Barbara loves music. She would use the Holman Prize to help people engage with music and find the magic in it.
Canada
Pauline Dowell
Pauline and her guide dog live on a sailboat on the Boston Harbor. She would use the Holman Prize to form an all-female crew of blind sailors to compete in the 2020 Newport to Bermuda Race.
Note: Originally, Pauline was going to complete in the Marblehead to Halifax Race. Since this will will not take place again until 2021, she has changed it to the more difficult Newport to Bermuda Race.
Gina Huylenbroeck
Gina enjoys roller coasters and zip lining. With the Holman Prize, she would build a program to take to schools, to educate children about disabilities, and how they can talk and work with their peers who have disabilities.
Jesse Dufton
Jesse is an experienced winter mountaineer. With the Holman Prize, he would lead an expedition on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. If successful in ascending a peak that hasn’t been climbed, he would propose the peak be named “Blind Ambition”.
Pamela Thistle
Pamela, an extreme sports enthusiast, enjoys many sports but her favorites are mountain biking and snowboarding. She would use the Holman Prize to train to heli-snowboard off the mountains of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.
Nancy Minger
Nancy, an artist and trained holistic healer, would use the Holman Prize to document and photograph a series of intricate, hundred year-old totem poles in Alaska and British Columbia.
Doug Milligan
Doug, a poet and author, would use the Holman Prize to lead a small group of DeafBlind participants to Mexico City, where they would savor the city’s exuberant culture and history.
Zahra B. Majid
Zahra, who is currently pursuing a degree in media studies, would use the Holman Prize to travel and meet with visually impaired students around the world, in countries including Canada, the United States and Scandinavia, in order to gather a wealth of information for a database project she is calling VIAdvisor.
Johnny Tai
Johnny, a Martial Arts trainer, would use the Holman Prize to provide martial arts courses for the blind and visually-impaired community in his native Taiwan.
Mary Mammoliti
Mary, a food blogger, would use the Holman Prize to compile a cookbook featuring recipes from blind and low-vision home cooks, chefs and foodies.