Ready to try something new? Have fun and help others during the Variety of Firsts campaign

Meet Penelope: She’s a high school sophomore. At 16, she’s the oldest of four kids in a family that loves visiting North Park. Throughout Penelope’s life, she and her family have spent lots of time enjoying outdoor activities. But for most of Penelope’s life, those park visits have looked a bit different for her than for her siblings.

Physical and developmental challenges make coordination and athletic effort difficult for her. So after her siblings learned to ride their bicycles, the family’s routine on sunny days sometimes looked like this: The younger kids would ride their bikes at North Park, while Penelope stayed at a playground waiting for their return.

Her mother, Natalie Beneviat, worried about the experiences — and the exercise — that Penelope was missing out on. But learning to ride a standard bicycle wasn’t possible.

“I was looking around at that time for an activity,” Beneviat says of the moment she discovered the adaptive bikes provided to families by Variety, the Children’s Charity. 

Variety helps families get a range of adaptive resources, including iPads for communication assistance, which can be life-changing. Beneviat applied for a bike for Penelope and she received one. Soon, she was able to have the milestone experience of her first bike ride around North Park. It was an incredible “first” for her — taking in the breeze and the sunshine as she traversed the same paths her siblings have always ridden, finally riding beside them.

Every child deserves as many joyful “firsts” as possible. Adaptive technology like bikes and communication devices can make those wonderful “firsts” happen — and that’s the idea behind Variety’s new Variety of Firsts campaign. 

Trying something new is the best feeling for a kid, says Variety’s CEO, Tom Baker. But for some kids, a first word or first bike ride or first chance to join in doesn’t come easy. It takes courage, support, and love to make them possible. 

The year-long Variety of Firsts campaign aims to create more firsts for kids with disabilities, while encouraging us all to try something new. Getting involved is simple: 

• Pick something that you or your whole family will try for the first time and commit to doing it.
• Experience that “first” and capture it with photos and/or video.
• Share your “first” on social media with the tag #VarietyofFirsts and encourage others to spark their own first.
• Celebrate your “first” by donating any amount you wish to the Variety of Firsts campaign, knowing that your contribution — no matter how small — helps Variety create more firsts for more kids.

“We hope this campaign sparks a movement of people trying new things for the first time,” Baker says. “Participation is easy and fun, so we hope individuals, groups, companies and more will commit to Variety of Firsts — all to help children with disabilities experience new firsts in their own lives.”