After devastating car crash, Rome teen finds passion volunteering to help other children

A Rome high school student is using a life-changing experience to fuel his volunteer work for other children.

Will Bowerman says he's lucky to be alive after he got seriously hurt in a car crash when he was 9. 

He detailed his injuries while speaking to CBS Atlanta: "Cardiac arrest, spinal fracture. Rib fractures. Broke my clavicle. Biggest thing was my spleen. Ruptured my spleen and that had to be taken out."

He says it was a slow, intense recovery process, learning to walk again.

Once he recovered, Bowerman says watching other kids in the hospital grapple with their own traumatic injuries inspired him to volunteer with an organization for children with disabilities called Extra Special People.

"It's kind of grown my appreciation for people who work hard through these traumatic events," Bowerman said. "Some participants at ESP, they just needed a little more time. They can do everything that we can do. It just takes a little more time for them to get there."

Founded in 1986, ESP hosts year-round sports and arts programming for young people with disabilities and their families. This year, the organization is expanding by opening this new facility in Rome.

Andrew Griffin Wellborn, one of Bowerman's friends at ESP, says young people are finding community here.

"People who have ADHD or anything kind of disability-wise can come to ESP and kind of feel welcome to Rome or Athens or any location and feel like family," Wellborn said.

Will's mother, Tiffany Bowerman, says her son has found his passion through serving the children and their families.

"Watching him continue to grow personally, to recognize people have differences and different abilities and that we all have a place in the world and that we best serve each other when we help each other along, it's been really lovely to watch," she said.

Bowerman is now 17 and looks forward to seeing more kids evolve and make friends here once the Rome facility is fully renovated.

"If we could build this place to our preferences, streamline it so that every person of every ability could have an easy time, it'd just mean everything," he said.

People of different abilities and backgrounds at ESP are coming together to make everyone feel like they belong.