By Ewan Henrie

The Somerville Commission for Persons with Disabilities held a virtual meeting on September 9 to discuss its agenda for the upcoming month.

The first item up for discussion was the iCan Bike Program. It is a five-day summer camp with the goal of teaching people with disabilities to ride a two-wheel bicycle independently. Holly Simione, the leader of the commission, praised the program. She said, “We contributed to the purchasing of these modified bikes.” She also noted that the cost was under $2,000 to send 12 kids to the program.

The next topic of discussion was the potential of an inclusive dance class for people of all ages. It would be a 45-minute class presented strictly on Zoom. The instructor, Kaylee Bays, uses a wheelchair and has done backup dancing for Lady Gaga and was the first-ever disabled dancer to be featured in a Disney live production. The commission voted on how much to pay Kaylee for the classes, and settled on $500.

Finally, the commission voted to pay $5,000 dollars for the scholarship of 10 students in high school as part of the Mary Houghton Memorial Scholarship. This matches the total that was given to students last year.