Elizabeth Reinert has no trouble pointing to the defining moment in her life. It was nearly two decades ago, when as a focused but sometimes hesitant junior college student, she came across "Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters. The author describes life as being like a boat with furled sails resting safely in a harbor. The boat can never fulfill its potential unless it takes to the sea and lets the winds of destiny fill its sails.

"I realized then that I didn't want to get to the end of my life and not be in that boat, sailing wherever it takes me," says the 36-year-old community college teacher. "Yes, it's scary. Yes, it's hard. But I knew I had to face the sea of life. I decided I would never let anyone tell me I couldn't do anything because I was disabled."

Reinert's drive, attitude and compassion for others have taken her halfway around the world, helped her overcome bias and ignorance about her disease, and earned her MDA's 1998 National Personal Achievement Award.

"Elizabeth has proved how people can achieve their dreams," MDA National Chairman Jerry Lewis says. "She personifies the talents and accomplishments of people with disabilities."

Reinert was born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. It affects the peripheral nerves, resulting in weakness and atrophy of the hands and lower leg muscles.

"I didn't walk until I was 18 months old," she says. "I stumbled a lot and by the time I started elementary school I needed speech therapy. When I was 10, they knew I had learning disabilities -- a form of dyslexia -- and had trouble hearing."

Some of her teachers assumed she was mentally as well as physically challenged.

"I had a wonderful third-grade teacher, though, who helped me find ways to get around my problems," Reinert says. "By the end of third grade I was reading at a sixth-grade level."

Although there were a few kids who made fun of young Elizabeth's wobbly walking style and lack of athletic ability, most of her schoolmates were supportive.

"In baseball, I'd hit and someone else would run for me. For every bully I encountered, there would be 10 kids who would stick up for me," she recalls. Full realization of how different she was didn't come until she went to junior high school.

"I remember my very first day -- they had these big glass doors and I saw myself in the reflection," she says. "I saw how I wobbled when I walked, and I thought, 'My God -- is that what I look like?' "

In junior high she had a spurt of growth that was extremely painful.

"I was having severe aches in my hips and legs -- it was getting hard to walk. To keep from getting knocked over in the halls, I would leave class early in order to get to the next one before the bell rang and the rush in the halls began."

Reinert credits her mother for giving her a solid basis in compassion and thankfulness.

"When my mother was 16 years old, her grandmother took her to college so she'd have a chance to make something of herself," Reinert says. "By the time she was 18, she was teaching in a one-room school house. And when she was 20, World War II came along and she was in the first-ever class of women Marines. She is a wonderful person.

"Later, in Kansas City, she taught third grade and then got her master's degree and was a coordinator between the schools and parents for kids who were abused, experienced great poverty or had other problems at home. She would take me with her and I saw her intercede for those kids and make opportunities happen."

Reinert's father, a quality control officer for Ford Motor Co. in Kansas City, died of cancer when she was in junior college. The shock helped convince her to tackle the open sea of life.

"There was a chance to go to India and Sri Lanka for a month, but everyone told me I couldn't do it because I wouldn't be able to get along by myself," she recalls. "I needed to get away and try it on my own, so I took the chance. I was terrified, but it was the best education I ever got. The people were very helpful, but I had to handle a lot of things on my own. I knew then that I didn't have any limitation."

After her return, she attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, where she earned a bachelor's degree in archaeology and art history. She later added a master's degree in art history and history from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Physically, she was beginning to have more trouble. She went from walking on her own to using a walker. Then she shifted to an electric scooter and, more recently, she began using a power wheelchair.

"The more I'm faced with what seem to be limitations," she says, "the more I'm convinced to overcome them and use the situation as a way to improve my life."

Reinert now teaches Art of the Western World and Art of India and China at Maple Woods Community College. She challenges the students with hard work, but makes sure they see the progress they are making and the reward they get from having pursued knowledge.

"By the end of the class, it is I who am learning from the students, and that is tremendously rewarding," Reinert says. "I'll take a group to the art museum, and they will have their families, boyfriends and girlfriends along. They will be pointing out things about artwork to the people they've brought, and I can see the love and appreciation of art they have found."

Reinert is part of a project to preserve Maple Woods' fragile photographic slides by converting them to digital images that are easier for students and faculty to view. She uses a special multimedia program in her classes to project images of pieces of art on a wall, where the students can experience the whole scope of the art.

She also serves on the Americans with Disabilities Act Facilities Committee of the Metropolitan Community Colleges, and co-chairs the regional MDA Task Force on Public Awareness.

Barbara Schaefer is a special-needs counselor at Maple Woods who has worked with Reinert in helping to solve problems for students with special needs.

"She is very passionate about students with needs," Schaefer says. "She empowers students to solve their problems themselves. She points them in the right direction and advises them, but makes sure they do the work themselves. Then, the next time a problem arises, they'll know how to go about solving it.

"Elizabeth loves people and has such tremendous energy that I wish I could steal some."

Kim Ogilvie has been a friend of Reinert for four years, and learns from watching Reinert in action.

"She never lets anything slow her down or stop her," Ogilvie says. "She never makes excuses for anything. Seeing her willpower and strength is inspiring."