By the time he was 21, Ryder had been racing dirt bikes competitively for 11 years. He skateboarded every day of his life and mountain biked nearly as much. If it sped, roared, or soared, he was on it.

“So,” Ryder shares, “to go from all that to a chair was pretty demoralizing.”

He’s talking about the spinal cord injury he sustained back in 2016, one that resulted in a T-12 complete fracture. And if you’re guessing how it happened based on Ryder’s passions, you’re going to be wrong. Proving that injuries can happen any number of ways, Ryder’s occurred when he fell from a tree. He simply grabbed a dead branch that gave way while he was putting up a rope swing for his younger sister at their family’s home in Athens, Georgia. Ryder’s rehabilitation took him to Shepherd Center for an anticipated nine-week inpatient stint; he went home in three. Ryder attributes his ability to adapt quickly to three things: his athleticism, his positivity and mental strength, and Shepherd Center’s staff.

“A big part of it was that everyone on the rehab team there — occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychologists — helped me get a grip on what I’d have ahead of me, right away. It was straightforward, no sugarcoating, and it really kickstarted my mind into the state I needed to be in. Sports would be possible to do again, and if I just went all in, they’d show me how.”

All in, indeed. Ryder’s injury happened in April 2016. By the following January, he was on a sit-ski in Alaska, hitting the same slopes that he’d run there on a trip the year before.

Ryder says two things stood out in his recovery at Shepherd Center. First, it was the recreation therapy that allowed him to quickly get active again and reconnect with sports right on Shepherd’s campus. Another big boost for Ryder was the peer support sessions. One of the SCI program alums he met was Jeremy Maddox, a bit of an adrenaline junkie himself. Jeremy sustained a spinal cord injury at 16, rehabbed at Shepherd Center, and found new ways to compete in sports — including as a national, and international, champion in adaptive waterskiing. The two bonded over their love of sports and remain friends to this day. Jeremy also connected Ryder to his first team sport opportunity — joining Shepherd Center’s competitive softball team, the Shepherd Sluggers.

“That’s been huge for me,” Ryder says. “I was always a solo sport guy for the rush of them, but joining the softball team is all about camaraderie. We get to travel, play other teams, and hang out with each other before and after the games. It’s a new avenue for competitiveness and friendship.”

Ryder followed Jeremy’s lead in other ways, too. Within a month of completing his inpatient rehabilitation, Ryder was back as a volunteer in the peer support program. Ryder still volunteers at Shepherd’s adaptive sports expos, often demonstrating how he uses his sit-ski.

Shepherd Center hosts a wide range of health and wellness clinics through the hospital’s donor-funded Recreation Therapy Program, giving people the opportunity to try everything from adaptive skiing to adaptive hiking, target shooting, wildlife viewing, horticulture, jewelry making, and cycling, to name a few. The clinics are open to former patients and community members alike, taking place in both the metro Atlanta area and around the country. Led by Shepherd Center recreation therapists and subject experts like Ryder, the clinics offer people a chance to try something new while knowing they’re in good hands.

The teaching talent comes naturally to Ryder, as he taught production and robotics for several years at Athens Academy. This year, he’s transitioning to a new opportunity as a full-time film editor. He’s also passing on his love of sport to the next generation. Ryder and his wife Carly have a daughter, Ramsey, who he often takes hunting, fishing, and camping.

“Before my injury, I was always so fast-paced, just go, go, go,” Ryder says. “I still love the thrills, but I can appreciate the slower moments now, too. It’s all fulfilling now."

Written by Phillip Jordan

For one, it took him to college. The Richmond, Virginia, native began his collegiate career at the University of Alabama before transferring to Wake Forest and, eventually, to Kennesaw State. There, he was reunited with the coach who’d originally recruited him to Alabama. Davin was to be a key part of Kennesaw State’s team in 2025-2026. 

On July 13, 2025, however, he was in a car wreck that resulted in serious injuries, including a C-6 spinal cord injury (SCI). He was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, where the skilled staff performed two major surgeries and stabilized his condition. Like many who have sustained spinal cord injuries, Davin faced challenges. He lost 50 pounds and had diminished mobility in his lower body. He recalls days he could barely sit up, much less stand or walk. He was also struggling with his blood pressure.

“Literally the day before I transferred to Shepherd Center for inpatient rehab, that day with my BP had been one of my worst days post-in-jury,” Davin recalls. “Then, like two days later, I was walking with assistance at Shepherd Center ... that was a moment of, ‘Oh, things are going to get better.’”

Davin says he most appreciated that his care team recognized what was most important to him — and what he was willing to do to get better.

“They knew I was an athlete and I could take the hard work,” Davin says. “They also knew that I wanted to get out of the chair as quick as possible. Basketball was the goal. So, they built all that into the rehab.”

His physical therapists took him down to the gym and had him start dribbling basketballs to rebuild skill-specific muscle memory — even when his dominant right hand was barely responding. They threw chest passes, simulated drills, and put Davin on the treadmill. The hoops didn’t end there. Nikki Kiley, CTRS, was Davin’s lead recreation therapist; she filled his rec therapy time with even more basketball-inspired fun on Shepherd Center’s court.

“They were so joyful and positive, even on the hard days,” Davin says. “Always laughter, always jokes. They made it fun and really brought the joyfulness back into my system.”

On Aug. 27, with some help from his Shepherd care team, Davin returned to Kennesaw State’s campus for the first time since his injury. And he did so in style — surprising his teammates by walking, on his own, into the gym during team practice. It was an emotional moment for all, and another joyful step in Davin’s journey. Today, Davin continues to work on a return to basketball.

He’s back to his old playing weight, running, jumping, and working out with his teammates. Now, it’s a matter of retraining his body for basketball, regaining his explosiveness, and getting his right hand into shooting form again. For that, Davin’s back at Shepherd Center, training in Beyond Therapy®, which incorporates cutting-edge neuroplasticity research into physical therapy that can rebuild strength and restore function. Along the way, Davin’s storing away everything he’s learning about the game, about the resilience it requires, and the lessons he’s learning. Because he sees a possible pipeline to coaching in his future, too.

“Using all my experiences to be a coach, to be a mentor, that would be a joy, too,” Davin says. “Basketball has always been a therapy thing for me, my little get-away. I want to share that joy with others and help them make the most of the game for themselves."

Written by Phillip Jordan

Thanksgiving 2020 started like normal for Teona Osborne, 36.

“My kids and I were getting ready to start cooking,” Teona explains. “But when I went to get up, my legs wouldn’t move. I was terrified and confused.”

Teona, who lives in Dallas, Georgia, was rushed to Wellstar Cobb Hospital. Despite many tests over several months, no clear cause of paralysis came to light. Teona saw a neurologist at Emory University Hospital, and again, testing came back normal.

“The theory was that COVID had affected my spine, but they couldn’t say for sure because nothing showed up,” Teona says. “Life had changed for me in an instant, and I didn’t know how to process it. But I have two kids who rely on me, so I went into survival mode.”

Always a go-getter who doesn’t let obstacles slow her down, Teona knew she needed to get her body as strong as possible and learn to drive while using a wheelchair. Her physical therapy team at Emory referred her to Shepherd Center for more specialized care.

Teona started Shepherd’s Driving Evaluation and Rehabilitation Program.

“I needed to learn how to break down my wheelchair to get it in and out of the car by myself. The team showed me different adaptive driving equipment, and I practiced inside the facility and in an actual car on the road.”

Teona passed the driving test and traded her large truck for a smaller car, so it was easier to get in and out. Getting the car made a huge difference in her day-to-day life.

“My son does football and other sports, and my daughter does gymnastics and cheerleading. Being able to drive helped them keep going with their regular lives even though this huge change had happened to us,” Teona says.

Prior to losing mobility in her legs, Teona was a preschool teacher at a daycare. She decided to take time away from this physically demanding job, instead putting her efforts toward completing her degree.

“Being able to drive allowed me to go back and finish college. I graduated in December 2025 with a bachelor’s in education,” Teona says.

Teona’s outgoing spirit has helped her get stronger, too. Through physical therapy and exercise at Shepherd Center’s ProMotion Fitness Center, Teona has learned more about what her body is capable of.

“I feel stronger and way more independent,” she says. “The Shepherd team worked around my school schedule, especially my main therapist, Drew Oswald. They wanted me to graduate. I’d be working out, and my therapist would help with my homework. They saw the whole me, not just the patient me.”

Teona even took advantage of Shepherd’s recreation therapy offerings and tried adaptive golf and cycling.

“To me, it’s important to not give up and find a way. I didn’t know I could ride a bike, but they showed me there is a way. Live life to the fullest.”

Teona has accomplished so much since losing mobility in her legs, but she isn’t stopping anytime soon. Her next big goal: get an accessible minivan and find a fulltime teaching job using her degree. Teona explains that having to disassemble and assemble her manual wheelchair is time consuming and very difficult when the weather isn’t cooperating.

“A wheelchair-accessible vehicle would completely transform my daily life. I could use my electric wheelchair to simply roll into the vehicle on a ramp, giving me the freedom to reliably and safely go to a full-time job.”

Teona is determined to make her goals a reality, something she encourages others to do as well.

“I’m strong-minded. I tell my students, if Ms. T didn’t give up, you can’t either! Now I say that to everybody. Keep pushin’.”

Written by Damjana Alverson

Gavin Cloy is an avid angler.

He’s a full-time fishing guide on Lake Lanier. But even with his plethora of fishing knowledge, fly fishing remained something he didn’t have much experience with, yet. That is, until this year’s Soque Slam.

Gavin took part in the third annual Soque Slam fishing rodeo benefitting Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program. In the three years since its inception, Soque Slam has gained devoted supporters, drawing people to the North Georgia mountains to spend a day outdoors for a good cause.

Traditionally, the tournament consists of several teams, with each group made up of one or two fishing guides, six anglers, and one former Shepherd Center patient. But this year, to protect fish populations during a drought, the tournament was split into two days: the patient participants competed on Oct. 25, 2025, while the non-patient participants competed on Jan. 31, 2026.

When Gavin visited the river in October, it marked the first time he’d gone fly fishing in over 30 years.

“It's so cool that Shepherd Center gives opportunities to people with disabilities, you know, to go out and enjoy the outdoors or, in my case, play basketball,” says Gavin, a longtime member of the Shepherd Stealers wheelchair basketball team.

Including both Shepherd Center patients and community members was a priority for Shaler Alias, a longtime Shepherd supporter and the creator of the Soque Slam. The idea came from his own love of fly fishing.

“I was standing in the river one day on a Saturday, and had to leave to drive home to Atlanta, take a shower, and put on a tuxedo and go to a fundraising gala,” he remembers. “And I thought to myself, ‘We could just have a fishing tournament here, and we could raise some money, and I wouldn't have to leave.’”

He called his friend, John Haynes, about creating a fundraising fishing tournament for Shepherd Center, made complete by including former patients and hosting an energetic afterparty.

Alias and Haynes partner with local businesses and organizations, many of them with Shepherd Center ties, to make each year a success. Trackchairs for patient participants are generously provided by Jacob Beisecker, a former Shepherd patient who started a nonprofit, Waymaker Offroad Wheelchairs, to loan trackchairs to people with mobility challenges at no cost. Drinks are provided by Republic National Distributing Company, owned by the Carlos family, longtime Shepherd Center supporters. Food is sourced and prepared by volunteers from Andee’s Army, which supports Shepherd Center’s Adolescent Program.

Andee Poulos, whose family began Andee’s Army after she completed brain injury rehabilitation at Shepherd Center over a decade ago, was a first-time Soque Slam participant this year. Her dad has been volunteering with the event since its first year, but this was the first time she made the trip to North Georgia alongside him.

For Andee, fly fishing offered something priceless in this day and age — peace and quiet.

“I really enjoyed it,” says Andee. “Being out there and having to be quiet so you can do your fishing, that was really nice. You're kind of solo — you don't have a whole lot of distractions around you — which is nice too.”

Something for Everyone

Shepherd Center’s social and fundraising calendar is lined with events throughout the year, with headliners Derby Day in the spring and The Legendary Party in the fall. But event organizers hope the Soque Slam will continue to offer something different from other fundraising events. While it is primarily a fishing tournament, the event offers something for non-anglers, too — a laid-back day enjoying cool weather and autumn foliage in the mountains, on and off the river.

October’s event included the most off-river entertainment yet, with helicopter rides over the Amicalola Gorge and an evening afterparty, meticulously planned by Alias’ wife, Patty Alias, and Bradley Sosebee.

“We had the fishing portion in the morning, and then around 1 or 2 p.m., we went back to our cabin and changed for the nighttime event, which was the concert and the dinner that my dad and his team prepared,” Andee remembers. “And then Shaler [Alias] surprised everyone at the end with a fireworks show.”

The concert featured The Grateful Dads, the Castellows, and Futurebirds, who delighted attendees with a mix of old favorites and original music. The evening also included a short presentation recognizing the tournament winners from the weekend. Duane Morrow took home the prize for the most fish, while Gavin won the prize for the largest brown trout.

“All of [Shepherd Center’s events] are amazing, but certainly with this one, I’ll be back — until they ask me to stop coming,” Gavin says with a laugh. “The river was gorgeous, the people were awesome, it was just an amazing day.”

Non-patient participants from this year’s tournament reconvened in January for their portion of the competition. The three teams, led by Daniel MacMorrow, Towers Wilen, and Alias, braved seven inches of snow for their day on the river. The Wilen team took home both prizes — $5,000 for the most fish, and $7,500 for the largest trout. The team graciously donated their winnings to Shepherd Center. The Budnick Family, who’ve supported the Soque Slam since its first year, matched the donation, raising it to $25,000 total. All in all, this year’s festivities raised over $531,000, a new record for the tournament.

The 2026 tournament is scheduled for Oct. 24, during the peak for colorful foliage (and, Alias notes, the bye week for Georgia Football!). For inquiries about participating or leading a team, contact Alias at shaler@aliasfamilyoffice.com.

Written by Erin Kenney

 “You can do rehab in a barn if you have the right people.” — David Apple, M.D.  

This “Apple-ism” often echoes off the walls at Shepherd Center, the hospital David Apple Jr., M.D. helped start five decades ago. It uniquely captures a key part of the hospital’s philosophy — with the best therapists, you can help patients achieve more, regardless of your facilities, financial resources, or access to high-tech equipment.  

In the years since Dr. Apple helped start Shepherd Center, it has transformed into a world-renowned rehabilitation center, with a multi-building main campus, large, well-equipped therapy gyms, state-of-the-art technology, and room to grow. Thanks to Dr. Apple and his leadership, Shepherd Center also boasts a one-of-a-kind staff of over 1,800 people, all dedicated to serving patients through hope, humor, and hard work.  

Dr. Apple took a chance on Shepherd Center as an early-career doctor, eager to help those experiencing a catastrophic injury or illness. For half a century, he served Shepherd Center’s patients, staff members, and visitors with his compassion, dedication, and medical expertise.  

On March 23, 2026, Dr. Apple died at home in Atlanta, surrounded by his loved ones. Shepherd Center is saddened to say goodbye and grateful for his service, which has helped define the hospital he helped start.  

“Walk or roll through our halls, and you’ll feel Dr. Apple’s presence everywhere: in our culture of compassion, in the courage of our patients, and in the dedication of every team member,” says Jamie Shepherd, MBA, MHA, FACHE, president and CEO of Shepherd Center. “Over more than 50 years of service, Dr. Apple changed the world of rehabilitative medicine — and he did it with heart, humor, and an unshakable belief in what is possible.”  

Taking a Chance on Shepherd Center  

When Harold and Alana Shepherd and their son, James, were working to start a new rehabilitation hospital in Atlanta, they approached Dr. Apple about being the founding medical director. While Dr. Apple was still early in his career as a doctor, he had quickly amassed clinical expertise and leadership abilities.  

After his graduation from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1962, he came to Atlanta, working first as a medical intern at Emory University and then in a residency in surgery at the Morehouse School of Medicine. He also completed an internship at Grady Memorial Hospital. Working in the region’s foremost trauma center, he learned firsthand how to care for patients hurt by devastating falls, car crashes, gunshot wounds, pedestrian accidents, and other serious incidents. In 1964, he joined the Air Force for two years — the last of which he served as chief of surgery. Then he worked as an orthopedic resident at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in late 1969. He completed two fellowships, one in orthopedic rehabilitation at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in California and another in hand surgery in Louisville, Kentucky. Then, he was the medical director for Easter Seals, an experience he said gave him the foundation to be the medical director for a brand-new facility.  

By the time the Shepherds asked Dr. Apple to sign on as the medical director of their new rehab center, he already had ambitions to lead a hospital. Plus, he was familiar with James’ story — he had been peripherally involved with his care at Piedmont Hospital after James sustained a spinal cord injury in 1973. Helping start what was then Shepherd Spinal Center was a great opportunity, as well as a huge risk. One of his colleagues warned that starting the hospital would ruin his career. But luckily, Dr. Apple was willing to take the chance.  

“I’d been trying to start a rehab center in Atlanta, and this gave me the opportunity I’d been looking for,” Dr. Apple reflected in a video filmed for the hospital’s 50th anniversary. “It all came together as if by magic.”  

Looking back, Alana says that in hiring Dr. Apple, she, Harold, and James found the best medical director they could have had.  

“When we asked him if he would consider being medical director, he said yes right away because he said he knew [a rehabilitation hospital] was needed and he knew it would succeed,” says Alana Shepherd. “We were lucky that we got the right one. That's the best part of all, [he was] the best choice that we could have had. Because he certainly believed in research, and he believed in doing the best you could and giving it your all, and also being very relaxed, and eager to be a real person — not a doctor in a white coat that looked at the baseboards and could hardly speak to anyone. He wasn't that kind of a doctor. So, we were really lucky that we had picked him.”  

Dr. Apple was Shepherd’s first medical director, but he was also much more. As a co-founder of a brand-new hospital, he had to be a cheerleader, a fundraiser, a hiring manager, and a mentor.   

Stories from those early years are now cemented in Shepherd Center lore. For example, in 1975, he asked friends to donate to the hospital if he completed the Peachtree Road Race. He made it to the finish line, and a friend named George Johnson gave him a $100 check, the first donation to Shepherd Center from anyone not involved in the hospital’s founding.  

He also helped put together the hospital’s first staff, bringing in staff members like Tammy King, MSN, ET, CRRN, CCM, who worked at the hospital for 47 years, and Herndon Murray, M.D., who worked here for 50 years. Dr. Apple was able to recruit Dr. Murray even without guaranteed funding for his position, showcasing both physicians’ belief in Shepherd’s mission. 

Staff members and volunteers remember Dr. Apple as down-to-earth, a great listener, and a gentle leader and teacher whose influence helped shape Shepherd’s culture. He was a beloved mentor for staff, always eager to share his knowledge with them. 

“Dr. Apple never asserted that he was the doctor. He was always just someone who would roll up his sleeves with everybody else,” says Jill Koval, Ph.D., ABPP-Rp, rehabilitation psychologist and psychology supervisor who has worked at Shepherd for 36 years. “And one of the most important things that he taught me as a leader was the importance of really listening, and respecting different opinions, but also thinking about the patients that we serve as whole people.”  

Sarah Morrison, PT, MBA, MHA, former chief executive officer of Shepherd Center, remembers her first impressions of Dr. Apple when she started as a physical therapist in 1984. She says he had total faith in his team. 

“When I started working with him, what I saw was he totally trusted the staff,” she recalls. “Some physicians would say, ‘Okay, physical therapy, you're going to do X, Y, and Z three times a day.’ Now, Dr. Apple never did that. He would just say, ‘Hey, evaluate and treat this patient as appropriate.’ He understood the nuances of every position of the team. He just trusted the staff and said, ‘Do what you do best.’” 

Shari McDowell, PT, DPT, FASIA, FACHE, the hospital’s current chief operating officer, joined Shepherd as a physical therapist in 1992. She remembers Dr. Apple really listening to staff — an experience she hadn’t had with working as a doctor before. 

“He was somebody who listened to every single person's opinion, and valued everything equally," she says. “It was very unusual — especially then, there was a lot of hierarchy in medicine. I remember thinking, 'This is an amazing physician. This is going to be an amazing place to work.'”

Dr. Apple took his responsibilities as medical director seriously. But one responsibility — fostering a supportive culture for his patients and staff — often required him to be not-so-serious. Sara Chapman, longtime Shepherd supporter and Board of Directors’ corporate secretary, began volunteering with the hospital when it was still at its original location. She remembers Dr. Apple as doing whatever it took to bring a smile to his patients and staff, even if he was occasionally the butt of the joke. 

“He [created] a spirit of fun in our culture,” she says. “He was the one you could always dress up, you could always throw pies at. He was always up for something that added to the spirit of enjoyment and happiness at Shepherd Center.” 

Dr. Apple also helped lead the push to move Shepherd to its location on Peachtree Road. While the unit inside West Paces Ferry allowed Shepherd Spinal Center to get its start, Dr. Apple knew they needed more space — the rehabilitation facility had a waitlist almost immediately upon opening. Plus, he felt at odds with the owners of the leasing hospital, a for-profit operation.  

“They were interested in profit. We were interested in service,” he once reflected. “That got to be a problem.”   

Thanks to the vision of the Shepherd family and Dr. Apple, on May 13, 1982, Shepherd Center moved into its own building — growing to 40 beds and with a therapy gym nearly as big as the entire previous space.   

Pioneering Research & Recreation Therapy  

Dr. Apple leaves behind a tremendous mark on Shepherd’s history. But perhaps his most enduring legacies lay in Shepherd Center’s renowned clinical programs and research initiatives.  

Dr. Apple’s clinical expertise allowed Shepherd’s Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program to quickly become renowned nationally, and even globally. With his leadership, Shepherd Center was designated as one of only a handful of Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, then a program through the U.S. Department of Education. The recognition came with a $246,000 grant, a boon to a hospital only seven years old, and it cemented Shepherd Center’s status as a leader in SCI research and rehabilitation. The hospital has continued its tenure as an SCIMS ever since, operating as the Southeastern Regional SCIMS Center. The hospital is also now recognized as a Traumatic Brain Injury Model System (TBIMS).  

Shepherd Center officially added research to its mission in 1985, and the program has been expanding ever since, with Dr. Apple serving at the helm for years.  

“Dr. Apple is such a legend in the SCI research community, and meeting him for the first time as I considered relocating my lab to Shepherd was a tremendous honor,” reflects Edelle Field-Fote, PT, Ph.D., FAPTA, FASIA, director of spinal cord injury research and the Hulse SCI Research Laboratory. “When I arrived, I learned that he had generously given me his own office and moved himself to another space. Because he had a key, I would often arrive back at the office to find a note, a flower, or an apple. These are the kinds of sweet gestures of support that made him so loved by everyone.” 

Dr. Apple also saw the value in inpatient services extending beyond the usual clinical setting. He started Shepherd’s Recreation Therapy Program, now the largest program of its kind in the country, by paying the first recreation therapist out of his own pocket. The recreation therapist, Barb (Leidheiser) Trader, took patients on outings to concerts, Atlanta Braves games, and even Dr. Apple’s property in North Georgia to fish and enjoy the outdoors. 

The program has since grown into a 30-plus-person department, coordinating everything from pottery clinics to adaptive hunting trips for inpatients, outpatients, and community members living with disabilities. Last fall, recreation therapists from across the decades at Shepherd made a visit to the hospital as part of 50th anniversary celebrations. Dr. Apple attended the reunion, where current and alumni recreation therapy staffers shared their favorite stories and thanked him for his vision.  

“That's one of Dr. Apple’s great legacies for Shepherd, is his understanding and vision for rec therapy, and how it was such a critical component of our patient care,” says Chapman, who volunteered on recreation therapy outings in the hospital’s early days. 

Dr. Apple believed in getting patients beyond the walls of their hospital room, and he practiced what he preached. Rarely found holed up in his office, Dr. Apple was a familiar face in the hallways during his tenure as medical director and beyond. Patients often reflect on seeing him across the center, from him meeting them upon their arrival at the ambulance entrance to taking a front-row seat at events like Project Rollway.  

“We talk a lot here … about culture and what that means,” says Cheryl Linden, MA, LPC;MS, OT/L, who has worked at Shepherd for 30 years. “And Dr. Apple portrayed that in such a way because he lived the culture. And it wasn't just about patient care and family care. The culture was about care of all. Care of community. Care of each other.”  

A Leader at Shepherd and Beyond  

Dr. Apple often encouraged his children and grandchildren to get involved in their community, beyond the responsibilities of their day jobs. And he modeled this for them constantly.  

In addition to his work at Shepherd, Dr. Apple brought his medical expertise to the global stage. In 1983, he became president of the American Spinal Injury Association, a professional organization he helped found. At that time the youngest member ever elected to serve as president, Dr. Apple led the organization's then 275 physician members. In 1997, he was awarded the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  

“He really took his knowledge and tried to implant it in others, whether it was through the American Spinal Injury Association, whether it was through research, or one-on-one mentoring,” Morrison says. 

He also served as president of the Atlanta Clinical Society, the Atlanta Orthopedic Society, and the Georgia Orthopedic Society, receiving the F. J. Funk Award for outstanding service to the Society in 2017. For the 1996 Paralympics, he was the chief medical officer. For the ’96 Olympics, he co-chaired the doping committee. And for 30 years, he was a team physician for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.   

His history of community involvement has deep roots, reaching even before his time in medical school. Dr. Apple graduated from Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, in 1954 as valedictorian, class president, and an outstanding athlete with varsity letters in basketball, football, and track. While he was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, studying as a Dupont Honor Scholar, he ran as a protest candidate and became student body president.   

He also found ways to give back to the community outside of the medical field. He donated his time to the Lovett School Board of Directors, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, and the Cathedral of Saint Philip, where he was a devoted member for more than 55 years.  

“He was very beloved at the cathedral by our clergy,” says Chapman, who also attends St. Philip’s. “Whenever the church called on him, he answered. He was generous, he was present, and he was involved.” 

At Shepherd Center, he continued to serve on the board of directors even after his retirement, where he helped with strategic planning for the hospital’s future.  

“He was a very highly valued and respected board member whose insight and opinion were always persuasive,” says Jim Thompson, chairman of the board of directors. “When he chose to comment, it became quiet in [the boardroom] as each member listened intently to what Dr. Apple had to say. He was a giant influence to all of us.”  

At the core of Dr. Apple’s heart was his love for his family. He met his wife Jane in 1961 when she had a date with his roommate, and they were married one year later. They had four children together and 12 grandchildren.  

“Jane was the love of his life, and they had an incredible partnership,” says Jamie Shepherd, who grew up alongside Dr. Apple’s children. “He loved his kids, his grandkids. Everybody is partial to their grandkids — but he was exceptionally proud of his grandkids and all the great things that they are doing, and he really loved being a grandfather.”

Dr. Apple enjoyed spending as much time as possible with his family, always celebrating each birthday with dinner at a favorite restaurant and attending his children’s and grandchildren’s sporting events. He also always made time for yearly trips with his family. 

“[Those trips] are totally my best memories, and definitely our kids' best memories. And you could just tell that that was what gave him the most joy,” says John Stephenson, Jr., one of Dr. Apple’s sons-in-law and a member of the Shepherd Center Foundation Board of Directors. “They would just sit there and look around, smile at everybody, and be happy that everybody was there.” 

A Vision for the Future  

In a presentation Dr. Apple gave before his retirement in 2005, he outlined what he’d like to see in Shepherd’s future: an enlarged exercise facility, enhanced continuing education opportunities for staff, continued research emphasis, and continued focus on patients and their families.   

Over 20 years later, his vision continues to come to life. Renovations at the main hospital have allowed for expanded patient floors and bigger therapy gyms. The NeuroRehabilitation Learning Institute provides educational opportunities for clinicians at Shepherd and around the world. The new Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation is bringing research at Shepherd Center to new heights. The Arthur M. Blank Family Residences allow families to fully participate in their loved ones’ rehab. And during the hospital’s 50th anniversary, celebrations showcased how hospital staff are more dedicated to their patients than ever.   

Even after stepping down from formal leadership, Dr. Apple continued to pour his time, talent, and passion into research, advocacy, and supporting Shepherd Center patients and staff. He frequently was at the hospital for Founders Meetings with fellow co-founder Alana Shepherd and hospital leadership. He also regularly attended events hosted by the Shepherd Center Foundation, including Derby Day, The Legendary Party, as well as groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings that coincided with Pursuing Possible: The Campaign for Shepherd Center, the hospital’s largest campaign and expansion effort to date.  

Dr. Apple accepting the position as Shepherd Center’s first medical director not only defined his medical career but impacted thousands of patients and their families, helping them rebuild their lives. His legacy, and the hospital he helped build, will continue to do so.  

“He was not a prideful person — he was quite humble, so he'd probably shudder at the concept of the legacy,” says Stephenson. “But I think he would want his legacy to be that of a man of strong faith, a dedicated husband and loving father and grandfather, and a gracious friend to anybody that he met. We all know that his legacy stretches far beyond that in scope and reach ... he was brave and pioneering in his field. His innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial approach to that work has been a big factor in really changing the entire field around treatment of traumatic spinal injuries and complex neurological conditions worldwide."

Whether it’s learning how to do a long-enjoyed activity in a different way or finding a new interest, involvement in positive and meaningful recreation promotes physical and mental health and helps reduce medical complications and the need for further medical intervention or hospitalization.

Beginning while patients are inpatients and continuing through potential involvement in the Alias Family Sports Teams and attendance at Shepherd’s health and wellness clinics post-discharge, the hospital’s recreation therapists ask patients what they love to do, what puts smiles on their faces, what goals they have, and what makes them feel alive. Then, with the right tools, they help them prepare for those adventures.

Trying Out New Wheels

On a recent winter morning, patients had the opportunity to test their adaptive cycling skills when Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program partnered with Catalyst Sports to host a clinic showcasing adaptive cycling gear in our Livingston Gym. There were plenty of adaptive bikes, including handcycles, to choose from based on patients’ interests and abilities, provided by Charles Stanley, of Catalyst Sports and Shepherd Center. 

As part of Shepherd’s goal to create opportunities for patients to rediscover their passions and purpose, adaptive cycling clinics are typically held each month. They are often integrated into patients’ schedules based on their goals and interests. And that’s not all – when the weather is warmer, Shepherd partners with Catalyst to take patients on monthly group rides on paved trails just outside Atlanta.

“These clinics and outings are a great opportunity for essentially every patient we serve. There are many different configurations, adaptations, and styles for bikes that make cycling suitable for almost any type of injury or disability,” says Brandon Clift, BS, ACSM EP-C, ACSM CIFT, CASC, sports specialist in Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program. “Cycling allows people to get outdoors, improve their cardiovascular fitness and overall function, and socialize with friends and family.”

Playing in the Dirt

When the weather outside is frightful (or at least cold!), horticulture therapist Wendy Battaglia has plenty of ideas for how to experience horticulture indoors. She puts those ideas to good use, coming up with horticulture lessons and activities for patients like Roger Alexander.

This is Alexander’s fourth horticulture therapy session since he arrived at Shepherd after sustaining a spinal cord injury. Battaglia offered a few options for activities, and Alexander chose to plant a paperwhite bulb, or as Battaglia explains, he’s “forcing” the bulb, because rather than planting it in dirt, he placed it in a vase with pebbles and water. As he opened and closed lids to jars of colorful stones, Alexander shared his excitement about the progress he has made since his first horticulture therapy session with Battaglia a month ago.

“The first time, I couldn't even open the jars. The second time, I could open them, but it was still hard,” he explains.

He continued the task, nestling the bulb into the pebbles, writing on a label, and tying a bow — all actions that required fine motor skills.

“I was nervous the first day I came, and all I was doing was planting sunflower seeds. I could barely move my hands,” Alexander says.

On this day, he was able to clearly label his paperwhite.

“I find for so many patients this is the first time they’re trying handwriting, and they’re always surprised at how well they do,” Battaglia says.

By the end of the session, Alexander has his paperwhite planted and has instructions for its care — over the coming weeks, he’ll be able to see the roots and the shoot as they grow.

“All is well in horticulture,” Alexander says. “I love it.”

Taking a Swing 

For Shepherd Center patients, just looking out the window might spark a therapy goal. In some patient rooms and clinics, that means looking over the nearby Bobby Jones Golf Course. When the weather is good, Shepherd Center recreation therapists take groups to the golf course to try out adaptive golf. And even in the winter months, volunteers from the Georgia State Golf Association (GSGA) Adaptive Golf Program visit the hospital to introduce patients to adaptive golf equipment and share pointers to help them improve their game, regardless of their injury or illness. They, along with Shepherd Center’s recreation therapists, also help patients look for adaptive resources closer to home. 

Sam Taylor, who sustained a spinal cord injury when he was shot while on duty as an Evansville, Indiana, police officer, is attending one of the golf clinics in the Livingston Gym on his last day as a Day Program patient. He practices his swing while using a ParaGolfer, an adaptive golf wheelchair that allows him to swing from a standing position. Taylor enjoyed golf before his injury and is eager to get back on the course — he saw the golf clinic as a great opportunity to give it a try.

“Being in a controlled environment where I can get instructions based upon my injury ... I figured the best chance I had to start golfing again would be to learn from people who know the adaptive portion.”

In addition to trying the ParaGolfer, Taylor got some pointers on improving his swing while using his own wheelchair. 

Other patients join in on the clinic too, like Josh Smith. To see Smith’s swing, you wouldn’t know this is only his second time playing golf, the first being during the previous month’s clinic in the gym. Smith is also wrapping up his time in the SCI Day Program. A putt-putt outing piqued his interest in golf, so he tried the golf clinic.

“Getting in the ParaGolfer and working with [the instructors], I was like, 'Oh, this is sweet, I definitely want to come back,’ Smith says. "My grandpa's a big golfer, too, so maybe this will be something we can have fun with, and it turns out I'm not bad at it. They're great teachers, and it's a lot of fun.”

Throwing a Pot

The walls of the art room at Shepherd Center are decked with brightly painted guitars, paintings on canvas, and colorful collages. Counters are covered with projects in progress, and shelves are filled with ceramic mugs and figurines waiting to be glazed.

Twenty-year-old Maddie Snyder rolls her wheelchair up to an adaptive pottery wheel situated in a nook at the edge of the room, the pottery studio. She pushes back her sleeves and puts on a plastic apron. Claire Tadeo, an art specialist at Shepherd Center, adjusts the table height to a comfortable level for Snyder, and her lesson on throwing a pot on the wheel is ready to begin.

After a brief pause so Snyder can text her dad a lunch takeout order, Tadeo shows her how to adjust the wheel’s speed and hands her a ball of clay, instructing her to throw it with some force at the center of the wheel. Snyder takes aim and gets the clay in a good spot on the first try.

A sophomore at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Snyder came to Shepherd Center in mid-December after she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Soon, she’ll wrap up her inpatient rehabilitation and continue in the Day Program.

This is Snyder’s first time in the art room at Shepherd. “I felt like it would be fun and satisfying to do my own pottery,” she says.

Tadeo talks Snyder through how to center the clay on the wheel, sometimes guiding her hands to show how much pressure to apply, while telling her about the adaptive tools that are available if she needs them.

“In addition to the pottery wheel often being a new experience, it also helps work on upper body strength and upper extremity range of motion,” Tadeo explains. “To center the clay, you are utilizing your upper body to push and pull it toward the middle of the wheel. There is also a large focus on fine motor skills when creating an opening in the clay and building up the walls of your piece.”

With Tadeo’s guidance, Snyder centers the clay, presses a hole in the center, and pulls it upward, to create a cup, which she says she’ll use for pencils. She contemplates the height and decides to pull a little more clay from the bottom, to make the cup taller.

As she cleans the clay off her hands and arms, Snyder adds another reason she chose to try pottery.

“My hands were kind of shaky, and I knew I couldn’t paint pretty like I used to, so I thought, ‘Oh, that might make me sad, so I’ll try pottery, and if it doesn’t work out, oh well,’ but it was really fun.”

Snyder is working on standing and walking with some of her other therapists. She’s gotten good at transferring from her wheelchair, so next time, she might try the traditional wheel, which, Tadeo explains, requires more balance and core strength.

For now, Tadeo sets the cup on a shelf to dry. When Snyder returns for her next art therapy sessions, she’ll trim the cup, add her initials, and glaze it. Once it’s fired in the kiln, the cup will be ready for pencils — and to go home with her.

Hunting Wild Hogs

On a recent, warmer-than-usual January evening, Adam Cope sat quietly in a hunting blind with Gavin McClintock, Shepherd Center’s outdoor recreation specialist, and Brandon Clift, BS, ACSM EP-C, ACSM CIFT, CASC, sports specialist. This Shepherd Center Health and Wellness Clinic took place on a 225-acre farm in Reynolds, Georgia, owned by a former Shepherd patient, who also provided lodging for the night.

As night fell, the men had their eyes trained on the field in front of them, awaiting the arrival of wild hogs.

Cope, who has always enjoyed outdoor activities and has grown up hunting, first heard about trips like this one when he came to Shepherd Center for rehabilitation after sustaining a spinal cord injury (SCI). McClintock told him to keep an eye on the Health and Wellness Clinic calendar after his discharge and to join a trip if he could.

Cope says he was fortunate — now five years post-injury, he can walk independently and doesn’t have many lingering effects of his SCI beyond general weakness in his legs. He sees recreation therapy as an essential part of rehabilitation.

“I would say it's vital. I know that while I was still unsure of what my future was going to look like, one of the things I was the most anxious about was what was my recreation going to be?” he explains. “I've personally never been satisfied with just doing things at the house or, you know, arts and crafts and that sort of thing. I enjoy that stuff, but it’s never been fulfilling like getting outside.”

On this night, the group spent several hours in the ground blind. Finally, 10 to 15 hogs wandered into the area, but not for long. “I learned that hogs are actually very easy to spook,” Cope explains.

Cope has also participated in Shepherd’s fly-fishing clinics — his favorite.

“I've enjoyed the events I've come to. The fly-fishing event was the first time I've ever done that, too. So, the program has exposed me to things that I otherwise may not have done, and it adds that layer of comfort, being able to do it partnered up with Shepherd Center.”

Joining a Jam Session

It’s a Monday morning at 9 a.m., but the recreation room at the SHARE Military Initiative is already rocking as guitar riffs and drumbeats fill the air.  

SHARE clients Collin Tubbs, Corey Hickman, and Joe Merritt, along with volunteer Bruce Warren, have gathered for music therapy. Board-certified music therapist Thomas Miller checks in with everyone as they arrive. This session is Tubbs’ first, and Miller asks him what instrument he’d like to play. Tubbs suggests he might just sit and listen today, but Miller isn’t having it, encouraging him to play — Tubbs chooses a bass guitar.

As they settle in, Miller reminds another participant, “Elephants and donkeys grow big ears,” to help him remember the order of the strings on his acoustic guitar: E-A-D-G-B-E.

Miller remarks upon how comfortably Tubbs holds the bass guitar.

“Well, I used to play bass,” he admits. The group laughs since he had almost opted to observe.

They try out a Bill Withers song some members of the group worked on the previous week. Hickman, who has been at SHARE for a couple of months, says this is only his second music session. He appears to have learned a lot and says that’s because Miller is a good teacher.

“I enjoy music, and I enjoy working in a team setting — it’s more relaxing than playing on your own,” Hickman says. “And I wanted to expand my horizons a little.”

Beside him, Merritt drums on a djembe — his own. His dog, Trigger, sits beside his chair.

“Over the last two years, as my symptoms got worse, I turned to music and drumming,” Merritt shares later. “I try and play every day, when the rhythm hits. I’ve only been drumming a few months, and always on my own. I was so excited about music group!”

Warren, who is new to volunteering at Shepherd but seasoned on the acoustic guitar, accompanies them.

The group jokes with one another as they play through one song, then another, with Miller giving tips on hand position and posture, clapping out rhythms, and, once the group has the hang of it, even singing along to one of the tunes.

As they work their way through a new song, clearly enjoying the combination of focus and fun, Tubbs tells him, “I haven’t played in forever, and it’s my brain trying to keep up with all this stuff.”

“I’m glad I didn’t let you just sit and listen,” Miller replies.

Building Community 

Birdwatching, horticulture, jewelry making, book club, yoga — Pam Gavin has attended dozens of Shepherd Center’s Health and Wellness Clinics.

“I’m very outgoing, I like people, I like to try new things, and I really love Katie [Harmon, CTRS, health and wellness program lead],” she explains. “And I love life!”

That love for people and zest for life are evident in how she spends her time. Now 70 years old, Gavin, who was born with cerebral palsy, has lived independently for most of her adult life. After graduating from college and earning a master’s degree in social work, she began volunteering three days a week at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, where she lived until recently. She served thousands of hours at the hospital and won a “Health Care Heroes” award for her service.

So, when family and life circumstances made moving to Georgia to be closer to her sister, Lynn, seem like a wise choice, Gavin had to leave her volunteer role and the support system she had built. When she got to Atlanta, she saw Shepherd’s Health and Wellness Clinics as an opportunity to try new things, meet new people, and create a new community.

And she’s doing just that. She’s been to Chastain Park for a horsemanship clinic where she rode the aptly named “Elvis,” a mechanical horse who “rocks and rolls,” helping her work on her balance. She’s attended craft-making workshops, a weekend at Camp Twin Lakes for outdoor and adventure-based activities, and, one of her favorites, joined trips to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. She especially enjoys the horticulture clinics and says many of the same people attend each session.

"Everyone who gets to know Pam loves her — clinic participants and staff alike,” says Harmon, who organizes Shepherd’s health and wellness clinics. 

Recently, Gavin and her sister went on a bucket-list ski trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, organized by Shepherd in partnership with Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports (STARS) and sponsored by the Jack Trottier Foundation, which helps offset the trip’s cost for participants.

“[The group] stayed together in a nice big lodge, and they’ve got big rooms with nice bathrooms, and everything is accessible,” Gavin says.

"I had never been skiing in my life because I didn’t think it was possible — and what I’m learning about Shepherd is that they make everything become possible — I don’t know how they do it, but they make everything become possible."

Written by Ruth Underwood 

The way to Kaedan Everhart’s heart typically follows a path worn by horses, dirt bikes, and four-wheelers. Yes, it takes a lot to get Kaedan Everhart indoors. For anything other than a line dance, that is.

The 18-year-old from Statesville, N.C., goes by K-Lo among his friends at the rodeos where he ropes and the stables where he rides. Throughout high school, you’d just about always find a cowboy hat on his head and boots on his feet. Except for fall Friday
nights when the talented cornerback donned a football helmet instead.

“If it’s outdoors, I’m up for it,” Kaedan says. “That’s where I’m happy. That’s where I’m me.”

On Oct. 13, 2024, however, Kaedan sustained several serious injuries in a car accident, including a traumatic brain injury (TBI). His always-in-motion life came to a standstill, with a ventilator helping him breathe and operations to repair broken bones and brain bleeds. 

The great outdoors seemed very far away.

Kaedan eventually transferred to Shepherd Center’s Adolescent Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program. His care team set to work right away, getting him mobile again. As Kaedan’s brain awakened, his therapists challenged the young athlete with activities to help him re-learn to think, speak, and walk.

As part of his therapy, Shepherd Center staff even took Kaedan to a horse ranch to practice his skills. And they spent extra time addressing his right-side motor deficits, a consequence of his TBI.

“That meant the most to me,” Kaedan says. “They got my arm moving again. It doesn’t straighten all the way, but I can use it for all the things I enjoy doing.”

Indeed, he’s back to roping and riding once again, his most important and peaceful pastimes. This fall, he’s working at a ranch where he drives a horse wagon. The job is just a part-time one, as he’s now in his freshman year at Mitchell Community College, with plans to transfer next
year to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Kaedan’s studying agribusiness with an eye, no surprise, toward a career that will keep him outdoors.

“God has something for me, ahead of me,” Kaedan says. “I’m thankful I get to see what it is now."

Written by Phillip Jordan

The idea for the get-together grew from a conversation between Shepherd’s first recreation therapist, Barb Trader, who joined Shepherd in 1978, and Paula Maiberger, who worked in rec therapy with Barb for several years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“I realized how much I missed everybody,” Barb explains. “We had such a great team. They were really inventive and excited about what they were doing…. I think we all knew we were part of something really special. We enjoyed spending a lot of time together. We were excited about the fact that we were inventing things. You know, people would get ideas, and we’d try them out…. Every day we came to work knowing we were doing something important — that we were spending our time in a way that had real meaning for other people. That's kind of hard to get in the workplace.”

“Shepherd's just amazing. And we did really amazing things with our patients. And I think that was a draw [to return for the reunion,]” Paula says.

They note that several alums earned their doctorates and are now teaching therapeutic recreation at universities. “And so, they wanted to come back and see what else we're doing,” Paula explains. “And oh my gosh, everybody was blown away by Shepherd. Blown away. Shepherd is just so unique.”

As the gregarious group mingled, they swapped stories about the trials and triumphs of taking patients rafting on the Chattahoochee, to Atlanta Braves games at the old Fulton County Stadium, and sailing on Lake Lanier. They were joined by Shepherd Center co-founder Alana Shepherd, David Apple, M.D., Shepherd Center’s first medical director, and several current members of Shepherd’s recreation therapy department. Kelly Edens, CTRS, recreation therapy manager, spoke to the alums about the lasting impact their work has had on Shepherd Center and how the program they helped build has continued to evolve and grow as an essential part of therapy at Shepherd Center.

“I want to thank you all,” Edens said, “Without your dedication and support, we wouldn't be where we are today. Starting with Dr. Apple, what you all started is huge for us. We sit with all disciplines across the entire center — we're right in there with speech, OT, and PT. They know who we are. They know what we do. They tap us now, ‘Hey, can we do this?’ Which is really cool, but it's because of what you all started.”

Barb Trader recalled her first impressions of Shepherd, then Shepherd Spinal Center, when she visited in 1978.

“I liked what I saw. I was actually really energized by it, pretty moved by it because we had to walk right through the therapy gym to find a PT at West Paces Ferry Hospital way back in the day.”

After that first visit, Barb wrote a letter to Shepherd, suggesting they hire her as a therapeutic recreation specialist and sharing some ideas for activities she could lead for patients.

At first, the answer was no, that the hospital wasn’t in a position to hire her, Barb explained. Then came the part of the story that has become a chapter in Shepherd lore.

Two weeks later, Barb got a phone call — Dr. Apple had read her letter and wanted to start a recreation therapy program. He felt so strongly about the program's importance that he decided to pay Barb’s salary himself for her first year. From there, recreation therapy at Shepherd was born. It has grown from a staff of one in that first year to a staff of 42 today, making it the largest program of its type in the country.

Recreation therapy at Shepherd begins with identifying a patient’s goals and opportunities for growth. With their recreation therapy specialist, they create a plan tailored to their needs and aspirations. And while Shepherd’s Recreation Therapy Program helps patients lead healthy and active lifestyles as independently as possible, it goes further, helping patients redefine what’s possible, discover new passions, and explore existing interests in new ways. The reunion attendees played a crucial role in making the program what it is today.

“Rec therapy is critically important for all of our patients’ success,” said Shari McDowell, PT, DPT, FASIA, Shepherd Center's chief operating officer, as she thanked the alumni. “We could not have the outcomes we have for our patients without these team members and without what you laid as a foundation. So, I just wanted to say thank you. We're so happy you're here today and excited that you're going to see the growth — and know that you started it.”

After the remarks from McDowell and Edens, the group toured the hospital to see some of the many changes that had taken place since they worked at Shepherd.    

“Some of them hadn't even seen what we would just call the ‘new building’ back then, the Marcus-Woodruff building (built in 1992 and expanded in 2004), so there was a lot for people to take in,” Paula explained.

That evening, the alums gathered at Paula’s house to share a meal and more stories.

“We all had so many stories to tell about funny things that happened on outings or really moving things that happened on outings,” Barb says. “We all felt like Shepherd was a place where there was a sense of hopefulness and resilience, and the glass was always half full, not half empty. And that was kind of a shared, almost exuberance…. I think there's a lot of resilience in human beings that you get reminded of every single day [at Shepherd].”

Collectively, the group’s careers at the hospital spanned from 1978 to 2000, and many hadn’t seen each other in years, but Paula says that didn’t matter.

“It was just magical. It was so much fun. It's just that we were just a good, connected group, and it felt exactly the same when we all got back together.”

Written by Ruth Underwood

 

And Shepherd Center’s new Institute of Higher Learning, which offers medical and psychology fellowships, is an important step in fostering the next generation of neurorehabilitation experts, says Chief Medical Officer Michael Yochelson, M.D. Shepherd currently hosts fellowships in spinal cord injury medicine and brain injury medicine, neuropsychology, rehabilitation psychology, and speech-language pathology, among others. “The clinical work being done here is so exceptional, and the volume of patients we have in all these different areas is so much higher than most other places, to be able to train at a place like Shepherd is really important. We know we can’t provide these services to every patient who needs them. But we can train people to go out into the world, whether to rural areas or another city, and help provide better care.” 

Chief Nursing Officer Tiffany LeCroy, MSN, RN, CRRN, FNP-C, ACNS-BC, FARN, also keeps an eye on the future, making it a priority to manage potential nursing shortages—an industry-wide problem since COVID-19—by developing and maintaining pipelines with local universities. “We’re doing a lot more to get students here earlier, as sophomores rather than juniors,” Tiffany says. “We have a lot of partnerships with universities to host our team members as clinical instructors. In 2024, we got funding through the Shepherd Impact Council to offer nursing scholarships. 

“We’re doing a lot of things to help support the new nurses,” she adds. “Yes, it’s to help Shepherd, but it’s also to help the community. We’re all in this together.”

Written by Teresa Weaver

This story is an excerpt from “Mission Moments: 50 Years of Rebuilding Lives One Moment at a Time,” a book celebrating Shepherd’s 50th anniversary in 2025. You can explore the full eBook or purchase a hardcover copy here. 

For 20 years, David conducted Shepherd Center’s monthly tours of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Delta aircraft there. He showed participants what to expect, from ticketing to boarding, and let them practice transferring from wheelchairs to airplane seats so they would have the confidence to travel independently. David, now retired, also helped Matt Edens, CTRS, Shepherd Center’s sports teams coordinator, manage Shepherd’s adaptive sports teams’ travel to competitions in other cities. 

“It very quickly became apparent to me that this was a great investment of my time, and that the things we were doing at the airport were meaningful and made a difference,” David says. He also immediately recognized that Shepherd Center’s commitment to the partnership with Delta was part of a culture that emphasizes giving every patient the best possible life post-treatment. “From the very beginning, walking onto the Shepherd campus, I knew this was a very, very special place,” he says.

His own journey to Shepherd as a patient began in November 2023, with tingling in his fingers and feet. That sensation is a common first sign of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the immune system attacks the nerves. Soon, he was unable to move his legs, could not speak, and was put on a ventilator to breathe. When he entered Shepherd Center, “I was in pretty rough shape,” he says. His wife, Bonnie, says she “cried all day—because I was so happy that he was there.” 

After a week of rehabilitation, David moved from intensive care to the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Unit. On the day he transferred, Alana Shepherd visited him and told him she expected him to participate in the first possible Delta airport outing—this time from Shepherd’s perspective. He did just that on February 21, 2024. David says his time at Shepherd was “the absolute best and the worst thing. It was the worst thing because of what I put my family through. And it was the best thing because I got to see Shepherd Center from the other side. It helps put your values in order. It helps you prioritize what’s important and what’s inconsequential.”

Written by Gayle White

This story is an excerpt from “Mission Moments: 50 Years of Rebuilding Lives One Moment at a Time,” a book celebrating Shepherd’s 50th anniversary in 2025. You can explore the full eBook or purchase a hardcover copy here. 

David Apple, M.D., the first medical director of Shepherd Center, believed in recreation therapy so deeply that he paid Barb’s salary out of his own pocket in 1979. “We thought that getting the patients out of the hospital and into the community for outings was an integral part of their recovery,” Dr. Apple says. 

Now, Shepherd Center boasts the largest Recreation Therapy Program in the country, with a staff of more than 30 (when the industry norm is about two), 10 competitive sports teams, several annual trips, and dozens of opportunities to get involved in the community. Seven specialists offer instruction in arts, sports, aquatics, horticulture, exercise physiology, outdoor activities, and music. 

“Physical therapists work on mobility, occupational therapists work on activities of daily living (ADLs), and speech therapists work on cognition, swallowing, voice, and breathing techniques,” says Kelly Edens, CTRS, manager of the Recreation Therapy Program since 2008. “Rec therapy really puts all those capabilities in the Nathan Harmon, who was injured in a diving accident, enjoys a fly-fishing excursion to Clarkesville, Georgia, with guide Jason “Chico” Garrett. 64 community setting. It puts a bow around all the therapy and sends a person home to really live their life.” 

Sometimes patients want to resume doing activities they loved before they were injured, and others want to discover altogether new things. If a patient wants to try kayaking, for instance, their recreation therapist will figure out the best way to make that happen, whether it’s at a nearby lake or in the pool at Shepherd’s ProMotion Fitness Center. Once outfitted with whatever special gear they need, patients are then supported to explore options near their home to make sure they can keep doing the things they love. 

Research has shown the profound benefits of healthy activity and a positive attitude in recovering after a traumatic injury. Involvement in positive and meaningful recreation activities helps reduce medical complications and the need for re-hospitalization, and it is one of the best ways to adjust to lifestyle changes caused by a disability. 

Health and Wellness Clinics, which are open to community members with disabilities, are held throughout the year, ranging from virtual art to adaptive hiking, from birdwatching at the Atlanta Botanical Garden or skiing in Colorado to scuba-diving in the Caribbean. Every spring, Shepherd hosts the Adventure Skills Workshop, an action-packed weekend camp in Alabama that attracts people from more than a dozen states. 

Like every other program at Shepherd Center, recreation therapy is patient-centered, which means that therapists tailor outings to each individual. Therapists have taken patients on college campus tours, for instance, or shopping for a wedding dress, or to a fast-food restaurant for the first time since they were injured. 

“One therapist just told me she took her patient to Taco Bell,” Kelly says. “When she was able to transfer into a booth on her own, it brought tears to her eyes. To me, that is a mission complete. Just to bring normalcy to people, so they know they can do the things they love—and they can enjoy life. Every day is a new day.”

Written by Teresa Weaver

This story is an excerpt from “Mission Moments: 50 Years of Rebuilding Lives One Moment at a Time,” a book celebrating Shepherd’s 50th anniversary in 2025. 

I've been at Shepherd for just over three years, and I’m a recreational therapist in the Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program. My job is to help people get back into what they like to do for fun and other aspects of their lives, along with their PT (physical therapist), OT (occupational therapist), and speech-language pathologist.

A lot of the goals that I'm trying to help people reach feel really unrealistic to patients because they are still dealing with medical issues and think, ‘There's no way I'm going to be able to do some of these things.’ But it's my job to show them that they can do the things they used to do in their leisure life, or if they can't do it exactly the same way, they can get back to it in an adaptive way.

Another battle is stigma issues. A lot of people don't really want to be seen in a wheelchair just yet or even have that experience where they're not able to get into a chair at a restaurant. It's just something hard to think through. So, we have to push it a little bit and explain why getting out into the community is beneficial. I always encourage patients to try things while they’re here with staff because it's definitely a lot harder when you're by yourself.

What made you want to work at Shepherd?

I went to a conference for recreational therapy that was hosted at Shepherd Center. After that conference, I was like, ‘I need to get a job at Shepherd,’ because the things that the program does are amazing and honestly above a lot of what other facilities are doing.

What do you like most about your job?

One of my favorite parts of my job is the outings that we do here at Shepherd. One of my jobs is community reintegration, showing people that they can get out and about and still go out and do things even if they’re using a wheelchair, a walker, a cane — whatever the adaptive equipment might be. We work with people right after their traumatic injury, and a lot of people haven't even been outside since they've been injured, so I get to take people outside for the first time, which is also one of my favorite parts. People are really thankful when I take them outside, and I tell them, ‘Don't be thankful for this; this is what I'm here for, and we can do this whenever you want.’ It's just great to help people get outside and into fresh air.

How do you introduce recreational therapy to patients?

The first time I meet somebody, I take them on a tour of the hospital and just chitchat with them and get to know them, get to know their interests. And the garden is one of the stops of my tour. I tell them, ‘There's a Chick-fil-A up the street, there's a coffee shop, there's a grocery store, a CVS, the next time we’re together, if you want to get out, let's get out and do something.’ Then I explain that we do evening and weekend outings here as recreational therapists, too. I explain to them how those work, and I really encourage people to get out and about and to take advantage of what we have to offer here.

Describe a great day at work.

We do an outing to the Georgia Aquarium, and the patients get in the tank with the whale sharks. I got to do that with one of my patients, and I was paired with a PT from my team as well. It was nice to do that because you grow a special bond with the people you work with every day, especially in this field. We talk a lot about just life, and we're with the same patients every day. So, it was nice to have that experience with not only somebody I was close with as a coworker but also a patient who I knew pretty well. He was super sick when I first met him, and at this point, he was in the Day Program, and he had come a really long way. Seeing him swimming in a massive fish tank was just a cool experience.

How do you think your role impacts patients and families?

I feel like, as a recreational therapist, my role impacts patients and families a lot because I show them that they can get back to doing things that they used to do
for fun, whether it be sports, gardening, showing them different ways they can paint,
our aquatics program — a lot of people don't realize all the programs we have to offer. Watching family members see their loved ones do those things again, how thankful they are, and how excited their faces are when they see them participating in things is a great part of my job.

Education

• Slippery Rock University, Bachelor of Science, Recreational Therapy

Fun Facts

• At 6’5”, Jacob is the tallest person in his family.
• He has one sister, and they are eleven months apart, so they grew up doing everything together.
• Jacob loves sports and participates in adult volleyball and bowling leagues.
• He grew up on the Allegheny River in Pennsylvania and loves to get out on the water, boating, tubing, and jet skiing. 

Interview by Ruth Underwood

Ready to get moving? Shepherd’s partnership with burnalong®, an online platform offering on-demand health and wellness tools, including classes ranging from cardio workouts and yoga to stress management and financial wellness, brings the classes to you, no matter where you live. 

Shepherd’s highly trained specialists create live and on-demand content geared toward people with spinal cord injury, brain injury, stroke, spine and chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, and other neurological conditions. Shepherd patients, staff, and Burnalong users can access the classes, so you can take some motivation home with you.

“When our patients are at Shepherd, there’s always a rehabilitation professional there to guide them or give them information. We hope this platform can help them feel empowered to continue when they leave our walls,” says Marina Moldavskiy, ACRP-CP, Shepherd Center’s tele-wellness program manager and exercise physiologist.

For residents of metro Atlanta, ProMotion Fitness Center is a fully accessible gym offering fitness consultations, exercise classes, a weight room, a gym, and an indoor pool. Plus, it’s a good excuse to stop by Shepherd Center’s cafeteria for camaraderie and a healthy lunch.

Looking for something on the competitive side? The Fred, Shaler, and Andrew Alias Sports Teams program at Shepherd Center sponsors 10 teams for people with physical disabilities, including swimming, softball, fencing, and rugby teams. It’s a great avenue for people in and around Atlanta who love playing competitive sports.

“If you live outside the Atlanta area and aspire to do more competitive sports, contact your closest adaptive sports programs. Adaptive sports provide not only competition but also camaraderie and exercise opportunities. If you do join a team in another city, we’ll look forward to seeing you — and even competing against you — at tournaments,” says Matt Edens, CTRS, sports teams coordinator at Shepherd Center.

Not ready for the commitment and competition of joining a team but still want to try something new? You can check out the many Health and Wellness Clinics Shepherd offers the community. Virtual offerings include e-birding, art, and fitness clinics. In-person clinics range from pickleball and photography in Atlanta to surfing in Charleston, South Carolina, and skiing in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Paris Carter, an Atlanta native who participated in outpatient spinal cord injury rehabilitation at Shepherd in 2023, has tried out several of Shepherd’s clinics, including tennis, snow skiing, Adventure Skills Workshop (ASW), and Camp Twin Lakes weekend clinic. Those experiences and the connections she’s made have led her to try other adaptive sports in the community, including basketball and sled hockey.  

“I'm so grateful that I got the chance to try all this stuff because I feel like I'm far more active now than I ever was before my injury,” she explains. “It's important to still have fun and live the best life you can and still be active. And so picking up different sports and things like that has been really fun.”

Bonus: A key element of all these programs, whether online or in person, is the connections and community you’ll find.

“I've made a lot of friends along the way. One of my closest friends, I met her at one of the clinics, and then we were in the same cabin at ASW,” Paris says. “I'm really grateful for making these friends and just being a part of the Shepherd family.”

Written by Ruth Underwood

 

Shepherd Center has a new partnership aimed at getting people outdoors after illness or injury.

Shepherd Center formalized an adaptive hunting partnership with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in August. As part of the partnership, Shepherd Center recreation therapists will train DNR staff on leading adaptive hunting and fishing trips and other best practices for working with people with permanent or temporary disabilities. Additionally, the DNR will hold two adaptive hunting slots for Shepherd to fill with current and former patients as part of its Outdoors Beyond Barriers program.

“Our Outdoors Beyond Barriers initiative puts an emphasis on removing obstacles for people with mobility impairments and helping them connect with nature and take part in activities, like hunting, that may have previously been unavailable,” said Walter Rabon, Commissioner of Georgia DNR. “We are excited about this partnership with Shepherd Center because it will better prepare and equip our agency staff with the needed skills to effectively assist all Outdoors Beyond Barriers participants. In addition to that, the partnership will allow current Shepherd Center patients direct access to DNR staff to assist them in getting outside.”

Gavin McClintock, CTRS, an outdoor specialist in Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program, has been leading adaptive hunting trips for patients for seven years. As part of the new partnership, he led a training for DNR staff at Charlie Elliot Wildlife Center in Mansfield, Georgia.

“After being able to train a lot of the DNR members, I’m excited by their passion for the outdoors and the fact that they are so committed to assisting people with varying abilities to get back out and hunt,” McClintock said.

McClintock will join DNR staff to lead two designated hunts as part of the agency’s Outdoors Beyond Barriers program. He said the partnership will increase Shepherd Center’s access to public lands, allowing him to lead trips all over the state of Georgia. He has seven deer hunts planned, which will allow 80 participants to get outdoors and hunt this deer season.

Five years ago, on New Year’s Eve, Alesha was on a road trip with friends when the car she was riding in flipped, and she was thrown out the back window. When she landed, she sustained a T-10 to T-11 spinal cord injury (SCI). And while her life changed that night, she says her view of life ultimately changed as well.

“I thought my life was going to be over,” Alesha says. “I wasn't going to be able to do anything. I thought it was going to be a period. God put a comma there instead, and I have lived more now than I did before.”

Alesha went to Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, Georgia, before transferring to Shepherd Center for rehabilitation. She says the first night at Shepherd, her mom couldn’t stay with her, and she was terrified to be alone, but one of the nurses stayed by her side. “To this day, I still talk to Allie, the night nurse. She held my hand until I fell asleep.” 

Alesha participated in the inpatient Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program and the outpatient SCI Day Program and says the staff felt like family.

“From the first day, everybody was there to support me. Everybody was realistic. They allowed me to be angry, to be sad, to be whatever I wanted to be.”

At first, Alesha was hesitant to try new things. “I said, ‘Absolutely not. Why would I want to do that? That's going to be too much on my arms. Or physically, I'm incapable.’ I guess I didn't want to get used to being in a wheelchair. But now I've realized there's so much more life to live while in a wheelchair — even if it’s different, there is a way to do it. I have done so many things.”

Alesha says it was while she participated in the Day Program that she really started gaining a sense of independence.

“I was doing all the things. My therapist was really good at being firm but supportive.

That was one of my favorite things about Shepherd Center. They're always able to get me together, but in a supportive way, because sometimes I would overthink things and get anxious, especially if it was something new. I was always thinking of what could go wrong, versus now, I think about all the good things that could happen.”

Since graduating from the Day Program, Alesha has tried many activities through Shepherd’s Recreation Therapy Program. She’s participated in Adventure Skills Workshop, where she learned to waterski — now one of her favorite things to do. And she and her partner, K, recently took a trip to Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports (STARS) Ranch in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, to participate in an outdoor adventure program with Shepherd’s Recreation Therapy Program and STARS.

“I’m always so grateful that my partner gets to attend with me because it's easier for her to experience new activities with people who will tell us how to make it work, and we can ask for help if we need it. That's important.”

In 2022, Alesha was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Georgia, and she spent the year traveling around the state advocating for people with disabilities.

“That really started a fire for me to get involved in advocacy, because it's not about me.

It's about the generations coming behind me. I plan to go back to school for disability studies so I can learn more as well as apply my experiences. I’m excited to grow and see what I can do for the next generation.”

She’ll keep on trying new things — and growing.

“The things that I thought were going to be impossible, I’m doing them. And I'm blessed to have an amazing partner who will charge into the unknown right there with me. So, life is full of blessings, and it's amazing.”

Written by Ruth Underwood

“We're positioned as an innovation hub because we are leaders in the field. The Innovation Institute is a natural extension of that – giving us more capabilities, space, and resources to foster ingenuity,” says Deborah Backus, PT, Ph.D., FACRM, Shepherd Center’s vice president of research and innovation. “We collaborate with like-minded partners to advance rehabilitation medicine and find better, more efficient ways of delivering care to improve the lives of the people we serve.”

The new 30,000-square-foot Innovation Institute, which will occupy the top floor of the Marcus Center for Advanced Rehabilitation on Shepherd Center’s main campus and is slated to open in 2025, will be a hub for collaboration, allowing Shepherd researchers to form more of these robust partnerships to advance patient care. The following are just a few of Shepherd’s partnerships that are improving patients’ and their families’ lives.

Virtual Visits

In 2020, Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program partnered with Aetos Imaging, a technology company that takes scans of real-world locations such as restaurants, stores, and stadiums. Then, they create a 3D digital replica of the location. Shepherd’s recreation therapists label the scans, flagging potential barriers that people using wheelchairs, for instance, may need to consider when visiting the venue — including locations of accessible entrances, table or counter height, or type of flooring. The scans are invaluable for patients and care partners who are anxious about navigating life outside Shepherd. Therapists also use the images as a follow-up after an outing to cover anything a patient or caregiver might have missed during training sessions.

Kelly Edens, CTRS, recreation therapy manager at Shepherd, compares the experience to playing a video game.

“It's a tool to provide education for patients and families to get from A to B on outings to places like a doctor's office, a library, a church, or a stadium. Reviewing the scans lets patients sharpen problem-solving skills, prepare for outings, and even advocate for themselves. We never want a former patient to avoid going somewhere just because they use a wheelchair. We want them to have access to their community,” she explains.

Connor Offutt, CEO of Aetos Imaging, says that working with Shepherd Center to help patients rebuild their lives resonates with the company’s core values and allows Aetos to explore a different application of the technology.

“People are increasingly using the Aetos Operate platform to reintegrate within their communities and gain confidence in the real world. Like Shepherd Center, it’s our hope — and responsibility — to utilize technology in ways that benefit our neighbors,” he says.

Accessible Wellness Content

Another innovative partnership that builds community and allows Shepherd clinicians to reach patients after they return home is Shepherd’s partnership with burnalong®, an online platform that offers on-demand health and wellness tools. The hospital and online wellness platform are collaborating to create and distribute specialty programming that makes wellness accessible to all.

Shepherd’s highly trained specialists are developing live and on-demand content geared toward people with spinal cord injury, brain injury, stroke, spine and chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, and other neurological conditions. Currently, Shepherd patients, staff, and Burnalong users can access the classes.

“The great thing is that these classes span across all our specialties and are appropriate for many neurological diagnoses and patients who we serve at Shepherd,” says Marina Moldavskiy, ACRP-CP, Shepherd Center’s tele-wellness program manager and exercise physiologist.

Among the more than 50,000 classes are yoga, exercise, and financial wellness courses, among others, for people of all abilities.

“Alongside the unparalleled range of classes and programs, one of the biggest things that sets Burnalong apart is the social experience. You can see and hear each other live. You can join communities. It ensures people get the support they need,” says Daniel Freedman, president of commercial health and fitness, Tivity Health, and co-founder of Burnalong. 

“We are always thinking of ways to empower our patients before they return home,” Moldavskiy says. “When our patients are at Shepherd, there’s always a rehabilitation professional there to guide them or give them information. We hope this platform can help them feel empowered to continue when they leave our walls.” 

While Burnalong™ is creating an inclusive community, it also opens opportunities for further research. Shepherd Center’s Virginia C. Crawford Research Institute is piloting two studies to better understand the program’s benefits. One focuses on people with multiple sclerosis (MS). If you are interested in participating in MS research, scan the QR code for more information.  

A second study focuses on people who have sustained an acquired brain injury (ABI) and have been discharged from a hospital-based ABI program. The purpose of the study, conducted in collaboration with Moody Neurorehabilitation Institute in Texas, is to evaluate the potential efficacy of tele-wellness delivered through Burnalong™. For more information on ABI research or to volunteer, contact Erica Sutton at 404-367-1305 or erica.sutton@shepherd.org.

Written by Lindsey Rieben and Ruth Underwood

 “I started each of those as little seeds in cups on my windowsill there,” Kendall says. “It was through gardening as recreational therapy. When I came home, I brought those seeds in a planter with me and transferred them to my garden. Watching them grow throughout the season reminds me of how far I’ve come.”

On February 23, Kendall, 30, had a hemorrhagic stroke at the elementary school where she is a librarian. She spent 10 days in the ICU at Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital, where she had a craniotomy to relieve pressure and pain from brain swelling.

Kendall arrived at Shepherd Center shaken by the sudden events, desperately missing her two young daughters, and devastated by the loss of function in her left hand and arm.

Her turning point came when she learned Shepherd Center had an arts and crafts space.

A self-described “Jill of all trades,” Kendall says crafting is a core part of her lifelong identity, from sewing and knitting to jewelry and art. It’s why she prioritized anything that would help her regain mobility in her hand.

Kendall’s therapists emphasized recreational therapy to improve her motor skills and uplift her spirits. She made mosaic tiles. She painted. She made bracelets she would give her daughters, Cara, 5, and Gwen, 2, when they visited each weekend. And, yes, she gardened.

“Getting down to that arts and crafts room and seeing what I was capable of was really good for me,” Kendall says. “All the recreational therapy was mentally what I needed to make it through a really hard time.”

She also grew her love for beading while at Shepherd Center. The craft proved painstaking at first, stringing one tiny bead at a time. Eventually, as her hand function returned, her beadwork blossomed. She’s carried her new passion home, too. This summer, she began selling handmade beaded earrings — initially to friends and family, but now they’re available in a local hair salon.

Better yet, beading is another activity she and her kids do together, along with watercolor painting and sewing.

“I’m so thankful to be with my kids again,” Kendall says. “Being away from them was the most painful thing of all.”

She’s also reunited with her “other” kids. Kendall returned to some of her library duties at the end of the last school year. This August, she’ll take on a full load of classes as the school librarian, doing the things she’s passionate about with her students — teaching about different genres, talking about how to evaluate reliable sources, and reading the graphic novels many kids love these days.

It’s something Shepherd helped prepare her for, too. Her recreational therapists organized an outing to a local bookstore to practice scenarios she’d eventually encounter back at school.

“That outing made me aware of how things would be different to some degree when I went back to work,” Kendall says. “It helped me anticipate some of the challenges I might face.

“Of course, it also was nice just being around books again. I’d missed that. I remember I bought quite a few books for me and my kids! That was a really nice outing for this librarian’s soul.”

Written by Phillip Jordan

“Yeah, that was dope. It was the size of a bus,” Austin recalls about swimming in the Ocean Voyager exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium, one of his more memorable outings coordinated through Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program, the country's largest program of its kind. Funded by generous donors, recreation therapy is incorporated into rehabilitation programs to improve self-esteem, relieve stress, and increase mobility.

“The rec therapists at Shepherd were awesome about showing me I could still do the things I’d done before my injury,” he says. “And the stuff I’d never done!”

Austin, now 26, came to Shepherd Center in 2021 with far more modest dreams than swimming with sharks and manta rays. In September of that year, he had sustained a T-10 incomplete spinal cord injury in a motorcycle accident. It happened when a car pulled out in front of him as Austin, a FedEx delivery driver, was going to cash his latest paycheck.

When Austin transferred to Shepherd a month later, he had yet to sit up on his own. But he remembers the hope he felt as soon as he was wheeled through the doors.

“Everyone was all smiles and positive, helpful with anything,” Austin recalls. “I mean, the lady at the front desk was probably the nicest person I’d seen in a long, long time. It was really refreshing. I didn’t want for anything there.”

A few days in, he was sitting up with no assistance. By the end of that first week, he was pushing his wheelchair. Week two, he was putting on his clothes.

“It was crazy the progress, how quickly it happened,” Austin says.

He credits much of his improvement and positive attitude to all the recreational therapy opportunities. Pre-injury, Austin was almost always spending time outside in his hometown of Lookout Valley, Tennessee. He played basketball, football, tennis, and ultimate frisbee. He fished. He worked on cars and motorcycles, too.

“Anything with a competitive, outdoor nature to it, I’m in,” Austin says.

He quickly tried several rec therapy options during his inpatient rehabilitation, including tennis, swimming, and basketball. It’s also no surprise that Austin was thrilled to meet Shepherd Center’s outdoor recreation specialist, Gavin McClintock, CTRS. McClintock introduced Austin to hiking in a three-wheeled all-terrain wheelchair. And as Austin has continued to improve his upper-body strength and mobility over the past two years, he’s done so with the help of Shepherd’s outdoor experiences.

Working with adaptive tools and Shepherd Center’s recreation therapists, Austin learned to water ski and tube during Shepherd’s hugely popular Adventure Skills Workshop, held annually at Camp ASCCA, an accessible facility on Lake Martin. He’s gone rock climbing. He’s even learned to hunt, one of the rare outdoor activities he hadn’t done pre-injury. He's also fishing again, one of his longtime loves. Austin remembers his first fishing outing with McClintock and his Shepherd Center friends in creeks off the Soque River near Clarksville, Georgia. He caught several big rainbow trout during the outing, but they weren’t the only things in that stream getting hooked.

“I’m all about fly fishing now,” Austin says. “That was my first time, and, man, regular fishing feels boring now! With fly fishing, you’re always casting and reeling, so you’re constantly on task, always moving.”

Always in motion. That’s a pretty good description of Austin Yarbrough now, too.

Written by Phillip Jordan

In this issue of Spinal Column, we hear from former patients about how Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program helped them return to old adventures or prepare for new ones. During rehabilitation from a stroke, Kendall Ball was thrilled to discover the arts and crafts space at Shepherd. A self-described “Jill of all trades,” Kendall found crafting could be an essential part of her therapy. While an inpatient, Travis Daniel watched Shepherd sports teams from the sidelines — now he is a member of the Shepherd Smash quad rugby team and Shepherd Sluggers softball team. And while Austin Yarbrough always loved being outside, he discovered fly fishing on a recreation therapy outing and was hooked.

The magazine also features these stories, among other patient profiles, staff highlights, honorariums, and memorials:

Putting Relationships First

Detrick Gates, CTRS, finds the relationships he forms as a recreation therapist at Shepherd Pathways fulfilling.

The Healing Power of Adaptive Sports: Ellen Geddes’ Story

As former Shepherd Center patient and parafencing medalist Ellen Geddes trains to qualify for the 2024 Paralympics, she shares how adaptive sports helped her adjust to life after injury and go for the gold.

A Story to Tell

After sustaining multiple traumas in a car crash, Cesar Perez worked hard to reclaim his life and discovered he had a story to share.

Subscribe here for print and/or e-newsletter versions of Shepherd Center's magazine.

I’ve worked at Shepherd for almost four years. As a recreation therapist at Shepherd Pathways,

I work with patients with brain injuries. I assess the level of assistance each person will need to be engaged in the community safely. So, if the person is ambulating, we walk to the park or the grocery store. Do they know to hit the button at the crosswalk? Do they know to look both ways? If we go somewhere that requires a van trip and I give them directions, can they get me back to our starting point? If they can, great; if they can’t, that’s okay too. That lets me know the level of assistance or supervision they need to be safe. I give them every opportunity to do as much as they can on their own. The goal is for that person to be as independent as possible.

My secondary role is supporting the other therapists in developing skills that the person needs to get back to their life. And then probably what I enjoy the most is the opportunities we have to get outside the walls and engage the larger community with events like Adventure Skills Workshop (ASW) and our health and wellness clinics.  

How did you hear about Shepherd Center, and what made you want to work here?

My uncle has polio, and he played basketball and tennis on the Shepherd teams, so my dad and I used to come to watch him play. I also had a cousin who was a patient in the MS Institute. So, our family has a long-running history with Shepherd.

Do you remember your first day at Shepherd?

I still remember the first day on the floor. It was exciting. You have all these patients in the therapy gym, all these families, and the energy was palpable. You could feel it. That was really cool.

What do you find most fulfilling about your job?

The relationships. It's the best part that nobody teaches you in school. We learn all of the techniques, theories, and applied sciences, and we need them, but this person is not a theory. This is a person with needs and goals, and they're dealing with really tough things. And I’ve realized that before I get to anything therapy-related, I need this person to trust me. So, I put a lot of my focus on building relationships. So that's my favorite part — what I call forging my way into the family. I want them to see me as somebody who really cares about them first, and then I think the therapy part comes a lot easier.

The team dynamic is great. The other rec therapists, the other therapists that I'm on a treatment team with, are just phenomenal, and this job would be almost impossible without that group because so much of what I can incorporate into therapy is because I have three other experts in the room with me. I can talk things through with them, take new ideas back to the patient in the next session, and know that we will be doing something to help them succeed.

What are some of your best days at work?

When we get an email or phone call from a family member telling us how well their loved one is doing. When they leave us, they're still early in the journey, so the best days are when we get an update, or I run into a former patient somewhere, and the last time I saw them, they couldn’t talk, and now we're having a full conversation. Also, what I might think is a great day for one of our patients because we really pushed them to another level, and it will benefit them, may have frustrated them at the same time. But I don't see that as a bad day; I see that as growth!  It's a matter of perspective. A good day may not mean everything went the way we wanted it to — a good day may mean we made it through, even if it was a tough session.

How does your role affect patients and their families?

I hope that they see the benefits of engaging in recreation therapy. We want to promote independence, but it can also be an opportunity to introduce people to something new.

And I hope those new activities add to their quality of life. I push our health and wellness initiatives because I think it's beneficial and helps people engage. There are so many things you can do, and having an injury or disability is not a limiting factor. I try to communicate that and that yes, life will probably look a little different, but different doesn't mean worse —different just means different — and we can do different better.

Education

• Morris Brown College, Bachelor’s degree in Recreation Therapy  

Fun Facts

• Detrick loves spending time with his daughters and attending all their sporting events.
• He loves sports and played baseball and football in college.  
• Detrick also played violin and bass in high school.
• Detrick is the handler for Shepherd Center’s facility dog, Poet.

Interview by Ruth Underwood

After Les made it through a high-risk surgery, his doctors said he should transfer to a spinal cord injury rehabilitation hospital. So, his daughter, Codi, began researching and asking professionals what their next move should be.

“I began asking every case worker, surgeon, nurse, and each person with the slightest bit of medical background I came across — if they were in this situation, where would they want to be taken?” Codi explains. “The answer was nearly unanimous. ‘Take him to Shepherd Center in Georgia.’”

That’s exactly what they did. At Shepherd, medical professionals determined that Les’ spinal cord injury was incomplete and that he had also sustained a traumatic brain injury. Les and his medical team got to work, and he began progressing in his rehabilitation. As the months passed, and Les graduated from the inpatient program to the Spinal Cord Injury Day Program, his sense of humor never faltered, and he and Codi relied on their knack for connecting with others to create meaningful relationships with staff and patients.

“We spent every Tuesday evening sitting and having family dinners with everyone, including [Shepherd Center co-founder] Mrs. Alana Shepherd, who always came with a fun conversation, but our closest bond was with her granddaughter, Julie,” Codi says. “My dad is a serious animal lover. So, when he needed cheering up, Julie would come by with Lanza [one of Shepherd’s facility dogs]. Of course, Dad and Lanza became best buddies, and in the process, Julie did too.”

For Les’ family, those who had been strangers mere months ago were now even closer than friends. They became family.

“We got to know staff from housekeeping to the coffee kiosk and patients from all over,” Codi says. “When you're there as long as we were and surrounded by people whose lives are also getting flipped upside down, everyone quickly becomes an extension of your family. We've created a lifelong family at Shepherd.”

Today, Les has made spectacular progress and has returned home to his farm with his wife and daughter. But Codi felt she could not leave without a formal goodbye. She wrote a letter recapping some of the firsts she shared with her dad during his recovery at Shepherd Center.

 Excerpts from her letter to Shepherd are below:

Though Dad won't say goodbye until the end of the week, today, I say goodbye (for now) to Atlanta.

I wasn't expecting to be as emotional about this as I am. I wasn't expecting to leave without an hour-long thank-you, hug, and tears galore for each and every person who's touched our lives. But alas, here we are, so that must mean this isn't "goodbye" forever.

A third of my year has been spent here, and though sometimes it feels like only a blip, most of the time, it feels like years. I'll miss these people.

The people who have taught me more about myself than I could ever imagine, who have guided this journey, who have held my hand. 

The people who selflessly devote their lives to the families inside these walls.

I've laughed, cried, and shared so much "life" with this new family we've acquired.

I've learned about their children, met their families, hung out with them, and had countless talks over coffee.

They've even learned how Grammy is DEFINITELY making a scrapbook of her visits, gotten to know about her "silver sneakers" group, and seen firsthand where Dad's personality comes from. We've shared meals, swapped stories, cried together, and made each other laugh like crazy.

These are the people that saved my dad.

VCU did the footwork in the beginning and kept him with us, but Shepherd has given him life.

Dignity. Love. Independence (and even a doctorate degree, if you ask him 😜).

You know how parents track babies with milestones?

Caretakers do, too... DAUGHTERS do, too.

-First time in a wheelchair

-First lunch at a table in the cafeteria

-First Easter 

-First time moving legs again with the NuStep

-First time playing cards to gain back some memory

-First time sitting up by himself

-First time learning to balance on the edge of a surface

-First time navigating life outside of a hospital

-First day transferring without a Hoyer

-First day playing games outside again

-First Memorial Day 

-First day navigating society via a farmer's market outing

-First time walking Annie

-First time doing yoga

-First time driving a track chair

-First time out to dinner as a family

-First time putting on pants without help

-First Project Rollway

-First time driving a manual chair

-First time picking up his own legs

-First time laying on his stomach

-First time on the tilt table

-First time cooking

-First Father's Day

-First custom wheelchair (x2)

-First standing frame 

-First Peachtree Road Race

-First July 4th

-First time on the news

-First time being appointed Mayor

-First time getting in and out of a car

-First (and soon second) Graduation

-First time navigating an apartment

-First time getting in and out of bed

-First time "scooting" around at the zoo

-First time in the pool

-First time walking in the pool

-First time walking on the Lokomat

...the list goes on and on! 

When we got here, our lives looked a lot different. They still do, but my, how he's grown! I'm so proud of how far my dad's come since March, and I'm eager to see how far he'll go as he continues his recovery and rehabilitation in North Carolina. I'm grateful for our time at Shepherd, all the connections we've made, and the family we've gained, but I'm more excited to see how much progress we can make before we come back for a visit.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you who have supported us near and far. Especially our friends and family at Shepherd Center. Don't think I'm letting you go without your own personal sappy letter - I'm just a bit behind.

On to our next adventure!

See you soon, Carolina ✨

- Codi Southerland

Written by Lindsey Rieben

As JJ transferred from Memorial Health to Shepherd Center’s Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program, he was overwhelmed by the amount of support he received from family, friends, and his church community.

“People came out of the woodwork,” he says. “My now late stepdad started a GoFundMe, and people in the community I hadn’t talked to in a while came to see me. It was wild. All these people cared and pulled together to help me.”

One visitor was Chris Heitzman, a lifelong friend of JJ’s. Chris had insight into recovery at Shepherd Center because he had been a patient himself. Six years before JJ’s injury, Chris sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a car crash and spent months in Shepherd Center’s Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program.

“He gave me hope, especially at the time,” says JJ. “It was really mentally hard for me, and he gave me inspiration to not give up.”

Under the care of Wes Chay, M.D., JJ began making progress and developing habits that would help him lead a healthier lifestyle. He started attending outings with Shepherd Center’s recreation therapy program, which is funded by generous support from donors, to hone his outdoor skills, including hunting.

“After I left Shepherd Center, I started going hunting with the KT Team,” says JJ. “KT is a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities get back to the outdoors. That’s how I got hooked on turkey hunting. That’s basically all I hunt now.”

Through recreational therapy activities like hunting, JJ also found his calling to give back.

“I went back to my old fraternity house, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, at Georgia Southern, and there was an active brother there who uses a wheelchair,” JJ explains. “I was able to take him on a KT Team hunting trip as his guide, and that’s when it clicked in my heart that this is what I needed to do. I needed to pay it forward.”

From that point on, paying it forward was precisely what JJ did. He started searching for volunteer opportunities to reintegrate into the community including local chapters of Shriners and Masons. He also found joy in giving back to his church community by running sound and lighting and counseling middle and high school youth. Eventually, he joined Shepherd Center’s Junior Committee, a volunteer group of young professionals committed to advancing Shepherd Center’s mission through fundraising and volunteer opportunities. During that time, he was contacted by Chris’ family.

“Chris’ dad saw that I was volunteering and knew I was also looking for some way to support myself,” JJ says. “He asked how I would feel about becoming a caregiver for Chris. It was a godsend.”

With all the progress he had made, JJ felt confident in his ability to care for Chris and took classes to become his legal caregiver. Today, the two lean on each other for support and brotherhood, while JJ provides essential support to Chris. They go on outings like Atlanta Braves games, working out at the gym, and mini golf. JJ also assists Chris in getting to and from his job at Publix.

“Chris is just such a huge blessing,” JJ says. “He keeps me humble and reminds me every day of the blessings I have.”

One of those blessings, JJ says, is recreation therapy.

“Life is never the same after a traumatic injury,” JJ says. “Prayer, help from family and friends, and recreation therapy saved my life.”

Written by Lindsey Rieben.

One month before Noah’s 18th birthday, he was out with his friends at a trampoline park, enjoying a day of fun and recreation. In an attempt to do a double front flip, Noah landed on his head, sustaining a high-level spinal cord injury. He was rushed to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, where he received treatment and was referred to Shepherd Center.  

Noah spent two months as an inpatient at Shepherd Center’s Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program, grinding hard to regain his strength. Once he went home, he didn't stop there. Noah returned for the Day Program, pushing himself to new limits. That’s when he heard about the Shepherd Smash rugby team, one of the 11 adaptive sports teams of Shepherd Center’s Fred, Shaler, and Andrew Alias Sports Teams Program. Being part of the Smash pushed his rehabilitation to a new level.

“About a year after my injury, I was asked to come try out adaptive rugby,” says Noah. “For someone newly in a chair, it was good to have people in chairs around you who have been doing this for a while. Not just to learn from them, but to have people who know exactly what you’re dealing with. There, they do.”

Being part of that team gave him a sense of camaraderie and a chance to unleash his competitive side again, but that was just the beginning. Noah found other adrenaline-pumping activities like waterskiing after participating in Shepherd Center’s Adventure Skills Workshop (ASW), a weekend camp designed for people with life-changing injuries or illnesses to practice hands-on adventure skills. There, he met Bill Furbish, an 11-time national champion in adaptive waterskiing and the adaptive waterski coach.

 “He saw that I had an interest and took me under his wing, and he hasn’t let go since.”

On top of picking up two new sports, Noah could not stay away from his true love: mountain biking.

“Now that I was in this new life, I felt like the only way to truly get back to being myself was through mountain biking,” explains Noah. “It was the longest sport to get back to because I didn’t have the means to get a mountain bike. So, the community came together to help me raise funds and get back to mountain biking. I feel like I’m myself again.”

Noah’s mission is to raise awareness for adaptive mountain biking in the Southeast so he can help others regain their independence as well.

Adaptive sports have been a game-changer for Noah – both physically and mentally. Being surrounded by people who understand what he's been through and having the chance to compete again have been essential in building his confidence.

“Of all the paths you can take to rehabilitation, I think sports is the number one,” he says. “If you can, I definitely recommend giving it a try.” 

Written by Lindsey Rieben

Pursuing Possible with Shepherd Center

To support patient stories like this, please consider contributing to Shepherd Center's Pursuing Possible campaign. Click here to learn more.

In May 2019, Calista and her family were on a road trip from Ohio to Virginia. There was a wreck ahead of them on the interstate, and traffic stopped. Calista’s SUV was hit from behind by one car and then on the side by a tractor-trailer. One of her sons had a broken femur, but the rest of her family escaped with minor injuries. Calista sustained a T-3 spinal cord injury along with many other broken bones.

Calista was air-lifted to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she spent three weeks before transferring to the ICU at Shepherd Center.

When she arrived at Shepherd, her care team suggested Calista continue weaning from her tracheostomy, which had been helping her breathe since the accident. “Right away, they told me I should try four hours without the trach, and I thought, “Today? Are you sure?’ But I did it,” she recalls.

“That started the journey. I thought, ‘You've got just as much faith in me as I have in myself, so let's push through this together,’” she remembers. “And I gradually got to eight hours without the trach, then 12 during the day, and then after a while, I didn’t need it at all, and I was using the speaking valve to practice my breathing and get my lungs stronger.”

The recovery process was difficult, and on top of working on getting stronger, Calista was concerned about her kids.

“I wanted them to be in their environment because I felt like so much had been taken from them already. I wanted them to have a little bit of normalcy,” she explains.

So, while her mom, dad, and husband took advantage of Shepherd’s family housing so they could stay by her side, Calista’s mother-in-law stayed with their three young sons at their home in Cincinnati.

As Calista continued to heal and progress, she took advantage of every opportunity her therapists offered.

“I did the picnic in the park and learned how to do the hand-control bike. I tried basketball, but I really couldn't play basketball when I could walk, so I don't know why I thought I'd be any good,” she laughs. “That was a very short-lived activity.”  

Calista says she also learned a lot through outings with Shepherd Center’s renowned Recreation Therapy Program.

“Shepherd taught me to advocate for myself,” she says. “I was fearful about reentering society — about people not knowing what I can and can't do and leaving me out because they're afraid to figure it out or interact,” she explains. “My first breakthrough was when I went to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium to watch the Atlanta Falcons football game. That was my first trip out in the real world, and I was worried about navigating around people in my wheelchair. The team told me, ‘Don’t be bashful. Don't be afraid. You’ve got this.’ They taught us to push our boundaries.”

And Calista continues to push boundaries. In October 2019, she went home. She returned to Shepherd for a month in the Day Program, where she says she regained even more independence. By spring 2020, she was back at work full-time. Calista says Shepherd’s Peer Support Program proved invaluable during that transition. Her job requires some travel, and her peer mentor helped her think through preparations for navigating business travel without her family support system.

“The fact that they stay connected anytime you have a question is great,” she explains.

Calista wants to encourage others to keep working hard and pushing their own boundaries in whatever they do.

“I want anybody reading my story to know that the sky's the limit. You get out what you put in. So, you just have to keep working hard and challenging yourself in order to grow. And it's worth it.”

Written by Ruth Underwood

Pursuing Possible with Shepherd Center

To support patient stories like this, please consider contributing to Shepherd Center's Pursuing Possible campaign. Click here to learn more.

The mural is the brainchild of Shepherd Center Arts Specialist Alexandra Chukabarah, MS, who was looking for a project to do with patients in the adolescent program.

“I thought a mural would be a nice way to engage more people and promote a sense of community,” Chukabarah says, “and a way to add color and vibrancy to aspace everyone uses.”

Chukabarah solicited the help of Minna Hong, an artist and former peer support manager at Shepherd Center. Hong was a patient at Shepherd Center in 1999 after sustaining a spinal cord injury in a car accident. The two spent several “Fun Friday” sessions with the adolescents from both the Spinal Cord Injury and Brain Injury RehabilitationPrograms – as they brainstormed ideas of their vision for the wall.

The teenagers wanted every level of injury represented in the mural so that all patients could feel a connection. They also came up with a list of words they wanted to convey in the painting, such as hope, courage, family, sports, friends, school, and love. Under the guidance of Chukabarah and Hong, the group settled on the theme of birds flying in different stages. It is inspired by the poem “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers” by Emily Dickinson.

“The main design is a series of origami birds taking form and taking flight along the wall,” Chukabarah explains. “This design captures the idea of rebuilding one’s life and giving form to something new – as seen in the folding of origami – and also in our patients’ unique journeys at Shepherd Center. It also conveys the message we want to capture of the hope that lives at Shepherd.”

For the young people creating the mural, it was more than an art project. It was a way for them to share their hope for the future and leave their mark on Shepherd Center long after leaving the hospital.

“Their words and their vision come through in the mural,” Hong says. “Giving them the space to decide what they wanted to see and what they wanted to share was empowering. They wanted future patients to feel inspired.”

While the adolescents took the lead in painting the mural, Chukabarah arranged it so that other groups of patients, as well as family members and staff, had an opportunity to contribute to the project. Lewis Haney, who works in Shepherd Center’s engineering department, volunteered to prepare the walls before Chukabarah and Hong outlined the shapes of the origami birds with painter’s tape so that those painting could just fill in the shapes. The design was intentionally accessible so that all patients could participate, including those painting with a mouth stick. 

The mural is funded by a $2,500 grant from a generous donor and FoundationTrustee, Sherry Abney, and was completed in May. 

Although this mural is a special project, Chukabarah regularly offers Shepherd Center patients ways to express their creativity through painting, drawing, pottery, photography, and other mediums as part of the hospital’s art therapy program.

“There is so much healing power in art,” Chukabarah says. “It’s a form of expressing ourselves and can often hold so much more meaning than words.”

Hong, who worked at Shepherd Center for 18 years until her retirement in 2019, agrees.

“Art has been so therapeutic to me,” she says. “It helps me focus and gives me a sense of calm. I hope this project does the same for others. I was honored they asked me to come back and be a part of it.”

Written by Sara Baxter

Q: How long have you worked at Shepherd Center?
I have worked at Shepherd Center for 13 years.

Q: How would you define what recreational therapists do?
We do skills, education and community reintegration to get people to living life again, however that looks for that individual and their family.

Q: What is the process to become a rec therapist?
It’s a four-year degree. I have a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in therapeutic recreation and a minor in psychology. Then you do an internship. Once the internship ends, you sit for a national exam to become certified.

Q: What inspired you to become a recreational therapist?
We always joke, “How did you fall into rec therapy?” because many of us didn’t initially start out on that track in school. When I was in college, I was a student-athlete and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I went to my counselor, and I told them what I was interested in: I wanted to do something different each day, work with people, be active, and work with families and kids. My counselor advised I try rec therapy. In one of my classes, we did a six-week camp for kids with disabilities from the community and I fell in love with that work. After that, I knew I wanted to pursue recreational therapy for a career!

Q: What has kept you at Shepherd Center for 13 years?
The patients keep me here. Each day is different and I’m always working with someone new on their goals. I’ve created lifelong friendships with some of my former patients. I’m actually going to a wedding this year for one of my kiddos who was 13 when he was my patient and now he’s getting married. Just seeing how what I did with them while they were here has helped them be successful and live their lives to the fullest is so rewarding. 

Q: What’s one thing you want people to know about your profession?
Recreational therapists take a holistic view about each of our patients, including the physical, cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and put it all together to come up with an individualized plan. We treat the whole person.

Interesting Facts

EDUCATION
Kent State University; Bachelor of Science with a concentration in therapeutic recreation and a minor in psychology
CTRS: Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist

FUN FACTS

• Shannon ran track and field from the age of 10 through college. She even received a full scholarship for college as a student-athlete.
• Shannon has a daughter who is 15 and a half years old (she clarified that it’s very important to include the “half”).

Interview by Damjana Alverson

Q: How long have you worked at Shepherd Center?
I have worked at Shepherd Center as an outdoor recreation specialist for 4 and a half years.

Q: What does a recreational therapist do?
We promote an independent lifestyle by improving somebody’s physical, emotional, social and cognitive wellness through their own recreation goals. If somebody is interested in hunting, for example, we think about how they can get back to that activity as independently as possible by increasing their physical wellness and giving them the confidence to go for it.

Q: So, you are a recreational therapist with a specialty in outdoor recreation. What inspired you to do that for your career?
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, and I have always been outdoors, camping, hiking and fishing with my family. In particular, my dad, both grandfathers and brother inspired my love for the outdoors. My mom was also a nurse aide for more than 40 years, and seeing her helping others instilled that passion in me, too. Recreational therapy was the perfect fit to combine both worlds.

Q: How are patients referred to work with you?
I get a referral from their primary inpatient recreational therapist who tells me they are interested in outdoor recreation. I meet them, talk about their goals and let them know all the exciting options we have available for them to regain their independence and get back to doing what they love. Then we start actually doing those activities together at the hospital and in outings in the community.

Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job?
As a specialist, I love that I’m able to see somebody from when they first get to Shepherd Center as an inpatient, all the way through our outpatient Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Day Program and Beyond Therapy®.  We work on reconnecting with a passion they already have or finding something new to fill their cup every day. That’s the greatest part of this job – helping people get back into the community and life again.

I also love using my creativity to adapt anything to help my patients. One example that comes to mind is how I helped develop a skeet sling. Individuals with limited upper extremity functions can shoot skeet with equipment that I helped develop with an occupational therapist. Basically, the patient puts the gun on the skeet sling, and it helps them move left and right to shoot. Finding solutions like that motivates me every day.

Q: What’s one thing you want people to know about your profession?
I think that they should know how important it is to the rehabilitation process. We have great therapists who help patients with their necessary functions and activities of daily living. What we do is help patients apply what they learn to how they live and enjoy their lives every day. 

Interesting Facts

EDUCATION
University of Wisconsin – La Crosse: bachelor’s degree in recreation therapy
CTRS: Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist

FUN FACTS

• Gavin is a twin.
• He has two dogs: a chocolate lab named Hank and a German Shepherd/hound mix named Reggie. Gavin and his wife love sports, and both dogs are named after famous athletes.
• Gavin loves music and plays the drums.

Interview by Damjana Alverson

Jenny DiLaura, MA, CCLS, CTRS, lead therapist for health and wellness clinics in the Recreation Therapy department, joins Shepherd Center Radio to discuss the role of recreation therapy in the rehabilitation process. The podcast also takes a look at the digital health and wellness programs designed to bring recreation therapy to those at home.

Download the podcast as an audio file above, or access it at shepherd.org/radio.

Jenny DiLaura has been a practicing CTRS for the last 14 years in neurological rehabilitation. She received her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Iowa in Leisure Studies specializing in Recreation Therapy and Child Life. She is very passionate about wellness and loves providing education, online programs, and hands on experiences for those with physical disabilities and illness to increase their own knowledge and experiences in health and wellness.

To learn more about recreation therapy, visit www.shepherd.org/recreation-therapy.

He’d sustained a C-1 to -2 fracture during a football scrimmage game. The play was routine. The consequences were life-altering.

“I was playing cornerback, I went to make a tackle, hit the kid and everything went black,” Jefferey says. “I thought maybe I had a concussion, like I had in eighth grade. That’s all I remember.”

Coaches initially thought Jefferey merely had the wind knocked out of him. Unable to speak, he then mouthed to an assistant, “Coach, I’m scared.”

As the assistant recalled later, “Jefferey was dying.”

A trainer worked on him while someone else called for an ambulance. Jefferey spent more than a month at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville before transferring to Shepherd Center.

“We were all scared,” says Alicia Parker, Jefferey’s mother. “We thought this is just crazy. Life’s over. But then you get to Shepherd, and it’s a whole different ballgame.”

Jefferey remembers Shepherd Center’s interdisciplinary staff – doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, recreation therapists, nurses and others – springing into action. Within a week, he began to move his head a bit, then started learning to drive his wheelchair without a head rest.

“They don’t take it easy on you,” Jefferey says of the Shepherd staff. “They know your expectations. They push you to be stronger and stronger.

“After a while,” he adds, “they basically became family. They don’t treat you any different than people treated you before your accident.”

As he gained independence one small victory at a time, the scared kid returned to being the “very determined” teenager his mother says he’d always been. As they do with all patients, the Shepherd staff involved him in setting weekly rehabilitation goals.

“That was important,” Alicia says. “While he doesn’t have function below his neck, his mind is 100 percent. To be included in those decisions was a big thing. It gave him back a little of his independence.”

One of Jefferey’s goals was to play video games again, especially Madden NFL. Because Jefferey uses a ventilator to breathe and has limited movement in his hands, the therapy team got to work pooling ideas and resources to make that happen.

“We knew our work was cut out for us,” says Shanna Thorpe, CTRS, a recreational therapist. “I worked vigorously with occupational therapist Katie Kimball to get his setup perfect. After many, many attempts and failures, we were finally comfortable with him ordering his own equipment.”

Kimball worked with Modular Hose, a company that creates hose systems commonly used in assistive technology applications to position a switch, tablet or lightweight communication device, to create a custom mounts for Jefferey.

“Modular Hose was amazing to work with,” Kimball says. “We went back and forth on the phone and through email to customize a set of mounts for Jefferey that were ideal for his gaming needs. Once they were received, Jefferey and I sent them some photos and videos of him in action and they couldn’t have been happier to be part of the process.”

Adina Bradshaw, MS, CCC-SLP, ATP, a speech pathologist and assistive technology specialist, also helped with Jefferey’s sip-and-puff switch, which is used to send signals to a device using air pressure by inhaling or exhaling on a straw or tube. Without that piece, Jefferey wouldn’t have had as much independence playing.

The collaboration paid off. Using an adaptive controller he operates with his straw, tongue and jaw, Jefferey started playing with his mother. His ultra-competitive nature soon emerged, and he played against other patients. When he finally lost a game, he half-joked to Alicia of his opponent: “He’s got hands and I don’t. That doesn’t count.”

“It was really cool to see him and his mom be able to play Madden NFL against each other when Jefferey was an inpatient,” Thorpe recalls. “Once Jefferey discharged, he was holding weekly game nights and tournaments at his house with his own Xbox setup. He got his competitive spirits back and had a sense of normality again. He even left Shepherd Center undefeated against other patients.”

Through therapy, outings and yes – Madden NFL – Jefferey became close to other patients in the Adolescent Rehabilitation Program, which focuses on the more than 100 spinal cord and brain injury patients, ages 12 to 21, admitted to Shepherd Center each year. Treatment team members provide age-appropriate therapy and expertise, while also addressing the age group’s specific needs for autonomy, privacy and control.

Jefferey became the group’s “mayor,” an unofficial leadership position passed down from patient to patient. He kept up with his schoolwork by meeting with Shepherd’s academic coordinator several days a week.

Patients went together on outings to restaurants and stores, where they practiced skills out in the community that they’d learned inside Shepherd Center. They bonded over shared experiences.

“It gives you a perspective that it’s not just you by yourself,” Jefferey says

Jefferey went home from Shepherd on January 9, 2019. He returned to school and graduated on time with his high school class. He was also honored at the Tennessean Sports Awards with the 2019 Kaia Jergenson Courage Award.

Jefferey returned to Shepherd Center in June 2019 to model in Project Rollway, the annual fashion show and fundraiser for the Adolescent Rehabilitation Program. He also received a $2,500 scholarship from Ramp Less Traveled, a nonprofit (founded by former Shepherd patient Jay Ruckelshaus) dedicated to helping students with spinal cord injuries go to college.

Jefferey talked with current patients while he visited Shepherd Center to provide peer support to those who currently in rehabilitation. He says he’s paying forward the support that former Shepherd patients once gave him.

“I tell them it’s hard at first, but once you find your way, it’s a lot easier,” he says.

With the aid of a note taker and nurse, Jefferey now attends Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, and is majoring in criminal justice. He wants to be a lawyer, just as he planned before his injury.

On weekends, he hosts Xbox nights with friends. He’s still winning.

“He’s a typical 18-year-old boy,” Alicia says. “Shepherd gave him his independence back and hope for the future.”

Written by Drew Jubera

“This day allows for patients of Shepherd Center, staff and the Planters Garden Club members come together to make a wonderful difference in so many ways,” Kelly Edens, recreation therapy manager, says. “The Shepherd Center’s Secret Garden gets a face lift with all new annuals being planted by the patients working on their therapeutic goals.”

The Planters Club has joined the horticulture therapy program for the event for the past five years, donating their time, talents and beautiful plants.

Horticulture therapy is a part of Shepherd Center’s recreation therapy program, which is funded by generous donors. Recreation therapy aims to help people with a temporary or permanent disability caused by injury or disease to lead healthy and active lifestyles as independently as possible through the use of recreation activities, providing education, skill development and community reintegration opportunities. To give to the recreation therapy program, visit shepherd.org/give.

An avid athlete who grew up on the water, Sydney became paralyzed from a staph infection in her spinal cord in December 2018. Not being able to get back to sports and life on the water that she loved was a big fear – until she went to Shepherd Center’s Adventure Skills Workshop (ASW).

Held annually on the third weekend in May, ASW is a three-day sports and adventure camp hosted by Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program. It takes place at Lake Martin at Camp ASCCA, a wheelchair-accessible facility in Jackson’s Gap, Alabama. ASW attendees get hands-on practice in activities they might have been pros at before their injury or illness, as well as activities they would like to try for the first time.

“ASW is like a buffet of sports and activities,” Christi Fowler, Sydney’s mom says. “Sydney went until the sun went down!”

Sydney completed her inpatient and day rehabilitation at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and participated in Beyond Therapy®, Shepherd Center’s rigorous, activity-based rehabilitation program. Just five months after her infection, Sydney was full throttle at ASW.

“I water skied, went tubing, went scuba diving, swimming – all of it,” Sydney says. “I was so newly injured that I didn’t know all of the things I could do. It was my first time back in the water or on a boat since my injury, and it was so much fun.”

Sydney also tried the confidence course, kayaking, skeet shooting, wheelchair basketball, tennis and rugby.

Shepherd Center Board Member and volunteer, Juli Owens, leads a volunteer effort at ASW every year. She says it’s an experience that stays with her all year long.

“This was my fourth year in a row going to ASW, and it never gets old,” Juli says. “The smiles and the laughter from a camper when you see him or her try something like water skiing for the first time after their injury fill your heart and soul, not to mention the tears of joy and gratefulness flowing down your face!”

This year, 50 people attended the workshop, along with caregivers, family members, Shepherd Center staff, donors and volunteers, and the Shepherd family. More than 200 people were onsite altogether.

Every activity was planned especially for those with disabilities in mind. ASW is designed for current and former patients and commu-nity members with spinal cord injury or disease, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and transverse myelitis.

Each night at ASW included social activities, which helped fulfill one of the other purposes of the weekend.

“It was fun to meet other people my age who are in similar situations,” Sydney says. “We made so many connections.”

For those who attend ASW, the lessons they learn last well beyond the three-day event.

“People leave here with the skills and passion they need to pursue activities at home that they once thought were impossible,” says Kelly Edens, CTRS, Shepherd Center’s recreation therapy manager. “ASW changes lives.”

Sydney and Christi agree.

“ASW gave us the courage to get back out on our own boat,” Christi says. “On our very next trip home after ASW, we used the tips we learned at ASW. It eased our fears and completely changed our perspective of what is possible.”

ASW is scheduled for May 15 - 17, 2020. Registration will open February 14, 2020. To make a gift to ASW or recreation therapy, contact Courtney Harris at 404-350-3717 or courtney.harris@shepherd.org.

Written by Kerry Ludlam

Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy department helps people with a temporary or permanent disability caused by injury or disease to lead healthy and active lifestyles as independently as possible through the use of recreation activities, providing education, skill development and community reintegration opportunities.

In a new podcast with Shepherd Center Radio, associate manager of recreation therapy Cecilia Rider, MS, CTRS, discusses how recreation therapy is used in the rehabilitation environment to address therapy goals throughout the continuum of care. 

Download the podcast as an audio file above, or access it at shepherd.org/radio.

Cecilia started her tenure at Shepherd Center working as a primary Recreation Therapist on the inpatient SCI unit where she worked for 6 years before moving to the outpatient SCI unit for another 6 years. As the coordinating therapist for her facility’s travel education program, Cecilia works closely with representatives from Delta Airlines, AirServ and TSA to coordinate staff disability awareness education and hands-on training as well as her facility’s client travel education program. Cecilia is actively involved in institutional research projects to promote departmental growth and evidence-based practice. Cecilia is currently serving her second term on the NCTRC Standard’s Hearing Committee. Cecilia obtained her BS in Psychology from Auburn University Montgomery and her MS in Parks and Recreation Management from University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Patients helped with food prep and grilling burgers and hot dogs. They also helped set up hammocks and tents before enjoying their meals and playing games. Staff members on the adolescent rehabilitation team say they are incorporating important skills into a fun afternoon.

Each year, more than 100 adolescents are admitted to Shepherd Center’s spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation programs. Treatment team members provide age-appropriate therapy and expertise in returning these patients to the highest possible level of functioning and independence, while addressing adolescents’ needs for autonomy, privacy and control.

“Helping at the grill means working on strength in the lower extremities, and practicing standing and safety awareness,” Shanna Thorpe, Shepherd Center recreation therapist, says. “Some of the patients are working on feeding skills, like opening condiments, and they’re all socializing with other patients.”

The adolescent program often engages the patients in similar fun activities to apply the skills they’ve been working on, including community outings, such as going to restaurants, shopping malls and sports arenas to promote problem-solving and the experience of being out in the community in a supportive group.

Learn more about Shepherd Center’s rehabilitation programs for adolescents with spinal cord and brain injuries:

• Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation for Adolescents
• Brain Injury Rehabilitation for Adolescents

Discover Scuba classes, offered almost every month in Shepherd Center’s newly renovated heated indoor pool, are taught by Bert and Dawn Quist, owners of Divers@Sea, a full-service SCUBA diving center located just a few blocks from Shepherd Center. Bert and Dawn, who volunteer their time at Shepherd Center, teach patients and community members all aspects of scuba, from mask and snorkel swimming to deep end diving in full gear. 

For information on Discover Scuba and other Recreation Therapy activities, visit shepherd.org/recreation or call 404-350-7375.

Written by Dean Melcher

“They didn’t give me much assistance, either,” Mack says. “They’d just come by every few minutes and say, ‘Hey, your shorts still aren’t on.’ I remember thinking, ‘This is the place that’s supposed to be so great? Don’t they know I’m paralyzed?’”

“But they knew what they were doing and they knew what I was capable of,” he adds. “That’s what I grew to love about Shepherd Center. They prepare you. They challenge you. They support you, but they don’t pity you.”

Another challenge he received at Shepherd Center was to try some new sports. A former high school football player, Mack had never played basketball competitively. But during his six-month stay at Shepherd Center, he started falling for the game, enamored with its competitiveness, physicality and camaraderie. He began practicing with the Shepherd Stealers basketball team, and when he left, the coaches gave him information on a summer hoops camp at Auburn University.

Today, Mack, an accounting major, is a member of Auburn’s wheelchair basketball team, where he attends thanks to a scholarship from the Swim With Mike Foundation. Mack has also struck up an unlikely friendship with NBA legend Bill Walton. A chance encounter at a Dateland sandwich shop in Arizona turned into an ongoing bond between the two athletes. Thanks to Walton’s encouragement, Mack has spread his sporting focus to cycling and swimming, too, and has become active with the Challenged Athletes Foundation. At Walton’s invitation, Mack even participated in the Million Dollar Challenge – handcycling with Walton’s team down portions of the 620-mile route along the California coastline.

Mack still visits patients and staff at Shepherd Center whenever he passes through Atlanta, too.

“This is where I learned the importance of going forward and staying active,” Mack says. “Now, I’m the one telling new patients to try doing more than they think they’re ready to!”

Written by Phillip Jordan

“Adventure Skills Workshop offers participants a sense of adventure and independence,” says recreation therapy manager Kelly Edens, CTRS. “From trying new activities and perfecting old ones to meeting new friends, ASW is a highlight of every year for our participants, staff and volunteers.”

This weekend event is designed for people ages 15 and older with spinal cord injury or disease, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, post-polio syndrome, Guillain-Barre syndrome, transverse myelitis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Participants will get hands-on practice in outdoor activities they have always loved, as well as those they have always wanted to try, such as adaptive waterskiing, scuba diving, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, swimming, tennis, animal encounters, zip lining and wall climbing.

Participants who need assistance with self-care, transfers, mobility, following maps or directions, feeding or anything else, must bring a friend or family member.

ASW is held at Camp ASCCA, a wheelchair-accessible facility. The cost is $225 per person and includes meals, lodging, activities, instruction and a T-shirt. For family members or attendants, the cost is $200 and covers lodging, meals and a T-shirt. Directions and a detailed information packet will be sent upon receipt of application. Housing is in air-conditioned group cabins with a limited number of private rooms available.

The registration deadline is April 13. Space is limited, and registration is likely to close before the deadline date. In case of participant cancellations, organizers will maintain a waiting list after registration is full.

ASW is hosted by Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Program with the mission to help people with a temporary or permanent disability caused by injury or disease to lead healthy and active lifestyles as independently as possible through the use of recreation activities, providing education, skill development and community reintegration opportunities.

Other recreation therapy events and activities are also scheduled for 2018:

• Several health and wellness clinics, including adaptive golf, tennis and a para-triathlon clinic are planned throughout the year. These clinics are for individuals with a spinal cord injury, C-6 or below and other disabilities with similar physical function. The clinics provide the opportunity to become physically active and gain insight to achieve a well-balanced lifestyle.
• This year’s Wheelchair Division of Atlanta’s AJC Peachtree Road Race will be held on July 4. It showcases more than 100 wheelchair athletes and is one of the most competitive 10k wheelchair races in the country. A qualifying time is required to participate. Online registration is expected to open later this month.

For a full list of events, click here. All events require pre-registration. For more information, contact Recreation Therapy manager Kelly Edens at kelly.edens@shepherd.org or 404-350-7793.

The mission of Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Department is to help people with a temporary or permanent disability caused by injury or disease to lead healthy and active lifestyles as independently as possible through the use of recreation activities, providing education, skill development and community reintegration opportunities.

For a complete list of events, download the Recreation Therapy 2018 Event Brochure, and visit the Recreation Therapy event page on Shepherd.org. Registration for Adventure Skills Workshop will open February 14. More information about the AJC Peachtree Road Race will be available soon.

How did you come to choose this as a career field?

Matt: I was on a path to an education degree in college, and then I learned about adaptive sports. I started volunteering at different events. I decided to become a recreational therapist as it married my love of sports with wanting to teach.

Gustavo: I played competitive soccer, and it opened a lot of doors for me, so I wanted to pursue a career that had something to do with health and exercise. At first, I had a job that was not very fulfilling. I started praying for a job where I could make a difference.

In your role, how do you help clients become involved in sports?

Matt: For patients, it’s when they come down to the gym during practice. Athletes on the team usually go over and introduce themselves. That simple connection helps newly injured people see there is life after injury. For community members, I usually set up a meeting to go over the11 sports we offer and we start by picking a sport or two for them to come out and try.

Gustavo: I try to get to know them and what they are interested in and then explain what their options are. I demonstrate how they can still do that activity, or try to find something else that fills that same need. I also tell them that by being active, they can prevent secondary complications, such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

What is the best part about your job?

Matt: Watching the athletes working incredibly hard and pushing themselves to reach their goals, whether it’s achieving a personal record in a race or moving up into the starting line up on one of the team sports.

Gustavo: One of my favorite things is when they think they can’t do something, and then they discover they can. The first time they realize that, it is so rewarding.

Gustavo Duran-Monge, MS, CSCS

EDUCATION

Life University

B.S. – Physiology, Life University

M.S. – Exercise Science, Life University

NCSA – Certified strength and conditioning specialist

FUN FACTS

• Gustavo is originally from San Jose, Costa Rica, and came to the United States in 1998 on an athletic scholarship to play soccer for Life University in Marietta, Georgia.
• He is married and has a son and a daughter.
• He enjoys cycling, outdoor activities and spending time with his family.

Matt Edens, CTRS

EDUCATION

University of Georgia
B.S. – Education with an emphasis on recreational therapy

FUN FACTS

• Matt is married to Kelly Edens, a fellow Shepherd Center employee, and they have two daughters.
• He is a huge University of Georgia fan as well as all Atlanta sports, and when he can, he enjoys watching football, baseball and basketball
• Most of his leisure time is spent together as a family doing various activities from taking his girls to soccer games and practices, to movies, to bowling, and swimming or to the park. He also loves to cook on the grill or BBQ smoker.

Shepherd Center is thankful to the donors who make Shepherd Center sports and recreation therapy programs possible. To learn more and contribute, please visit shepherd.org/giving.

Interviewed by Sara Baxter

The mission of Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy Department is to help people with a temporary or permanent disability caused by injury or disease to lead healthy and active lifestyles as independently as possible through the use of recreation activities, providing education, skill development and community reintegration opportunities.

For a complete list of events, download the Recreation Therapy 2017 Event Brochure, and visit the Recreation Therapy event page on Shepherd.org.

And it’s one Ryan never imagined he’d be able to do again.

On August 8, 2015, Ryan was spending the day with friends on Lake Hartwell when he dove off the back of a boat and hit the bottom of the lake, causing an incomplete spinal cord injury at the C-7 level. He is paralyzed from the neck down and has limited use of his hands. He spent four months in Shepherd Center’s Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program, both as an inpatient and in the day program.

“Riding an ATV was something I never thought I would be able to do again,” Ryan says. “It was a huge triumph for me.”

He also has relearned how to hunt and drive a Jet Ski.

The self-professed outdoorsy person was able to accomplish his goals with the help of Chris Ravotti, the outdoor specialist in Shepherd’s recreation therapy program. Ravotti’s job is to help clients learn or relearn how to do outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, camping, kayaking, boating and ATV riding – post injury.

After an initial evaluation, Ravotti sets goals with his clients, and they work on strategies to meet those goals. They often begin practicing inside to learn the skills for outdoor activities – for example, kayaking in Shepherd Center’s pool.

“There are no rules in outdoor recreation,” Ravotti says. “If someone wants to kayak, we look at what challenges he or she needs to overcome – such as a balance or grip deficit – and we develop a way to make it work. I do whatever I can to help them accomplish their goals.”

Ravotti works with his clients in the hospital to troubleshoot, figuring out what adaptive equipment is needed and what does and doesn’t work.

“Most of my interventions focus on helping patients problem solve and adapt their environment to compensate for the loss of function,” he says. “By practicing the skills here, they are able to re-create the experience when they go home.”

For example, Ravotti showed Ryan how to hunt by mounting a stand on the footplate of his wheelchair to hold a rifle steady. At first, Ryan needed an adaptive device to pull the trigger, but his fingers have gotten stronger. Now, he can do it himself. Last fall, he went on a Shepherd-sponsored hunting trip and shot his first deer.

“Until I talked to Chris, I didn’t think I would be able to do any of the activities I had done before,” Ryan says. “He gave me the tools to go out in the real world and actually do it. I could see how the adaptations worked, understand the operation behind it and have an idea what I needed to do when I was on my own.”

Ravotti takes groups on outings about once a month and works with charter and equipment companies, community agencies, and private landowners who donate or discount their equipment and services. Past trips have included salt-water fishing in Panama City Beach, hog hunting in middle Georgia, white water rafting and multiple hunting trips.

Ravotti also acts as the logistics coordinator for Adventure Skills Workshop, the recreation therapy program’s largest annual event bringing people together for a spring weekend of water recreation and other outdoor sports.

When clients want to venture out on their own, Shepherd Center allows people to check out adaptive equipment from the department, including rifle rests and trigger adapters for hunting, gripping aids for fishing and steering aids for ATVs.

Ravotti says it’s very rewarding when he gets messages from former patients with a picture of them on an ATV or on a boat fishing or with their first deer or turkey from a hunting trip.

“I provided opportunities for them to learn the skills, but they had to put in the effort back home for a truly successful intervention,” Ravotti says. “Knowing I played a small part in their success means so much to me.”

Learn more about outdoor recreation opportunities here.

By Sara Baxter
Photos by Louie Favorite

Edens has worked at Shepherd Center for 15 years – five years as an inpatient/day program recreation therapist and 10 years as sports teams coordinator. Edens coordinates Shepherd Center's 11 sports teams with more than 100 athletes participating in Shepherd’s team practices. Shepherd Center athletes have won national and international competitions, with several athletes holding world records. More than 20 athletes from Shepherd Center have qualified to represent the United States in their sports during the past several Paralympic games.

“Gardening has always been a passion of mine,” she says. “I love being outside and digging in the dirt.”

Not everyone can turn a passion into a career, but that is just what Battaglia has done, becoming a master gardener, working as a landscape designer, and then two years ago, joining Shepherd Center as a horticulture specialist.

Battaglia grew up in Liverpool, England, where, she says, “Everyone has a garden.”

She worked alongside her grandparents and parents as they tended to their gardens.

“My grandfather had a vegetable garden, and my parents had the most beautiful flower gardens,” she says. “I learned so much from them, and it was always a joyful family activity.”

When Battaglia moved to the United States in 1982, she utilized her art and design education from John Moores University working as a fashion buyer. In 2002, she returned to England to care for her terminally ill mother and redesigned her entire garden, realizing that she could combine her love of art and gardening. Upon returning to the United States, she earned her master gardener certification and took a job as a landscape designer.

While volunteering at Skyland Trail, a mental health facility in Atlanta that embraces horticultural therapy as a treatment modality, Battaglia reconnected to the therapeutic benefits of gardening that she had experienced while caring for her mother. This led her to The Horticultural Therapy Institute to gain her certificate in Horticultural Therapy. In 2014, she saw an opening for a horticultural specialist at Shepherd Center and jumped at the chance to take it.

Just as her clients at Shepherd Center find meaning in what they do in therapy, she finds meaning in working with them. Last year, she worked with a client in Shepherd Center’s SHARE Military Initiative for three months, the first time she had worked with someone in this program for his or her entire treatment.

“He wasn’t sure at first if he wanted to try gardening,” she recalls. “But he was open to it.”

During the course of his horticulture therapy, he worked on many different projects, including designing a stone patio. He measured and drew the dimensions to scale, and the rendering was used to get quotes for the project.

“It was so great to watch him connect more and more with what he was doing and feel a sense of accomplishment,” she says. “He ended up developing a real interest and talent in gardening.”

In May, that SHARE client returned to Shepherd Center with his family and took great pride in showing them the work he had done in the garden and the patio design that had been installed according to his design. His wife made it a point to tell Battaglia how meaningful gardening has been to him and what amazing improvements he had made – both physically and mentally.

To Battaglia, those stories make it all worthwhile.

“To see patients and clients grow and change from week to week is so rewarding,” she says. “Every day is a good day at my job.”

Battaglia is currently creating a memory garden for the Therapy Garden with a theme of “Who do we share the garden with?” In addition to flowers, herbs and vegetables, the garden contains upcycled steel art sculptures of butterflies, ants, praying mantises and other creatures that live in the garden. The sculptures were created and several donated by Kathy Walton, Steel Art. Battaglia, with the input of other therapists, is creating a scavenger hunt where they can work with patients who have been affected cognitively by their injuries work on memory skills.

Though Battaglia is hard pressed to think of her favorite accomplishment because she thinks her clients accomplish so much every day, she is proud of the team effort that makes the gardens grow and thrive.

“As a horticultural therapist, my responsibility is to meet the needs of the patients and clients as well as running several programs each year,” she says. “Part of that is forming meaningful relationships with the patients, therapists, staff, volunteers and community partners. It takes a village to make everything work, and that is reflected in how beautiful the garden looks.”

By Sara Baxter
Photos by Louie Favorite

That’s when Shepherd Center co-founder Alana Shepherd invited a group of young adults – ages 22 to 35 – to a gathering at the hospital, soliciting their advice on how to broaden Shepherd Center’s base of support to a younger generation. At that meeting, she gave them an assignment – come up with a new way to raise money for Shepherd Center. From that challenge, volunteers John Dryman and Danne Munford came up with Derby Day, Shepherd Center’s first, and now one of the most venerable fundraising events.

As for the young adults who shaped the idea, they came together to form Shepherd’s Junior Committee. That group has organized the annual Derby Day party every year with the leadership of two co-chairs. For more than 30 years, Derby Day has stood the test of time as a festive event with food and drink, a silent and live auction, lawn and casino games, live music and huge TV screens to view the broadcast of the Kentucky Derby.

The inaugural event – pulled together in just three months by then co-chairs Betsy Akers and Danny Yates – was held at Rock Mill Farm in Alpharetta. Through the years, the venues have changed to different horse parks around metro Atlanta. To get to the event, attendees usually met at Shepherd Center to ride a bus to the venue and then back home again. In 2014, the Junior Committee decided to bring the event inside the Atlanta city limits to the Chastain Horse Park, giving attendees more flexibility on when they arrived. That decision increased attendance from 800 at the Conyers Horse Park in 2013 to 1,300 in 2014 and 2015.

“Bringing it inside the city almost doubled attendance,” says Cara Roxland, annual giving officer for the Shepherd Center Foundation. “It attracts more people because they don’t have to take a bus out to the party, and they can decide at the last minute to come.”

It also provided buildings – instead of tents – for the high level sponsors. Cara estimates that Derby Day nets about $90,000 a year, and over its 34-year history, it has raised an incredible $4.5 million. The money raised directly benefits patients by going exclusively to Shepherd Center’s Recreation Therapy program. The largest program of its kind in the country, recreation therapists help patients get back into the community by taking them on outings, teaching leisure skills and developing other skills needed in everyday life.

To learn more about Derby Day or to purchase tickets for this year's event, which is on Saturday, May 7, visit www.derbyday.com.

Who:
Patients, family, friends and staff
What:
Garden Club
The Audubon Society will present “Intro to Bird Watching” and “How to Attract More Birds to Your Garden”
When:
Monday, March 14, from 3 to 4 p.m.
Where:
Recreation Room at Shepherd Center
-----------------------------------------------
Who:
Patients, family, friends and staff
What:
Plant Sale. All proceeds benefit the Therapy Garden.
When:
Tuesday, March 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where:
Security Deak area on first floor of Shepherd Center
Details:
Prices range from $5 to $15. Cash only.
-------------------------------------------------
Who:
Patients, family, friends and staff
What:
Lawn Mower/Adaptive Equipment Demonstration
When:
Friday, March 17, from 11 a.m. to noon
Where:
Secret Garden
 

“I had learned about Shepherd online, and I was blown away,” Whisnant says. “I knew it would be an amazing place to work.”

It took a year, but one morning she saw the opening she had been waiting for. She came to Atlanta, interviewed and got the job as an arts specialist, within the Recreation Therapy Department’s program at Shepherd Center.

Whisnant, a native of Columbia, S.C., received a bachelor’s degree in art from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. After school, she wasn’t sure what career path to take, but she knew she wanted to do something that involved helping people. Her first job was as an activity assistant in an adult daycare center in Asheville, N.C., where she worked with adults with illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease who needed supervision during the day.

“I loved listening to the stories they would tell me about their lives, and doing creative arts and crafts with them,” Whisnant says. “So many of the participants enjoyed art, and I saw firsthand that when they were engaged in art activities. It helped them relax and eased their agitation and restlessness. They could still find joy in being creative even while experiencing the losses that accompany dementia. That experience was very influential in my decision to pursue art therapy.”

Because a graduate program in art therapy isn’t offered at very many schools, Whisnant moved to Chicago to attend Adler University where she earned a master of arts degree in counseling psychology and art therapy. During an internship at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), Whisnant worked with a patient population much like Shepherd Center’s – people with spinal cord and brain injuries and stroke. “I got real hands-on training there, and I loved it,” she says.

After graduation, Whisnant was hired full time as an art therapist at RIC.

While she really enjoyed the work and patients at RIC, Whisnant was eager to move back to the South. After researching possibilities, she began her quest to find a job at Shepherd Center. She started working in the hospital’s art therapy program in 2009.

In the art room, Whisnant and fellow arts specialist Alex Chukabarah work with Shepherd patients to help them find a creative outlet through various forms of art, whether it’s learning a new hobby or adaptive ways to return to the art profession. In many cases, working with art helps patients express their feelings and deal with the issues they are experiencing as a result of their injury.

“It’s my privilege to introduce our patients to something that brings them joy,” Whisnant says. “And they inspire me with their courage and their hope. I learn just as much from them as they do from me.”

By Sara Baxter
 

But they were the first words spoken in months, and that’s what mattered – not how loud they were, but the fact that they were being uttered at all.

“I’m a little dysfunctional, Don’t you know?

If you push me, it might be bad

Get a little emotional, Don’t you know?”

As the song “Dysfunctional,” by Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne, played on an iPad, 16-year-old Kyle Pinelli joined in the chorus, mouthing some words, whispering others and occasionally, even slightly, nodding his head.

It was a breakthrough moment for the Virginia teen who, during a car accident months earlier, was ejected through the front windshield of the vehicle he was driving and sustained a severe traumatic brain injury.

When paramedics arrived at the scene, Kyle, whose body landed on a barbed wire fence, was barely breathing. It was unclear if he’d survive the helicopter flight to the hospital. Kyle had broken bones throughout his body, multiple hemorrhages and respiratory failure. In total, his admitting diagnoses listed 26 secondary injuries.

“It was just like what you read about – where doctors come and tell you that they don’t know how much a patient will recover,” recalls Kyle’s mom, Joan Pinelli. “We didn’t know if he would walk, he had so many broken bones. He was in a coma for three weeks.”

Even after he awoke from the coma, the path ahead seemed impossibly daunting. His recovery involved multiple surgeries, hundreds of stitches and countless hours of therapy.

But Kyle is a fighter. And this is a story of triumph, perseverance, hope and the power of music.

Not long after he awoke from that coma, Kyle was flown to Shepherd Center to begin his journey back.

The Power of Music

Sometimes, music reaches people in ways other therapies cannot. It travels deep into the recesses of a person’s mind, touching upon emotions, memories and feelings. And the result is a person being pulled from the darkness of a brain injury, into the light, amid the melodies and lyrics.

Kyle started listening to Tech N9ne when he was about 13 years old. His brother Alex introduced him to the rapper, and Kyle became an instant fan, constantly listening to and singing Tech’s songs.

Over the years, Alex and Kyle attended Tech N9ne concerts together. For one of those concerts, Alex surprised Kyle by buying VIP tickets to meet the rapper before the show. It was one of many highlights of Kyle’s busy life.

“I was a very active kid,” Kyle says. “I played basketball my whole life, I was on the high school team. I pole vaulted, and I got into motocross, and that was my all-time favorite sport. I would ride in our backyard every day and at tracks on the weekends.”

But when Kyle arrived at Shepherd Center, he was a different person. Recreation therapist Anastasia Ford recalls his movements were limited to looking upward and fixating and offering a thumbs up.

The goals for a patient in this condition include achieving a response to sensory stimuli and visual tracking. Music, Ford says, can often be a big motivator.

“Especially for someone in a newly emerged state,” she explains. “It hits all of that long-term memory.”

For Kyle, music worked wonders. After three or four weeks of therapy, Ford learned from Kyle’s family about his love for Tech N9ne and decided to give it a try. The results marked a major turning point.

“He went from not verbally communicating to singing a song,” Ford recalls. “He was able to maintain attention and sing. It wasn’t full-on, crystal-clear singing, but mouthing the words. And he was creating some whispers. It was a perfect glimmer of who Kyle was and the potential he had.”

That potential continued to show itself and multiply over the coming weeks. Ford relied heavily on music to facilitate Kyle’s continued progress, and during that time, he began voicing and singing words more and more, and then moving his arms and legs, and maintaining attention. Eventually, he transitioned from individual therapy to a music therapy group with other patients.

He also began walking again. Kyle’s first few steps were fragile and faltering, but much like his speaking skills, with practice and patience, the familiar returned.

What if you Fly?

Since returning home from Shepherd Center, life has been busy for Kyle and his family.

On May 31, 2015, one year to the day after his accident, Kyle’s family watched him walk across a stage to accept his high school diploma. After the year the Pinelli family had just been through, it was finally a day of smiles and hopeful optimism.

Kyle’s next stop would be North Carolina to study auto mechanics. He attends school five days a week.

Kyle continues to struggle with physical and mental issues related to the accident. He doesn’t remember much of the recovery process at Shepherd Center that people have talked so much about, nor has his short-term memory returned.

“I put my keys down somewhere and walk away and forget where they are,” he says. “I hate that.”

He feels lucky to be alive, but also has many challenges and stresses to cope with every day – between schoolwork and living on his own.

As Joan wrote in her blog about Kyle’s accident, he continues to make enormous strides, yet there is still much healing to take place.

On Joan’s blog , there is a video that shows Kyle taking his very first steps at Shepherd Center with the help of therapists. Initially, Kyle stumbles, but in the background you can hear an eruption of encouragement and joy.

Joan thought of that moment as she watched her son walk to accept his high school diploma. The words of poet Erin Hanson came to Joan’s mind as Kyle strode confidently forward:

“What if I fall?

Oh, but my darling

What if you fly?”

By Mia Taylor
 

Nick wasn’t alone. One of four young men who came to swim in the Ocean Voyager exhibit on an August morning as part of a special partnership between Georgia Aquarium and Shepherd Center, he was there to have fun, while getting a therapeutic experience.

“Here at the Georgia Aquarium, we believe in recreation therapy,” said Susan Oglesby, manager of the dive immersion program at Georgia Aquarium and a certified therapeutic recreation specialist. She explained the program to the group of divers and their parents.

Oglesby helped start the program, known to the public as Journey with Gentle Giants, in 2008 when the Aquarium introduced injured veterans to the water. Not long after that, Shepherd Center came on board to give patients an opportunity to add a sense of wonder to their recreation therapy regimen. It’s something Shepherd Center does about four to five times each year. Today, the program is open not only to injured veterans and Shepherd patients, but to the general public, as well.

As fun as it is for patients to swim with the giants of the deep, it’s therapeutic, too, said Angie Pihera, a recreation therapist at Shepherd Center.

“These patients have a lot of secondary complications, and those are directly affected by their activity level,” she said. “If a patient doesn’t leave their house very often and get involved, it’s more likely for them to be less healthy.”

Initial research published in the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine in 2012 bears this out. That study was conducted by Cecilia Rider, Andrew Bogenschutz and Kelly Edens from Shepherd Center, along with scientists from Craig Hospital, the Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research and MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital. They found that people who participated more actively in therapeutic recreation and community activities during rehabilitation had greater independence in their motor functions and were more likely to participate in activities like work and school – both at the time of discharge and one year later. In addition, they were less likely to have to be readmitted to the hospital than patients who didn’t actively participate in those activities.

Judging by the amazement on the young men’s faces as they rolled through the doors to the top of the exhibit, the four who were about to get in the water weren’t likely thinking about all that. They were thinking about getting in the 6.3-million-gallon water environment to swim alongside creatures that can grow up to 40 feet in length.

“We’re going to give you the opportunity to adapt to our environment today,” Oglesby said to them before they got into their wetsuits. “The animals are going to look you in the eye as they figure you out. You’ll find that the less you do, the more you’re going to experience.”

About to become one of the smaller creatures in a new environment, the men were no strangers to learning to adapt. They had been doing that since they were first injured.

Hunter Brooks, 24, from North Carolina is adapting to a C-5 spinal cord contusion he sustained after a truck accident in April.

Hugo Rubinosa, 20, from North Carolina, has been adapting for more than three years after the state-ranked high school wrestler sustained a spinal cord injury.

Corey Pope, 21, from Arkansas, is learning how to adapt after an accident on his four-wheeler left him without a kidney, a broken femur and unable to move his right foot due to incomplete paraplegia.

Nick Yarter, 16, has always been at home in the water, but now he’s adapting to life with a C-5 spinal cord injury after a diving accident a few months ago.

All of them use wheelchairs to get around on land, but when the aquarium visitors gaze at them swimming from the tunnel that runs below the exhibit, there’s no indication of their mobility impairments. In the water, they are all at home, yet visitors to a whole new world.

“It’s wonderful. He’s so excited,” said Hugo’s mother, Maria Rodriguez. “It’s amazing. It gives him a lot of confidence. He feels like he can do anything anybody can do. He would always say, ‘Don’t worry, I got this.’ He still says that. His attitude has become a motivation for everybody.”

As the men swim along the top of the exhibit, manta rays swim loop-de-loops nearby, and schools of silver and yellow fish convene below.

“This water makes people happy. It touches your soul,” Oglesby said. “It’s not like anything else in the whole world. When you’re in there, everything else goes away, and you have complete freedom.”

The trip doesn’t just have positive benefits for the patients. The water is healing for the patients’ families, too. As they stand in the tunnel that runs through the exhibit gazing up at the Aquarium’s “gentle giants” and their guests, their faces gleam with joy.

“This is fantastic! He’ll probably remember this for the rest of his life,” said Roger Brooks, Hunter’s father.

Describing the patients’ experience in the water, Oglesby said: “You get beyond your disability. You just dove with sharks. It makes you part of a very small population.”

As they got out of the water and came off the dock, they emerged back into the world of dry land, full of wonder at what they had just experienced. And they all expressed it in the same way – “awesome!”

Beaming with joy, they talked about being in the water, rays doing flips and being brushed by the whale sharks as they swam nearby. The Aquarium staff came and put an Aquaman crest on Corey’s chest as he waited for his swim mates to change out of their wet suits.

“It was a great experience,” he said. “You feel like you’re in another world.”

Written by David Terraso
Photos by Adam Davila and Underwater Photos Courtesy of Georgia Aquarium

“Shepherd Center already operates several health and wellness programs through ProMotion and Beyond Therapy^®,” says Shari McDowell, director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Shepherd Center. “These services have existed for a long time, but this grant allows us to look beyond our walls. When patients finish their time with Shepherd Center, we want to extend our support beyond that initial rehabilitation experience by helping them truly reintegrate into society and learn skills that will lead to healthier lifestyles.”

Unfortunately, McDowell says, there is often a lack of community-based health education, wellness programs and recreational activities for people with SCI. Yet these individuals show an increased risk for early cardiovascular disease, which is also the leading cause of death in this patient population.

This program’s tiered framework is designed to help mitigate this risk and overcome barriers to reintegration by educating individuals and communities on the importance of wellness programs tailored specifically to individuals with SCI.

Four components comprise “From Injury to Integration: Closing the Healthcare Gap”:

1. Health, wellness and leisure expo: This June 27, 2015 event at Shepherd Center will incorporate guest speakers, exhibit booths and demonstrations addressing topics such as nutrition and weight loss, blood pressure monitoring, exercise, women’s health, diabetes management, healthy skin care, emotional support, smoking cessation and respiratory health. It is open to the public, and the Neilsen Foundation grant will fund travel scholarships for 15 people with SCI who would benefit from participating in the expo.

1. Train-the-trainer community wellness program: Modeled after a successful Shepherd Center partnership with Delta Air Lines, this program component will engage other nonprofit organizations that promote health and fitness. Initial outreach will extend to local YMCA facilities, says Becky Washburn, Shepherd Center’s ProMotion and Beyond Therapy director. “Anyone who comes through Shepherd Center, we’re training them and their family members on what they need to do when they get back home to remain active and healthy,” Washburn explains. “What we haven’t been able to do is impact the larger community in this way. We can’t see everyone, but if people have the knowledge and the right tools, they’re better positioned to engage in an active lifestyle over the long term.”

Shepherd Center staff members will visit fitness facilities to educate staff members there on SCI and its effects on physical mobility, as well as provide them with information on hardware and technologies that can contribute to heathy living. An example is grasping cuffs for upper-body bikes. The first training session is slated for March.

1. Community-based health and wellness program: Shepherd Center will host six community-based and wellness events – three in Greater Atlanta and three in the Southeast – to promote exercise and long-term health. This third tier seeks to raise awareness of risks such as obesity and hypertension, and offer hands-on recreation opportunities to mitigate those risks. Those opportunities include handcycling, tennis, softball and other activities at local recreation centers. The first community-based program will be held at Shepherd Center in March with others to follow throughout 2015.

1. Community re-entry and accessibility assessment activities: This component of the program will work with current or former Shepherd Center SCI patients to help assess, then eliminate, barriers for becoming – and staying – active. Specific activities include:

• Visits to local fitness centers.
• Assistance in establishing an exercise program customized for the individual.
• Home visits that offer tailored home modification recommendations.
• Visits to college campuses, including dorm rooms, student centers and campus fitness facilities, to help prepare individuals for active lifestyles as part of their college experience.
• Work-site visits to improve existing work environments or to create new activities in which individuals can participate after returning to work.

For more information on the “From Injury to Integration: Closing the Healthcare Gap” program, contact Spinal Cord Injury Program director Shari McDowell at shari_mcdowell@shepherd.org or 404-350-7676. To sign up for any of the health and wellness clinics, visit shepherd.org/sci-clinics.

Written By Shawn Reeves

The annual adaptive ski trip is set for March 6 to 11 in Park City, Utah. This year’s trip costs $949 for an adaptive participant and includes three days of adaptive skiing, private instruction, equipment rental, lift tickets and accommodations. Airfare and airport transfers are not included in this package. The trip is open to people of all skill levels and abilities, and family and friends are welcome to participate. A companion ticket is offered at $634.

Registration is required for the ski trip. For more information, contact Katie Murphy at Katie_murphy@shepherd.org or 404-350-7465.

Several adaptive hunting and camping trips will be held throughout the late winter to early spring for Shepherd Center inpatients and Day Program patients. These trips include deer and turkey hunting. For more information, contact Chris Ravotti at Chris_Ravotti@shepherd.org or 404-350-7790.

Shepherd Center’s annual Adventure Skills Workshop (ASW) is set for May 15 to 17 at Lake Martin in Jackson’s Gap, Ala. The event includes adaptive waterskiing, scuba diving, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, four-wheeling, swimming, target shooting and wall climbing. ASW is held at Camp ASCCA, a wheelchair-accessible facility. The cost is $200 per person and includes meals, lodging and instruction. The cost for a caregiver to attend ASW is $175.

In June and again in August, Recreation Therapy will take a group to Panama City Beach, Fla., for a saltwater fishing trip. Dates for these trips have not yet been set.

Recreation Therapy also will take a group whitewater rafting in Bryson City, N.C., in July. The exact date for this trip has not yet been set. For more information about the saltwater fishing or whitewater rafting trips, contact Chris Ravotti at Chris_Ravotti@shepherd.org or 404-350-7790.

For more information about Recreation Therapy at Shepherd Center, click here.