W.R. Myers graduate raising awareness about CP

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
editor@tabertimes.com

Taberite Abigail Morgan has cerebral palsy (CP). But she doesn’t let the disability define her, and through awareness is determined to make sure it doesn’t define her in the eyes of others.

Throughout the month of March, which was Cerebral Palsy Awareness Month, Morgan was focused on doing different events to spread awareness throughout the community, which included visiting three different schools, doing presentations, and lunchtime stands to help illuminate her disability.

“So I found that I love to bring awareness and let people know that I’m disabled, but that I can still do cool things,” said Morgan, who graduated from W.R. Myers in 2024. “So this month (March), I decided to go into some schools that I knew people in to see how the public speaking thing would go for me. I did one at D.A. Ferguson and then I chatted with a couple classes at W.R. Myers, and that went amazing. Everyone was super nice and super kind. I did a couple tables where I handed out green candy and stickers and the wristbands and everything else. And I found that it was super cool to see how intrigued the kids were. I don’t know – when I was there, I probably wouldn’t be – but they were so engaged, they would come up to me and ask me questions, and I just found that so awesome.”

“And then I did a pop-up at Coulee Cafe for my little clothing business. And that went so good, many people came to support. So that was awesome. Oh, and I went to talk to my sister’s class in Barnwell as well.”

In broad terms, cerebral palsy is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors.

What you might see on the surface, says Morgan, is only the disability – people often miss the real person inside.

“I was hoping just to break the stigma around disability, because I feel like there’s such a negative, ‘oh, you’re disabled’. I really wanted to show that, yes, I’m disabled, but I can still do things. I have a social media page called the Green Butterfly where I share what my life is like with CP. And the big thing, I always say that disability doesn’t define you, and so I really wanted to show that this moment, to show people that, yes, I’m disabled, but there’s way more to me than that, and that’s the case with everyone who is disabled.”

That’s why Morgan considers raising awareness about CP to be so important.

“I do, and disability in general, because I feel like the first step to a more inclusive society is people just knowing more and educating themselves.”

Morgan’s business, the Green Butterfly – a CP awareness, clothing and merchandise online shop – is a big part of the message she is trying to spread. 

“The Green Butterfly (Merchandise) – I started it in October 2024 – it’s just a small little thing I started to kind of help raise awareness to CP. All of our things have CP awareness in some way written on them, because I feel like with me, I find the more I see something, the more normal it becomes. So I wanted to put something out there that was cute and comfortable but still had a really important message. And it was actually my dad – my dad was, like, why don’t you try this? Because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was supposed to go to school, but I wasn’t really sure what the future held for me. And they were, like, ‘just try it’. So I looked into some ideas, I did a couple sketches, and then Moonlight Graphics helped me bring it to life, in essence. It came out October 6, which is World CP Day, and it has been doing pretty good so far.”

Life for those living with a disability can be discouraging when there are so many barriers to overcome, and roadblocks to success, that might not mar the path of those without a disability like CP. 

“I feel like living with CP, it’s hard and it’s easy at the same time. I don’t want people to feel sorry for me, because I don’t feel sorry for me, right?” said Morgan. “I have a great life – my parents, especially my mom, has put in so much time to get me to where I am today, like all the physio to take me to all the different appointments, but I also would say that it is hard sometimes, because I feel like there’s a lot of barriers put in place that shouldn’t be there, and I wish they weren’t there. Especially in education, I feel like there’s so many hoops to jump through, even to continue post-secondary education, it was so much hard work, and I feel like it shouldn’t be, because the focus on disabled doesn’t mean I don’t want to get an education. It doesn’t mean I can’t, because physical disability doesn’t mean intellectual disability, right? So I really wish that people would see that I can do things and that I can talk for myself, because a lot of people don’t. They just talk to my parents or my dad, and they won’t have a conversation with me. I wish people would appreciate that physical disability has nothing to do with how smart I am, because I graduated high school with a very good grade, and I’m disabled. I did other things perfectly fine. I feel like not everyone maybe sees that – they assume, ‘Oh, she’s disabled, so she’s not smart either’ and that’s not the case for so many people.”

With her dream of a post-secondary journey, Morgan is enthusiastic about her new school – and the fact that she is doing it all on her own.

“I recently started at BYU Pathway, which is an online school, and doing my social media marketing degree. I’m so happy now, this online school is working great for me, because for the first time ever, I’m doing it all myself. When I did high school and elementary school, I always had an aide to help me  because I couldn’t walk independently. But this I’m doing all myself. And I was talking to my dad the other day, and I was just like, ‘I’ve never been able to say that I have 100 per cent done this, but now I can, and it’s so cool’. So my plan is to continue doing it online right now, because it’s working great. That’s kind of the plan for the future.”