To the elementary school children of Viverone he told his stories of sport, courage and disability, with the help of a monkey with a big heart and contagious joy. Fantastic events that intersect with an even more incredible reality, the daily one of the author. To whom the proposal to try cycling also came from Alex Zanardi: for five years he insisted so much that in the end Alessia Refolo, 31, from Ivrea, Paralympic champion, tried and immediately reached great goals.
Having entered the Obiettivo 3 project promoted by Zanardi himself, after only a year she managed to win gold and the tricolor jersey at the Italian road, road and time trial championships. Trophies that are added to the gold in the Paralympic World Championships in sport climbing in 2014, to the gold in the Paralympic European water skiing, slalom category, in 2018 and again to the gold in the Italian Paralympic Championships in athletics, specialty 400 meters, this year.
A wonderful story that of Alessia, who survived a neuroblastoma as a child even if the drugs have irreparably damaged her sight. This did not affect his desire to live, study and play sports. She graduated in accounting, found a job in a bank, lives alone and practices a lot of physical activity. From her, from her tenacity, the project «If you want you can» was born, which was translated into two books, the last of which was published by Heller «Heart and courage. If you want you can “is aimed precisely at children. In the pages of the illustrated volume the little monkey Luce «motivates her special friends to face their small and big challenges with courage – writes Alessia Refolo -. The little girl in a wheelchair and the blind one, the deaf child and the one with prosthetic legs, the twins without an arm are the fantastic characters of this book aimed at elementary school children, with the primary purpose of demonstrating in a simple way that everything is possible in life if you really believe in it. ”
Much attention is also paid to the theme of inclusion, “to teach from childhood that diversity must unite and be seized as opportunities to open our horizons so that we can all learn from everyone”.