Reaching For You / Emilia Stachl

“Reaching For You” graphite, ink, and original text by Emilia Stachl

isn’t one of those people.”

Outside of running, McKinney has a passion for art and design as well. “When I grow up my dream job is to be a video game designer,” he said. “I love to draw as well.”

Despite McKinney’s obstacles, he continues to persevere and embrace his passions.

“Tony has decided that he wants to do several different things for people with disabilities and vision loss. . .” Lipscomb said. “He also wants to create games that are more descriptive in detail for people with visual impairments, so all of his characters have a lot of details that can be described when playing the games for the people who have disabilities.”

Despite all that McKinney has had to overcome, he is always looking out for others.

“Tony is the kindest, most fun loving, creative, talkative, spiritual and friendly young man anyone could ever have the blessing of getting to know,” she said. “He is so strong and resilient he can bounce back from everything that is thrown at him. He always has a smile on his face that will brighten anyone’s day.”

She’s clearly proud of her son. “His eyes are so full of happiness and joy when he looks at you it is like a star shining bright.”

McKinney has dreamed of starting an all-inclusive summer camp for kids with vision loss and disabilities.

“Kids can go to the same camps as kids without those challenges so that people will know how to interact with people that are not like them across the board,” Lipscomb said. “It will allow for people to see that just because you may not be able to see like they do, it does not mean that you can’t do the things that they do. It just may have to be done differently.”

Despite the loss of his vision, Tony McKinney makes a valiant effort to see the world in a different way, and thanks to his courage, the rest of us can, too. f