Angelo Suriano and his dog Cocoa

A 1986 automobile accident paralyzed Angelo Suriano from the waist down. But today the 43-year-old paraplegic, from Stockholm, N.Y., is training to be the first disabled "musher" in the famed Iditarod (Alaska) sled-dog race. Preparing for qualifying races this winter, Suriano is determined to compete in the 2005 Iditarod. The grueling 1,150-mile race from Anchorage to Nome, termed "The Last Great Race on Earth," has yet to have a disabled competitor, believes Suriano, who aims to be the first.

Former Peace Corps volunteer Christa Bucks Camacho (left)

Even as a young girl, Christa Bucks Camacho knew she wanted to be active in the world, living in other countries, absorbing other cultures, and making a positive difference. She never considered her disability (muscular dystrophy) as a barrier to living her dream. In 1996, she was a newly sworn-in urban youth volunteer with the Peace Corps, beginning to settle into her home and community in Fernando de la Mora, Paraguay.

Read about Suriano and Bucks Camacho in the March 2003 PN/Paraplegia News.