BRIGHAM CITY -- If you live in Brigham City, you probably have seen Sharon Ross, a bundle of energy in a motorized wheelchair, running around town, making it a better place to live.
Ross describes her life as a miracle in the making, and in recent days, another miracle has come her way.
In the 1990s, through the help of Utah's vocational rehabilitation services, Ross received training from Profitable Hobbies in Benjamin, Utah, to learn power carving, which includes gunstock carving, eggshell carving, woodcarving and sandblasting, and business planning.
"I have actually been able to surprise myself at times with this new graphic art thing I've started," Ross said.
Ross also sat on former Gov. Jon Huntsman's Council for People With Disabilities. In 2008, she made Huntsman a wooden plaque with her story carved on it and presented it to him as a thank you for implementing vocational rehabilitation in the state.
Donald Uchida, executive director of the state Office of Rehabilitation, contacted Ross and said he had seen the plaque she made for Huntsman, and asked if she would make thank-you plaques for the Vocational Rehabilitation division.
"So now I've got a job. Instead of a happy camper, I am a happy carver," Ross said.
Ross will present one of her hand-carved plaques to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on Aug. 19, as this is the 20th year of the American Disabilities Act, which Hatch helped implement.
She also has orders for 20 more thank-you plaques to be given in October.
Ross was born with cerebral palsy, but has never let that limit her. In fact her motto is, "Be all that I can be."
In addition to serving on the Governor's Council for People With Disabilities, she served on former Brigham City Mayor Lou Ann Christensen's Mayor's Council, which helped establish The Lift, a small van that takes the elderly, homebound and those with disabilities shopping and to doctor appointments.
"It's the nicest thing, it really is. It has a big ridership," Ross said.
She also organized a day when she took city officials and businessman around town in wheelchairs so they could see the city through the eyes of a person in a wheelchair.
"They thought it was going to be an easy thing, but it wasn't. They came away with a new realization for what it is like for us in wheelchairs. Since then I have seen lots and lots of people in wheelchairs around town. The sidewalks are fixed better," Ross said.
Before moving to Brigham City, Ross worked as a teacher's aide with her husband in Roosevelt on the Ute Indian Reservation.
"Even though I did get a rough start in life, from then on, my life has been a miracle in the making. I have a wonderful, caring and loyal husband," Ross said. "Together we recently celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary. For what I didn't get in a physical body, God sure made up for everything I enjoyed in the living department."
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