November/December, 2008
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profile Darrell Gwynn Foundation Gives Wheelchairs and Hope to Those in Need By Santina Muha, Staff Writer
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arrell Gwynn has been living life in a wheelchair since 1990. He has been helping others living in wheelchairs since 2002. The former National Hot Rod Association star, injured in a racing accident, decided to dedicate his life to helping others in situations similar to his to improve their quality of life. He formed the Darrell Gwynn Foundation (DGF) in 2002, later adding the Wheelchair Donation Program. Recent examples of the program’s work include donations of a top of the line wheelchair to a seven year old boy with cerebral palsy in front of tens of thousands of NASCAR fans in Bristol, Tenn. and the donation of a wheelchair worth more than $26,000 to a 23-month old girl with a muscular disorder in Pembroke Pines, Ga. “We’ve made great strides and we never thought it’d be this big,” Gwynn says. “We’re going to give 37 power wheelchairs away this year, and those are $10-15,000 wheelchairs. When we first started out we gave four away, and now we’re able to raise a lot of money
Darrell Gwynn speaking at a news conference in October at Atlanta Motor Speedway. and do a lot of great things.” After his injury, Gwynn still attended races, and he began to notice that many of his fans who used wheelchairs were stuck in what he calls “shoddy equipment”. “So many people were visiting me at races with some of the worst equipment I’d ever seen and I was hearing these horror stories about people getting denied by their insurance companies and insurance wasn’t paying for the proper wheelchairs,” said Gwynn. “So we thought that this would be a great thing to do.” Arranging for special presentations, many of the children and young adults receive these custom-built power wheelchairs under extraordinary circumstances. From Daytona to the Homestead Miami Speedway to Gainesville, Fla. and beyond,
a wheelchair gift from Gwynn often proves to be an exciting event for the recipient. In addition, Gwynn personally visits almost every recipient, providing words of hope and encouragement. To add to the excitement and uniqueness of these presentations, Gwynn says, that about 80 percent of the donated chairs have been themed – everything from Barney the Dinosaur to Miami Heat to Winnie the Pooh. In addition to their Wheelchair Donation Program, DGF has started a Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week in Florida during which quadriplegics, media celebrities and others speak to high school students and the general public, focusing on SCI prevention and education. Explains Gwynn of the this year’s third annual event, “We speak to the schools, have an education program, have posters in rehabilitation centers, run a thousand public service announcements with myself and Tony Stewart on how to prevent SCI and more. All of the NASCARs that are racing in the Homestead Miami Speedway Ford 400 will have our decals on them.” “Our foundation is doing things that others aren’t,” says Gwynn. “There was never an SCI awareness week until three years ago. This is something we’re looking to take national.” The mission of his foundation, Gwynn tells is, “Prevention, education, awareness and quality of life. And research is a portion of it, where we have partnered with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. We’re not the experts on the research. – That’s why we’ve aligned ourselves with whom we feel are the experts.” Gwynn says, “My philosophy is…. until
there’s a cure, we’ve got to help the people that are out there. Hopefully one day we can put the wheelchair companies out of business, but right now we need them. Because do I think that the Miami Project will find a cure in our lifetime? Absolutely. But guess what? There are a lot of people (living with SCI/D) in the meantime.” And the DGF plans to keep up the good work and stay on mission. “We’ve got our work cut out for us right where we’re at. We’ve got our niche carved out and we’ve got to stick to our mission. We’ve got a lot more to go and there are more things to do within our mission.” Gwynn’s favorite part of this journey is giving away wheelchairs. “When you see the smile on that person’s face, you know you’re changing their lives forever,” he says. A 2007 SCI Hall of Fame nominee, Gwynn says, “It’s quite an honor to have been nominated. I know there have been a lot of popular people that have been injured and a lot of movers and shakers in the industry, and it’s an honor to be associated with those people.” Gwynn believes, “I’m really no different than any other quadriplegic other than the fact that I’ve got a great support system around me and a great family and we’re just trying to do the right thing.” Gwynn may not race cars anymore, but he remains a strong force and public figure. And he has found a way to feel victory. “I’ve replaced the feeling of winning a race by giving a wheelchair away to someone who needs it most,” says Gwynn. To apply for a wheelchair donation, or to find out more about DGF, visit www.DarrellGwynnFoundation.org.
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