NEW CASTLE Wheelchair racers give momentum to disabled
Proceeds will benefit a factory in Ecuador that sells wheelchairs at cost to the disabled.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Manuel Cardenas knew little about people with disabilities before his friend became paralyzed after a parachute accident.
But in the past 20 years, he's made it his mission to teach others and help those with disabilities.
Cardenas, a native of Ecuador who now lives in Lawrence County, is planning a 5-kilometer run, walk and wheelchair race in Neshannock Township on July 13 to raise awareness and help provide wheelchairs to disabled people in Latin America.
While open to anyone, the race will feature some of the world's premiere paralympic athletes including Scot Hollenbeck of Atlanta, the United States' best known paralympic wheelchair racer.
"The event is meant to educate people about the abilities of people with disabilities. I want to eliminate the word handicapped. Everybody in the world has some kind of abilities," Cardenas said.
Cardenas and his wife, Dr. Sheila Burick, live in Neshannock Township, but he makes frequent trips back to Ecuador, where he started a nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities. Called Momentum International Inc., it includes a factory that makes affordable wheelchairs for people living in Latin America.
How he started
When his friend became paralyzed in 1983, doctors in his native country were ill-equipped to help, and there were no wheelchairs available, Cardenas said.
It took six months before Cardenas found a used wheelchair in Colombia that was donated to him by the American Red Cross.
"I was very frustrated," he said. "After that, my mind and life changed. I tried to help my friend and I could not. I realized something had to be done in my country."
A member of the Ecuadorian army's special forces, Cardenas asked his superiors to help, and they organized the first race for people with disabilities and others in the country's capital, Quito.
That race eventually evolved into the Momentum Cup, a biennial event that features games of basketball, tennis, swimming and wheelchair racing for those with disabilities in Latin America.
The first three events were held in Ecuador, but the Momentum Cup will be held in various Latin American countries in the future, he said.
Moves to area
Cardenas recently committed to living in Lawrence County when his wife, a pediatrician and internist who is a native of New Castle, took a position with a local health system.
He decided that he wanted to raise awareness in his new country as he did in his native one, and the Momentum International 5K Race, Walk and Wheelchair Race was born.
Cardenas said athletes from eight Latin American countries and a few African countries want to attend, but now he's working on finding housing. He has approached local churches to house the racers.
He said wheelchair accessibility is not needed because they all live in countries where there are no special street curbs or bathrooms for those in wheelchairs, and they are skilled at maneuvering.
Benefits facility
Proceeds from the event, which will be raised by other walkers and racers, will benefit Momentum International's wheelchair facility in Quito and help promote more sports for the disabled in western Pennsylvania, he said.
The Quito facility has built more than 500 wheelchairs in the past five years and sells them at their $400 cost, he said. Cardenas said Momentum International also donates about 20 to 50 wheelchairs each year to those who can't afford them.
Before building the factory, wheelchairs had to be imported from the United States at a cost of $2,000 to $6,000 -- too expensive for most Latin Americans, he said.
Most paralyzed people in his country live out their lives immobile in their own homes, he said.
"I feel that somehow God showed me this mission. I feel I'm helping a lot of people. I feel happy when we give a chair to someone who has lived without mobility for five or 10 years and now they can go to work or to school," he said.
cioffi@vindy.com