menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

A ukulele pick. A paintbrush. Now a steering wheel. For nearly a decade, Shriners Children’s has helped Shelby pursue what’s next.

13 0
18.08.2026

Every day, 15-year-old Shelby discovers what she’s capable of. 

Some days, that discovery happens as she’s racing across a soccer field. Other days, she’s getting behind the wheel and learning to drive. Every experience teaches Shelby something new about herself, and helps her find new ways to navigate the world as a person with a limb difference. She’s learned that success, no matter the challenge, takes grit, creativity, and a lot of hard work. 

Now a confident, self-assured teenager, there’s nothing that Shelby isn’t willing to try. And this is how she finds herself crouched over a large canvas laid out on the floor of her living room. Carefully, Shelby uses her prosthetic arm to dot a cluster of blue flowers on the lower half of the painting. Using swirls of green, brown, blue, and black, Shelby has managed to create a striking landscape scene of prairie grass and mountains, set against the backdrop of a bright blue sky. The painting represents her journey perfectly: Something created through her own hard work and talent, with the support of her Shriners Children’s™ care team, who created her first prosthetic arm in 2017 and have been by her side for years. 

“It........

© Upworthy