Sitting at a Flobots performance in Aspen, Colo., Sherri Reichow showed her love for the band with a big banner that said “Flobots” and held it at the concert. With a plan in mind to coax the band to CSU, midway through the show, she turned the sign around and displayed her other passion: Colorado Disability Pride.

“We hoped, actually, that we could present it on stage with the petition to them, but then I snuck backstage afterwards and met with the band and talked to them, and got their approval so we actually went to the band first before we did any negotiating with the agents and all that stuff,” said Reichow, a Disabled Resources Services social worker. “It was kind of a cool publicity stunt. It worked.”

It turns out, the band was more than happy to come represent the 2013 Colorado Disability Pride Festival Sept. 7 at CSU.

“When we got word that the Colorado Disability Pride Fest wanted to book us, we were really amped,” wrote Jonny 5, Flobot band member, in an email to the Collegian. “It’s always nice to be part of a big event, but it’s especially invigorating to be teaming up with an organization whose mission is so in line with our message. We can’t wait!”

After the band agreed to come to CSU, Reichow and a few others with RDS went to see the Flobots again in Greeley to sneak backstage once again.

“It was kind of crazy, we were with a person who is blind, so, you know how they just have the curtain behind, and we were just walking this blind person and there was all this crap in the way…” Reichow said. “So by the time we got all the way across it there were people waiting for us, wondering who the heck we were.”

While getting the Flobots to come for the 2013 Colorado Disability Pride Festival at CSU on Sept. 7 was full of adventure, the festival itself serves multiple purposes for students with and without disabilities.

“The festival is part fun and part education celebration,” said David Swinehart, RDS development director. “So, the event starts at noon with a parade from Old Town to the entrance to the CSU campus. The parade is actually a way for people with and without disabilities to mingle and get to know each other. The parade is a way for disabled resource services to participate in a nationwide movement to accomplish a couple of different things. To change the way people think about and define disability, to break down and end the internalized shame felt with disabilities, and promote the belief in society that disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity.”

Tickets for the event are currently on sale at Disabled Resources Services, Rockin’ Robins and online at coloradodisabilitypridefest.org.

Content Producer Logan Martinez can be reached at news@collegian.com