At 13, Damian Buchman was diagnosed with bone cancer. Since then, he’s endured 36 knee replacements and revisions and lives with an ambulatory disability. Most people would have been stopped in their tracks. Damian saw it as a starting line.

“I’m a one-in-a-billion survivor. I survived for a reason. This work is how I honor my survivorship—and those who didn’t make it,” he says.

Born in West Allis and raised across Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, Damian has called Wauwatosa home since 2009. He didn’t follow a traditional college path. “My education has been the school of hard knocks and lived experience,” he says. That perspective shaped the mission that drives him today as founder and executive director of The Ability Center.

If you’ve been to Bradford Beach in recent years, you’ve already seen his work. “We transformed Bradford Beach into the most accessible beach in the country,” Damian says. “And now we’re working to transform Wisconsin Avenue Park into Moss Universal Park—the nation’s first universally inclusive park. We want to go beyond the playground.”

His passion for inclusion traces back to Camp One Step, where he spent nearly 20 years as a camper and volunteer for kids with cancer. “That experience shaped my life and my desire to give back in my survivorship,” he says.

What started in 2008 as a one-man project (then called Super Gimp Services) has grown into an organization making national waves. After winning Donald Driver’s Drive to Achieve award in 2019, The Ability Center grew by 400%. Today, it has six staff, three programmatic pillars, and a $22 million project underway.

“I’m passionate about inclusive play because I believe everyBODY deserves the opportunity to play—together,” he says.

Damian loves Milwaukee’s size and spirit. “I like the idea of Small-Waukee. We’re truly working together as a community to transform our futures.”

And his goal for that future? Crystal clear. “I want Milwaukee to become the most universally inclusive recreation destination in the country.”