Dwarfism Awareness Month

It is Dwarfism Awareness Month and Nick is here to talk a little bit about it. Nick, welcome into First at Four. Thank you for having me. Yeah, pleasure to have you today. Talk a little bit about why it's important to be aware. I was unaware that it is Dwarfism Awareness Month. Breast cancer gets so much attention, but this is important as well. Yes, and so is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, by the way, but Dwarfism Awareness Month, just like you said, doesn't get much attention, you know? You see a little person on the street and, you know, if you have the education, if you have the knowledge, you think, that's just another person, but maybe if you don't have the education, if you don't really know that much, you might think other thoughts. You might think, well, that's weird, that's interesting, that's because you don't see it every day. Right. You know? When we strive to be just like you, you know, we can still do everything you can, maybe just in a different way. Right, exactly. What would you say about the Dwarfism community here in Erie? It is really strong. You know, there's quite a few of us, there's quite a few people. We also, we focus more on, like, the state of Pennsylvania. We have a local chapter in Pennsylvania, and then we have regions with the Little People of America, which ours is Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. We have regional conferences every year, and then we have a big national conference every year. That's the entire United States, where we get together, and it could be areas like Dallas, it could be San Diego, it could be Washington, D.C., and they're really fun times. What do you think is the biggest challenge that your community faces? I think it's just the awareness. It's just the fact of getting people to understand we're just like you, you know? I can still drive like you. I have pedal extenders to help me reach the brakes, so I'm not right here on the steering wheel. I, you know, my wife is a little person. She has achondroplasia, which is the most common form of Dwarfism. I have hypochondroplasia. She can still do everything. She's a phenomenal cook. She has a full-time job. I have a full-time job. You know? We're just like you. Just regular people, obviously. We still have feelings, emotions. We still, you know, we still breathe. You name it. Let's talk terminology. Yes. What is the correct terminology, and what are words that we've moved away from now? So the three correct terminologies are number one, little person, number two, Dwarf, for Dwarfism, or number three, my name. Yeah, your name. That's a good one right there. Exactly. You know, one right of my term against Trump is the M word, which is midget. It was really coined during the P.T. Barnum era. Yes. So, and really just for me personally, it's been used in such negative ways. It's never been used as in like a way of like, hey, that's just how you've been referred to your whole life. It's really been a look at that, look at that situation. Yeah. So it kind of sounds like you're saying step right up, step right up. Right, right. How do you handle that? Especially with children. I mean, children can't help it. No, no, no. You know? And they're curious. So how do you handle these situations when you run into them in public? When you run into them in public, it depends on the situation. If it's someone who's willing to learn, you know, instantly, like if you were to use the M word in public and you were to, and I would correct you, and you were like, I'm sorry, I didn't know. That's someone who wants to learn compared to the person who's just continually laughing as you're saying, hey, that's hurtful. Right, right. With children, it's different because you're right, they don't know, but that's the perfect time to educate. I would love to start a program one day to get people with dwarfism into schools to teach them young. So that way they grow up knowing, hey, I met someone like that. You know, I know what that's like. I know that person is just like me. And they continue throughout that. I think that's so important that people are willing to learn about it. Talk a little bit about what you brought with you. A couple of really important things. So I have here some legislation. The state of Pennsylvania recognizes October as Dwarfism Awareness Month. Thank you to my good friend, Ryan Bazzaro. We have here HR 497. This is like the first child, you know, this is my, this is like my golden child. Your baby. It's HR 497. It recognizes the month of October in Pennsylvania as Dwarfism Awareness Month. And then after 2020, they had to go to citations. So this is the most recent one, citing again that October is Dwarfism Awareness Month here in Pennsylvania. And where can folks learn more about dwarfism and the local community? Yes, you can learn more about dwarfism through LPA online, Little People of America online. You can look through their Facebook page, Little People of America. I personally make it a goal every day for the 31 days to really make it like spread facts, spread awareness on my personal Facebook page. So you, if you're friends with me on Facebook or you see, you know, like any relatives sharing anything like that, just day to day facts. Yeah. Terrific. Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming in today. Thank you for having me. Yes. And enjoy the rest of this month. Keep spreading the word. Thank you for helping me spread awareness. Thank you.