What: Ben’s Bells promotes kindness and community involvement. Each week a person who makes Tucson better is “belled.”
Last week’s recipient: Mia Hansen
Nominator: Michele Butts and Minday Flannery
Why: Hansen is the director and founder of Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports, which was founded with the goal of creating opportunities for individuals with disabilities to engage in recreational and competitive sports and to provide peer mentoring to newly injured individuals. However, during the pandemic, with wheelchair sports unable to meet, Hansen and SAAS had to rethink their plan. They created SAAS Cares and Project Renew as ways to stay connected and give back to the community. Mia has developed a network of partners across the city and the state to help redistribute used medical equipment to people in need, the nominators wrote. She collects donated wheelchairs and bathroom equipment, and through Project Renew, coordinates volunteers to refurbish the equipment so someone else can use it. “Mia has the energy of 10 people. She is an incredible advocate for adaptive sports in Tucson and a woman who makes the impossible, possible,” the nominators wrote.
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For more information: Go to tucne.ws/bellee to submit a name. Go to bensbells.org or call 622-1379.
