Darrell Gwynn Wheelchair Partnership
Every January I look forward to attending the Barrett Jackson Auto auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. Each year Barrett Jackson allows several cars to be auctioned off for charities. This is when I first heard about the Darrell Gwynn Foundation and how they have touched many lives. Darrell Gwynn, a professional race car driver, on a test run had an accident that left him paralyzed with a devastating spinal cord injury at the height of his career in 1990.
Darrell could have called it quits, but decided to make a difference for victims with spinal cord injuries. What I witnessed at the Barrett Jackson Auto Auction in 2008 was Darrell changing the life of a young boy by providing him with a $10,000 electric wheel chair. This family did not have insurance or the means to purchase this chair themselves.
Moving forward to the 2009 Barrett Jackson Auto Auction I was able to meet with Darrell and discuss how MSF would like to team up with DGF and sponsor a wheel chair. Darrell had just the person in mind; a young woman named Raquel Gil, who two weeks prior to her 17th birthday suffered a life-changing accident which required both of her legs to be amputated.
Despite this terrible tragedy she was determined not to let her disability get in the way of living life to the fullest. Raquel, now 20 years old, is enrolled as a student at the Miami Dade Community College. The manual wheel chair that Raquel is currently using is several years old and in need of major repairs. Because the chair had some problems Raquel was beginning to have pain in her shoulders. Medicaid denied her request for a new chair or the repair of the old one. This new chair will allow her to navigate the campus on her own without causing significantly more damage to her upper body. This chair is going to dramatically change the quality of life for this young girl who is beginning a new chapter in her life.
The Mitchell Swaback Foundation is grateful for the opportunity to provide this wheel chair for Raquel through the Darrell Gwynn Foundation. If you would like more information about the Darrell Gwynn Foundation please check out their website.
MSF looks forward to the opportunity to provide more wheel chairs for individuals just like Raquel. For more information on wheel chair provisions please contact Bob Swaback.
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