Having reached the top of Monte Salviano, David is exhausted from the effort, but enthusiastic. “For me the joelette is a lifestyle, when I’m up here I’m happy with my situation. I feel it like a second skin: it’s an empathetic and important tool, it can make people stop saying that people with disabilities “can’t”” he says. And he implies a long list of things they can’t do, such as going to the mountains, trekking or walking with friends on the seashore or along a river. “David feels a bit like my partner” says Mirko Cipollone, the young entrepreneur who made the joelette available for this walk accompanied by music and words, organized by three associations of Marsica, Ethnobrain, Mapuche and Piccole Biblioteca Marsicana. In August 2021, after participating in the ReStartApp 2020 campus and winning the first prize, Mirko – who is originally from Cese dei Marsi (Aq), at the foot of the Monte Salviano Reserve – founded Appennini for All, the first tour operator in Italy focused on accessible environmental tourism.
David’s statement is not without foundation: «In 2013 – he explains – I saw a joelette for the first time, which is a single-wheel off-road wheelchair and today represents the aid I use for people with motor disabilities, and I met David: he is from Avezzano (Aq). As part of a human rights festival that we organized in the city with the Mapuche association, of which I am the founder, we went for a walk. Once we reached the top, he asked to be left alone: what we consider banal, for him was something special and unique. My idea was born like this, thanks to David. I started to wonder how many people, like him, would like to have this experience. Then, during the pandemic, I happened to see the call for proposals from the Edoardo Garrone Foundation, and it all started.”
