilities. More than $27,000 was raised for the students and others to go on the trip.

“As a concerned constituent and Medicare beneficiary, I am writing to ask you to stop the Medicare therapy cap from going into effect on July 1, 2008 and to cosponsor the Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act of 2007. This bill would repeal the arbitrary financial limits or ‘therapy caps’ on my Medicare outpatient physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech language pathology services.”

The Senate has passed several moratoriums on the enforcement of the therapy caps, but a more long term solution is needed to prevent beneficiaries from being forced to forgo care or face paying 100 percent of the cost of additional treatment out-of-pocket when coverage expires, Kronberg-Haire said.

“It made a difference to be there in person and put a face on who those bills would affect,” she said.

Kronberg-Haire, whose primary role at Burke is wheelchair access and assistance around school, was in charge of providing the airlines with information about the wheelchairs and making sure the accommodations for students with disabilities lined up with regulations.

“I learned a lot about caring for kids with disabilities and that it takes a lot of work and time,” said Kronberg-Haire, a 2006 UNMC physical therapy alum. “You have to think about all the little things.”

And it was the little things that were the best part about the trip, like talking in the hallway at the hotel late at night. For most of the students, it was their first time staying in a hotel.

“The kids had a great time and they all got something different out of the trip,” Kronberg-Haire said, “which made it all worthwhile.”