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Posted on Monday June 11, 2018

Teaching Magic and Kindness – Carrie Rostollan

Friendly Wheels, Issue 121 – June 2018 with Amigo Owner Carrie Rostollan

Carrie Rostollan, a longtime member of the Amigo family, recently visited our Bridgeport facility for the Amigo Mobility Center open house. She shared with us some of her upcoming summer plans and entertained us with her magic tricks! Discover more about Carrie’s ‘magical’ adventures.


“Magicienne” Carrie Rostollan has had a lifelong love of magic, since Doug Henning appeared on The Muppet Show. Carrie grew up in northern Wisconsin and moved to Auburn, Michigan in 2005. This is where she started Proximity Illusions, offering memorable, family-friendly magical experiences—inviting audiences “to find the ‘possible’ in the impossible!”

Amigo owner magicWhat does that mean exactly? Well, the answer is two-fold. One: Carrie is a master of close-up magic – so, she’s inviting audience members to experience her magic through her illusions. Two: Carrie cares about teaching people to be positive thinkers.

Carrie has been an Amigo owner since 1982. She began using a front-drive yellow Amigo in high school to get around the school building with her books and other belongings. She uses crutches for walking short distances, but always takes her Amigo to conventions or places where there will be a lot of walking.

“My Amigo has been a faithful friend all these years,” Carrie says.

Since 2005, she has performed magic in a variety of venues, including universities, community event centers, churches, senior living facilities and at corporate events and birthday parties. Carrie also is passing her skills onto the next generation by teaching magic.

In her biggest, most successful event to date, Carrie was invited to be a plenary speaker for the 18th CBOQ Youth Avalanche retreat at Muskoka Woods (two hours north of Toronto). Nearly 500 junior high students and 150 youth ministry leaders converged for the event held in January of this year. Carrie conducted four sessions during the retreat, performing her best magic and giving talks from the Bible on the theme, Illuminate: Revealing Your Greatest Hope.

“When I teach, it’s about more than practicing tricks – it’s about teaching perseverance and kindness,” says Carrie.

To prepare for these sessions, Carrie practiced in front of her friends at Bay City Toastmasters. The Bay City Toastmasters Club is made up of a diverse group of people who are motivated to developing their communication and leadership skills. They provided great feedback on the trial runs of her big project.

While preparing to perform in front of hundreds of junior high students, Carrie felt nervous at first. “Kids can make a tough audience. When you go before kids, you better be good or they’ll let you know what they think. In some ways, adult audiences are easier to fool!” Carrie exclaims.

Nevertheless, her sessions at the retreat went off without a hitch and were quoted as being “mesmerizing.” As a reward to herself for the months of hard work she put into the event, Carrie used her earnings towards the purchase of a new, red Amigo TravelMate. Customized with a cane holder, Carrie says her TravelMate is such a blessing – “it makes going places super easy.”

The first place she traveled to with her new Amigo was Great Lakes Crossing Outlets. She and her boyfriend spent the day exploring the different attractions at the 1,400,000 square foot mall.

“We went to the SEA LIFE Michigan aquarium and many different shops,” says Carrie. “The TravelMate navigated through all the spaces well, and the battery lasted all day.”

What’s next for Magicienne Carrie and her TravelMate? The first to note is Friday Fun Nights in Frankenmuth, Michigan, where Carrie will be performing magic on the street from 6 – 9 p.m. Look for her:

  • June 1, 22, 29
  • July 27
  • August 3, 17

Another summer adventure of Carrie’s will be teaching at the Discover Magic Camp (for ages 8 to 14) taking place at the Historic Masonic Temple in Bay City, Michigan, June 18 – 28.

“I am excited to be teaching at Discover Magic Camp because we’re passing the art of illusion on to young people in the Bay Area,” states Carrie. “I’ve been working with magician Bob Zoerman on expanding the Discover Magic curriculum from the west side of the state to cover the central and east sections as well.”

What’s ‘magical’ about this curriculum is that it teaches the skills needed to perform magic but also focuses on character building. For more information about Discover Magic Camp, visit https://hmtbc.org/magic-camp.

To connect with Carrie directly, visit her website, proximityillusions.com.

We’re always excited to share Amigo owner stories. If you have an experience you’d like to share in an upcoming Friendly Wheels, please email Sarah at speyok@myamigo.com. Sign up for Amigo Friendly Wheels here.

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