2019 Volunteer Award – Jodi Perito

Jodi Perito has been selected to be the 2019 recipient of the Invisible Disabilities Association Volunteer Award. Jodi has been chosen based upon her extensive volunteerism with IDA and other charities serving people living daily with illness and disability. Jodi’s passion and generous support through both her time and talent have had a positive impact on so many organizations and the people they serve. In addition to the Invisible Disabilities Association, here are a few of those organizations: the Rocky Mountain MS Center, National Jewish Health and the Children’s Diabetes Foundation.
Jodi is a classically trained pianist who grew up playing music, Jazz dancing, singing with the Colorado Children’s Choral, acting in local theater, playing in several local rock bands, performing with the 1950’s million-dollar selling do-wop group, the Del Vikings.

Jodi began writing poetry In elementary school where her classmates would ask her to write poems for them. Later when she was working in the beauty industry as a hair stylist, her co-workers and clients would often ask Jodi to write for them. Jodi held the Mrs. Colorado American Queen title in 1992 Jodi owned her own salon for 20 years,
Jodi was pursuing a PhD in natural medicine and on the way to becoming a Naturopathic Doctor, when tragedy struck. She had wrecked on her motorcycle. Jodi ultimately ended up in a coma caused by a Traumatic Brain Injury. The TBI changed the path of her life. Jodi had to close her salon, quit pursuing her PhD, and immerse herself into a very long road of recovery.
Volunteering for the Invisible Disabilities Association – IDA, working to bring awareness to the millions of Americans living daily with an Invisible disability, has become a new passion. Jodi is honored to have been chosen as IDA’s 2019 Volunteer Award recipient. Jodi is also currently the reigning 2019 Ms. Colorado America. She will be competing in August for 2019 Ms. America title and Invisible Disabilities is her platform. Although Jodi had been a licensed Cosmetologist since 1980, she is now extending her career in the beauty industry as a medical esthetician. Jodi and her daughter will be opening the Sanctuary Spa & Salon in 2020. Even though Jodi had been published in several collective poetry books earlier in her life, after her injury she began pursuing publishing her original works of poetry she had written over the span of her life. In 2010, she competed and published her poetry book, Soul Evolution.