Quad Rugby Player Inspire Students at Brooklyn’s PS 136 to Hold onto Hope
Brooklyn, NY––United Spinal Association member Damon Rozier, along with members of the United Spinal Jets Quad Rugby team, will be demonstrating the game of quad rugby during a school assembly at P.S. 346 / Abe Stark School at 1400 Pennsylvania Ave. , Brooklyn on Friday, February 17, 2006. The group will also discuss the benefits of wheelchair sports, and hand out “goody bags” that will include a spinal cord injury prevention pamphlet called “Stay Safe.”
”Many think that people who use wheelchairs can’t be athletes, but by introducing adaptive sports to children, it encourages children to never let any circumstance hold them down from enjoying life,” said Rozier who was paralyzed in a 1998 motorcycle accident. Rozier now works as a comedian at comedy clubs all over the New York City area and is a single father of two boys aged 10 and 11, who attend P.S. 346. He joined the United Spinal Jets Quad Rugby Team after seeing a video about the adaptive sport during his rehabilitation and now is the team’s captain. “When I first got injured, I wanted to give up and stay in bed. But then I was shown a tape of people in wheelchairs playing quad rugby and I realized that I could do it and so much more!”
Interest in the sport of quad rugby has been fueled by the release this past summer of the Academy award nominated documentary, Murderball, which chronicles the lives of several members of the United States and Canadian Paralympic quad rugby squads as they meet in preliminary and Paralympic matches at the 2004 Games in Athens. One of the movies stars Keith Cavill, who is also a member of the United Spinal Jets and will be joining Rozier for this presentation.
United Spinal Association is dedicated to enhancing the lives of all individuals with spinal cord injury or disease by ensuring quality health care, promoting research, advocating for civil rights and independence, educating the public about these issues, and enlisting its help to achieve these fundamental goals. The Association sponsors a wide variety of wheelchair recreational and adaptive sports programs, guided by the belief that the benefits from participating in sports are not any different for athletes with disabilities than for able-bodied athletes. For more information visit our Web site at www.unitedspinal.org or call our toll free number 800-404-2898.