LI F E O N WH E ELS
JUST KEEP WHEELING
CODI MENDENHALL DOESN’T LET CEREBRAL PALSY SLOW HER DOWN
Written by: KARA BISHOP
When Codi Mendenhall was 5 years old, she steered her power chair up to her classmate who had a difficult time behaving the day before. She handed him a stuffed animal gesturing to him to hang on to this buddy next time he was feeling angry. “Yet, according to the school system, children like Codi who are considered nonverbal aren’t smart nor do they have personalities,” Mendenhall’s mother, Jennifer, said. One of Jennifer’s friends encountered a teacher who was surprised that she wanted her third-grade daughter to learn how to read. Codi’s vocal response was simply, “Duh!”
Codi Mendenhall on the tandem E-trike at Colorado National Monument. In May 2020, she rode over the monument, which was about 23 miles.
train children in basic coding skills. “The Code Ninjas teacher turned off his computer with his toe the other day,” Codi added. “It was really funny.” Codi was around a year old when she got her first walker, but it was her power wheelchair provided by Numotion that made the biggest impression. “We put her in that power chair and she just immediately started driving it around — I’ll never forget how that felt to watch her be able to do something on her own,” Jennifer said. “My mom was worried at first that going the wheelchair route meant surrendering to her disability, but I knew it was the very thing she needed. The chair would allow her to be her own person.” And she has been. Codi does not know limits, nor does she limit others. Both Codi and Jennifer are active in many coalitions involving disabilities — Codi even designed a 100-room hotel where every room is
On June 30, 2006, after a traumatic labor and delivery, Jon and Jennifer Mendenhall gave birth to Codi in Palmer, Alaska. She was quickly transferred to Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage where she would spend the next 41 days in the neonatal intensive care unit. While there, she would be diagnosed with cerebral palsy, often experiencing intense seizures. “We had interventions from the beginning,” Jennifer recalled. Codi’s pediatrician was immediately joined by speech, occupational and physical therapists, as well as team members for her gastrostomy tube that was placed shortly after birth. Cerebral palsy indicates brain injury causing the body to shut down functions it deems unimportant for survival such as walking and speaking. Seizures and cerebral palsy often go hand in hand, and Codi had some severe episodes in her first few days. Sleeping was hard to come by for her, so nurses would walk with Codi all night to comfort her as she seized. The beginning looked bleak, but Codi would soon show her fighting spirit and be discharged from the hospital.
Codi Mendenhall getting a hit in Challenger Baseball this week! Her team is the Vibes!
3,000 MILES TO INDEPENDENCE A baby with a feeding tube and pump was not easy in the rugged and sparse terrain of Alaska, so Codi and her family relocated more than 3,000 miles away to Grand Junction, Colorado, where Jennifer’s parents live. Residing in the Western Slope has afforded Codi many opportunities for thrill seeking. With the desert in her backyard and a ski lodge 30 miles away, she never wants for anything to do. At 15, she has been horseback riding, zip lining, skiing, snowboarding and even biked 23 miles over the Colorado National Monument. She also plays baseball and learns computer coding through Code Ninjas, a franchise outreach program whose centers
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Codi Mendenhall loves to get big air on her bi ski and snowboard at Powderhorn Ski resort with Colorado DiscoverAbility.
