Winter Wozniak was only six years old when a bad case of strep throat led to a complex condition impacting her muscles and nerves.

After several treatments and skin graft surgery, Winter made it home from the hospital, but lost strength in her arms, limiting her ability to perform daily tasks.

“She couldn’t straighten her elbows. She didn’t have full control of her left wrist. She didn’t have a lot of movement on her right hand, and I remember telling myself, ‘This might be it. This might be where she’s at for the rest of her life,” said Amber Wozniak, Winter’s mother.

But Winter and her family didn’t give up. With the help of Shriner’s Children’s Erie, the now nine-year-old girl is slowly working to build her strength back.

“I have learned now how to cook many more things than I used to. I have learned how to use my hands,” said Winter.

When winter isn’t working hard in therapy, she’s just like any other girl who loves soccer, sled-riding and playing with her cats.

But when she’s at Shriners, her occupational therapist said she improves her range of motion through all sorts of different exercises, and she’ll even come up with her own.

“Lightning kitty scratching post-game,” said Winter. “There’s a little tube, and it looks like a scratching post since it has like fabric on the outside, and I get a ball, and I just throw it in.”

“The best thing about Winter is that she can come up with a creative activity and it will be something that’s really difficult for her, but she will make it fun,” said Holly LaFuria, an occupational therapist at Shriners Children’s Erie.

Winter’s parents said they’ve seen their daughter overcome it all, from struggling to give a thumbs up to now being able to write and brush her hair.

For a nine-year-old girl, Winter has overcome what seemed impossible, and they said her journey is an inspiration to others.

“We want people to know, and she wants people to know, other kids that have gone through injury or illness, that they’re not limited,” said Chris Wozniak, Winter’s father. “Despite any physical handicaps they think they have, they can overcome them.”

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