Essay winner’s words resonate on World Cerebral Palsy Day

World Cerebral Palsy Day is a good time to spread Sadie Chamberlain’s message.

Not that Chamberlain needs much help in getting the word out, though. The Vermont teen won the national grand prize (grades 7-9) from among more than 17,000 entries around the U.S. and Canada in the Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life Essay Contest, run by Major League Baseball and Scholastic, and she will be honored later this month at the 112th World Series.

Chamberlain’s inspirational message to others is to never let a disability define you and to never turn away from a barrier that seems at times insurmountable. It is a message she spreads in the most unique and profound ways.

“When I visited her in Vermont, she talked about the importance of getting her voice out there, because she feels like she does represent a young woman with cerebral palsy who has not allowed her disability to affect her growth as a person,” said Sharon Robinson, daughter of Jackie Robinson and MLB’s educational programming consultant and author.

“When kids were teasing her and pushing her aside because she was walking slowly up the steps, she said, ‘I’ve got to do something about this.’ She went to a teacher and got permission to talk to the group. That changed the way kids saw her, their perception of her. They had sort of assumed that since she walked slowly, she wasn’t smart. They learned that was just judging somebody from the outside, and it was getting them to understand that a physical challenge is not a definition of who you are.”

Chamberlain is a high school …

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