Lucky Fin Project Weekend – July 26-28, 2024

Blue background with a pink swish at the bottom and white text at the top that says "Lucky Fin Project Weekend | Troy, Michigan | July 26-28, 2024" Pink circle surrounding white icon of a clown fish inside a white frame and @ontheotherhandtherapy

I’ve learned that you can only make meaning out of your challenges by helping others through theirs
Dr. Brook Ellison, disability advocate and the first person with quadriplegia to graduate from my alma mater


I’m at the Lucky Fin Project (LFP) picnic, standing in front of a table draped with a pink tablecloth and covered with adaptive products. As I talk with a group of parents about occupational therapy for children with upper limb differences, a woman approaches. After introducing herself and her child, she tells me that she heard my talk on building a strong body at the Helping Hands Foundation Winter Outing earlier this year. Since hearing my keynote presentation, she has been thinking about ways she can teach her child to use his limb different side more and also reduce strain on his dominant side. She also has come to my table to learn about adaptive technology options for her child. I so appreciate her telling me that learning about overuse syndrome has benefitted this family.

Photo of Laura talking with parents at LFP weekend 2024. Laura stands at a table with a pink tablecloth covered with adaptive products.
Laura talking with parents at the LFP picnic
Photo of Laura talking with a parent at LFP weekend 2024. Laura stands at a table with a pink tablecloth covered with adaptive products.
Laura talking with a parent at the LFP picnic

What this parent couldn’t possibly know is why making this kind of a difference for others is so immensely important to me.

Starting in the fall of my first year in college, many of my friends volunteered for service trips to various places in the United States and abroad to assist, build, contribute, and offer service to others. Raised in a religion that requires people to give of themselves, I felt a deep longing to participate in these programs. But also by that point in my life, having tracked the ways in which I felt that accommodating my hand disability imposed a burden on others, I avoided situations which could have made more work for others. So I never even applied. 

But there was an even deeper reason behind my decision to abstain from volunteering. Sustaining significant injuries in a car accident my senior year in high school led to the onset of debilitating chronic pain and incapacity from overusing my dominant limb typical side. This made service trips throughout my college years and for years beyond completely out of reach, as I wasn’t in any condition to help anyone. 

As an adult, rediscovering my chosen profession, occupational therapy, which I had had as a child, was a miracle. It taught me ways to strengthen my body and reduce the activities that were causing overuse injuries. But maybe even more than that, it enabled me to channel my experiences with chronic pain and disability into helping others. 

All of this is why volunteering at upper limb difference weekends (which I have been fortunate to be able to do a lot, lately!), like Helping Hands, Hands to Love, Beautifully Made Commmunity, and LFP, has become such a crucially important part of my life. Simply being in the presence of so many others who have shared a similar journey in life is immensely healing. Even more so, it’s almost impossible for me to express my profound gratitude for finding an ongoing way to transform the biggest challenge of my life into something that improves others’ well being. Every time that sharing experiences, information and strategies, or collaborating with caregivers, parents, and practitioners helps someone else, I experience a sense of awe and connection that I have been searching for my entire life. 

Talking to almost 100 parents at the LFP picnic about the prevalence of overuse syndrome in upper limb different (ULD) adults and demonstrating strategies to parents to lessen the risk for our beautiful children as they grow was a huge highlight. So was being the “mitten fairy” for Anna-Maria Mountfort’s mitten company MimiTENS, which has donated thousands of pairs of waterproof winter mittens for children with upper limb differences that don’t fall off of the affected hand/arm. Here are some photos of the happy recipients:

Blue background with blue text that says, "we fitted dozens of mimiTENS mittens donated for LFP!" White text that says, "Lucky Fin Project Weekend 2024". Six photos of children wearing mimiTENS mittens. Pink circle with a photo of two pink mittens with a unicorn on each one. @ontheotherhandtherapy and @mimitens
Three smiling adults wearing a MimiTENS mitten on their limb different hand/arm
Ruth, Julie, & Kevin at LFP 2024 wearing a MimiTENS mitten on their “lucky fin” arm

I am so grateful to have discovered my unique pathway towards contributing to others: channeling my personal experiences as an adult with a congenital hand difference and my professional experiences working with children as an occupational therapist for the past 25 years into sharing information and resources with families raising children with upper limb differences. Integrating these two aspects of my life into one beautiful, integrated whole is a dream come true!

I can’t wait to see you all at next year’s Lucky Fin Project Weekend!

Many thanks!

Many thanks to Molly Stapelman & Ryan Stapelman of Lucky Fin Project for hosting another fabulous weekend with over a thousand attendees!

Also extending thanks to the many guests, parents, & volunteers who contributed their time and energy to make this weekend such a huge success!

  • Julie Sanders Keymer & Ruth Rathblott
  • OSU students Gracie Clark and Melanna Langston who endured 5 hours in the heat to assist me!
  • all of the LFP ambassadors, adults with ULD, and special guests & performers who come every year to support the children  
  • the EM13RACE family, who graciously helped me put up my tent!
  • EazyHold & MimiTENS


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© 2024. Laura Faye Clubok, MS, OTR/L, On The Other Hand Therapy

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