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Winnipeg woman with significant challenges sells art to fund her travel dreams

Jannie Messmer has cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability. She is also deaf. She creates and sells her own art and crafts to fund her travel dreams. The Winnipegger lives independently with the support of Innovative Life Options, a local organization that helps people with significant challenges.

Jannie Messmer creates handmade cards despite physical, intellectual hurdles

CBC News ·

Winnipeg woman defies personal challenges to start her own business

3 days ago
Duration 4:04
Jannie Messmer lives with cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability. She has been able to live independently with the help of a Winnipeg organization.

For Jannie Messmer, joy is picking the perfect paper and glitter to make her greeting cards. 

"Oh I love crafting. I love making crafts. It definitely helps during tough times to make crafts. It definitely helps my self esteem," said Messmer, who is deaf, through an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. 

Messmer lives with cerebral palsy and has an intellectual disability. She also lives on her own with minimal support through In the Company of Friends, a program administered by Innovative Life Options. 

"It's a model that allows people a lot of choice and they direct their lives, they do all the planning," said Patti Chiappetta, executive director at Innovative Life Options.

For Messmer, her placement In the Company of Friends came at a very dire moment, says her mother, Shirlea Smith.

"An agency in town thought that they should make the decisions for her, and because she didn't have a substitute decision maker they manipulated her into a bad decision," Smith said. 

Messmer subsequently lost weight and developed an eating disorder, Smith says. 

Now, those days are behind her.

"I can set up goals for myself and then figure out how to, you know, what I need to get things in place so that I can make those things happen," said Messmer, who is saving her money for a trip to Hawaii. 

Woman with short brown hair sits in a wheelchair behind a long table covered in homemade greeting cards. She is smiling and wearing an orange hoodie with white drawstrings.
Winnipegger Jannie Messmer sells her crafts at local sales. She is saving up for a trip to Hawaii. (Focal Plains Studio)

"It's important to have really good self-esteem," she said. "It's important to feel really good about yourself. You're not alone.You can do things. You don't have to be stuck, and I would be happy to help anybody who needed my support."

Messmer and her pursuits are the subject of a new three-minute documentary by students in the Create program at Sisler High School. Sisler's post-high program trains students in the creative digital arts, including filmmaking.

Create students Venice Pasaraba, Justina Finch and  Semira Abolore produced the new short video.

Meet the filmmakers 

Young women with shoulder length straight black hair and bangs smiles in this head and shoulders portrait. She wears a flowered scoop-neck top with a white cardigan.
Venice Pasaraba is a graduate of Sisler High School. She loves digital design and has a passion for making videos and editing. Venice wants to improve her filmmaking skills, including her proficiency with cameras. Venice likes to unwind by drawing and has a special love for spicy noodles. (Focal Plains Studio)
Woman with straight, strawberry blond hair smiles, facing foward. She is wearing a grey, short-sleeved T-shirt.
Justina Finch has been acting since she was six. Today, she is pursuing a career on the other side of the camera as a filmmaker. Justina loves to be on set, either on camera or behind the scenes. (Focal Plains Studio)
Young woman with long black, braided locks smiles. She is wearing a light blue-grey top with short sleeves.
An aspiring filmmaker, writer and producer, Semira's passion for storytelling stems from a childhood love of books and movie nights with her family. Semira loves bringing people together through their stories. Teamwork and collaboration are at the heart of the best projects, she believes, and working with others is one of Semira's favourite parts of bringing a story to life. (Focal Plains Studio)
Woman with short burgundy colored hair holds a handful of homemade greeting cards, fanned out beside her face.
Jannie Messmer started her own business creating and selling crafts, including greeting cards. (Focal Plains Studio)

More about Project POV: Sisler Create

CBC Manitoba's Project POV: Sisler Create is a storytelling collaboration that partners filmmaking students with CBC Manitoba journalists to produce short docs. You can see past projects here. 

The Winnipeg School Division's Create program is hosted at Sisler High School and trains post-high students in the creative digital arts.

During fall 2024, CBC journalists taught storytelling to filmmaking students and led producing workshops at Sisler.

Create focuses on education and career pathways into the creative industries. Students can take courses in animation, film, game design, visual effects, graphic design and interactive digital media.

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