Katrina Simpkins

 Abby Stone and I help Winter with her Physical Therapy session with her prostheses.

Thanks Abby!

Winter The Dolphin That Could

The documentry that Clearwater Marine Aquarium made about Winter's rescue, rehab, and inspiration.

I am the little girl in pink.

My horse Jade and I rode for The Shriner's Horseshow in Columbia City IN. We won 3rd place in our class. 

and give a donation in my honor. Together we can help other kids to walk, ride, and jump. Thanks!

 Visit Winter at

 Clearwater Marine Aquaium

Clearwater, Florida

SeeWinter.com

 Who am I?

I am 13 years old. I have 3 sisters and live with both of my parents. I love animals and have 2 dogs, 2 birds, 2 tortioses, and a guenia pig. I also take horse riding lessons and have trained dolphins. I love to jump, jump rope, tampoline, you name it I love to jump. I will try and have tried many things in my life already and encourage others to do the same.

 

What is so special about jumping and trying things. Well I was born with a birth defect called PFFD. That simply means that I had no hip or top of my femur which put my foot at the height of my other knee. I had a surgery called the Van Ness Rotationplasty which allows my ankle to work as a joint in my prosthesis. That's right I said my prosthesis.

I do everything with my prosthesis on, gymnastics, modeling, horse riding, jumping on my trampoline, and I have tried skateboarding. The main thing I want other people to know is that you can do whatever you set your mind to, whether you are special or normal.

 

Winter the dolphin, from Dolphin Tale is my BFF.  We met when she was just 2 years old and I was 8 years old. It was love at first sight. She understood how I was feeling at that time. I know that sounds strange but she knew what it meant to be different. We were both just trying to fit in, be normal. But something wonderful happened, we became partners encouraging other people who are special like us to be all they can be.

We inspired babies and elderly, veterans and warriors, kids and adults, from around the world. They all came to visit Clearwater Marine Aquarium either in person or on the webcams. It was an exciting time for us.

I got to see how other kids like me felt about their prostheses. We all just needed someone to identify with, someone who said nothing, someone who just listened, someone who understood what it meant to be different, and that someone became Winter. All the other kids said the samething I did, "She's just like me". She is like full of life and beautiful.

After meeting Winter I became more confident and started to try everything. The first thing I did was Jumprope. Of course I had never done this before but that was ok because now I knew that I could do anything.

 

You can find out more about me by reading my book:

Katrina and Winter:

Partners in Courage.

 

 

 Nancy Stewart Books 

Website:  http://www.nancystewartbooks.com

Blog:  http://www.nancystewartbooks.blogspot.com

Member:  http://www.scbwi.org  (Published and Listed)

Available Now:

One Pelican at a Time:  A Story of the Gulf Spill  18 Weeks on Amazon Bestseller in Children's Books, Amazon Hot New Releases, Amazon Most Wished for in Children's Books  (Guardian Angel Publishing)

Sea Turtle Summer  (Guardian Angel Publishing, December, 2011)

Forthcoming:

Bella Saves the Beach  (Guardian Angel Publishing, Winter, 2012)

Katrina and Winter:  Partners in Courage  (Guardian Angel Publishing, January, 2012

Mystery at Manatee Key  (Guardian Angel Publishing, October, 2012)

 Thank you for visiting come back soon!