PALM HARBOR — From a distance, it may have looked like just another golf tournament at Innisbrook Golf Resort this week, but when you took a closer look, you realized it was a life-changing event for two Tampa Bay kids.
For 11-year-old Elijah and 13-year-old Elizabeth, it was a day they will never forget. First, Elijah was presented with a new wheelchair.
“So basically this chair is going to mean a lot to me during my whole journey, because I’m mainly in a wheelchair when I got out and stuff, so having a wheelchair is like part of me walking,” said Elijah.
Elijah had his leg amputated earlier this year after being diagnosed with Osteosarcoma.
“And he was dismissed from the hospital with only a transport wheelchair, no special seating, no special backing. Those wheelchairs are really uncomfortable after just a couple minutes, so we are getting him a custom-fit wheelchair, which is awesome,” said Nina Shaw with Wheelchairs 4 Kids.
Then there’s Elizabeth, who was paralyzed in a car accident when she was five years old. She could barely hold back the tears of joy as her family was presented with a wheelchair-accessible van.
“I started shaking because I didn’t know it was happening,” said Elizabeth, who called the gift life-changing for her family. “Life-changing because it will make it easier on them and easier on me.”
This is the ninth year that the non-profit organization Wheelchairs 4 Kids has held the celebrity golf tournament fundraiser.
“It has never failed to impress me how the Tampa Bay community moves and how the community works; you guys are awesome; everybody is so excited to help the kids and participate,” said Shaw.
Retired athletes, like NBA star Matt Geiger and Tampa Bay Buccaneer Juan Long were among more than 150 people to putt their way to a great cause.
“Changing the life of an actual person that’s tangible, you can roll in this chair, you put them in it, and they just light up and they move the chair, its really good stuff and great to be a part of,” said Geiger.
“That’s priceless, really. For us, that smile is the biggest thing to see. The joy in their hearts that makes it all worth it,” said Long.
Paralympic world champion Monica Quimby knows firsthand what it means to have state-of-the-art equipment. It helped her reach her dreams and she knows it can do the same for Elizabeth and Elijah.
“I love these kinds of events because it literally shows all the support our community can give to an incredible group of children who are going to have opportunities because of the money we were able to raise,” said Quimby.
Elizabeth and Elijah say it’s so nice to know there are so many people out there who want to be a voice in the Wheelchairs 4 Kids community.
“I love organizations like this because they help out children that don’t have the ability to walk,” said Elijah.
“Thank you for just helping kids like us be able to do stuff,” said Elizabeth.
For more information go to www.wheelchairs4kids.org.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
