We visited the
Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Hospital wheelchair sports program this week in Downey, California (for reference, it's right in the middle of the Los Angeles metroplex, one town over from Compton, framed by the 105, 605 and 5 freeways).
Rancho is a venerable place of healing and hope, going back 100 years ago as the site of the LA County poor farm. Fifty years ago this place was famous for taking care of a large population of people affected by polio. More recently, "the Ranch," as it is sometimes called, has been a Model Systems Center for spinal cord injury, famous for taking care of a large population of uninsured local youth transitioning from the many multicultural knife and gun clubs of LA.
We were there to deliver a check, a Reeve Foundation Quality of Life grant, to the Rancho sports program. In fact, the check was made out to Las Floristas, a 65-year-old charity comprised of women who fund programs (over $7 million so far) for younger folks at the Ranch. Las Floristas wrote the grant on behalf of the wheelchair sports program, which will use the money to buy specialized sports chairs for peewee basketball players.
Deborah Veady, a volunteer grant writer for Las Floristas, accepted the check. (As an aside, Ms. Veady's father, an amputee, was a beneficiary of Rancho expertise over 50 years ago.) On hand to bear witness and to give us some perspective were two members of the fourth best in the U.S. Rancho Renegades wheelchair basketball team, Daniel Nong and Danny Maravilla, along with their coach and long-time Rancho sports maven Lisa Hilborn. The team motto is "push hard or go home."
Herewith are a few quotations from the group. You get the message that around here sports isn't only about purposeful exercise or being part of a team effort, or even about putting the whoop on an opponent. For some, including Daniel and Danny, sports provides a ticket, good for whatever you want it to be for.
Daniel Nong, 16, hometown Long Beach. Shooting guard, makes 20 percent from the three point line, number 55, and co-captain of the Renegades: "Before I started playing wheelchair basketball I was a quiet kid, I didn't go out, didn't make friends. I was passive about everything. But basketball has given me intensity - life is my oyster, is that the saying? Basketball has given me a goal, to get a scholarship, to go to college. My advice to young people who might be in a wheelchair is that sports will lead the way. Never give up on life. Sports has changed my life so much."
Danny Maravilla, 16, Long Beach. Point guard, playmaker, number 00, co-captain. Once played wheelchair basketball on the TV show "Suite Life of Zack and Cody." "Basketball has kept me out of trouble. Where I live, there's a lot of not good stuff going on - like gangbangers and drugs. If not for being in sports I'd probably not still be in high school. I can go to college now. The way I look at it being in a wheelchair, you can take it as a bad thing or can make it into a positive thing. For me, my social life is better. Others look at me not as a kid in a wheelchair but as a basketball player."
Lisa Hilborn, Rancho wheelchair sports director for 20 years. "Wheelchair sports is a powerful vehicle to pull athletes into a positive environment. We have a strong program here but our emphasis is on grades: we are involved with the schools and monitor their progress. We push the kids until they are intrinsically motivated."
As for the grant money, the program will help younger ball players get the right gear to get to the next level. "We sincerely thank Las Floristas...without them the wheelchair sports program would not exist."
Deborah Veady: "Thank you Reeve Foundation."
Mad
