Injured Green Valley athlete returns to school, inspires classmates

By TRISTAN AIRD LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

NevadaPreps.com In-depth high school sports coverage Video

Walking across stage to receive a diploma is an emotional moment for any high school senior.

But to Green Valley football and track athlete LaQuan Phillips, doing so June 9 at the Thomas & Mack Center would be a symbolic triumph to cap a nine-month journey recovering from partial paralysis.

Phillips, 17, returned home to Henderson on Nov. 21 and has been back at school since Monday. He had been rehabilitating at Shriners Hospitals for Children Northern California in Sacramento since Sept. 16.

Phillips, who was a starting weak-side linebacker for the Gators, was injured in a collision during a game on Sept. 5. He suffered a bruised spine that led to the paralysis, from which he has been recovering faster than doctors anticipated.

"Walking across that stage has been on my mind every day," Phillips said. "Graduation is one thing so far down the line that walking by graduation is not that big of an obstacle, especially considering how far I've come."

Phillips, who remains in a wheelchair, successfully underwent surgery on Sept. 7 to alleviate swelling on his vertebrae.

Through vigorous rehabilitation, Phillips has gone from being immobilized in bed at Sunrise Hospital to standing with assistance at Shriners to the brink of walking on his own.

"I'm pretty sure I'll be walking by my birthday," said Phillips, who turns 18 on Jan. 15.

Phillips spends three days per week after school continuing recovery at Healthsouth Rehabilitation Center in Henderson.

eBay Auctions 2008 Dodge Challenger to Benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children

Dodge_shriner-auction An iconic muscle car of the 1970s, the Dodge Challenger, is back after a 35-year absence and a limited-edition 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 is up for auction on eBay through Sunday, December 7. Proceeds of the online auction will benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children.

The New England Dodge Dealers Association donated the car because the group wants to raise awareness and funds for Shriners Hospitals for Children. "The decision to donate the Challenger SRT8 was based on the positive personal experiences many of our dealers and the association's Board members have had with the Shriners and Shriners Hospitals," said New England Dodge Dealer Association President Frank Brody. "Shriners Hospitals for Children is truly a benevolent organization that has proven they really want to make a difference for children."

The Dodge Challenger SRT8, which is #234 of the 6,400 produced in 2008, goes zero to 60 in five seconds and is loaded with options, including a 6.1-liter Hemi V-8 engine with 425 horsepower, GPS navigation system, Keyless Go Entry, leather trim seats, an AM/FM 6-Disc DVD MP3 Radio, MyGIG multimedia system and UConnect hands-free communication.

Want to get another look at the car? Visit the New England International Auto Show! This car is on display at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, located at 415 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210 from Wednesday, December 3 to Sunday, December 7. The winning bid will be announced at the show on December 7, 2008 at 6 p.m.

Win the online auction, and you'll also be helping kids defy the odds at Shriners Hospitals for Children - a one-of-a-kind international health care system of 22 hospitals dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing pediatric specialty care to children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate.

For a link to the auction site, go to www.BeAChallenger.com.
At the time of this posting, bidding was already in excess of $31,000 and you can expect that number to climb as the auction draws to a close on Sunday, December 7.

Shriners Toy Run

This is a great annual event that is fun to watch! Grab the family and stake out a seat (we caught it on Broadway last year) with a warm drink in hand to watch Santas, Elves and all sorts of holiday characters ride by on roaring motorcycles. There are thousands who participate in the ride, all to benefit Shriner's Hospital for Children.
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From the Portland A.B.A.T.E.'s website:
Toy Run: Public welcome. Riders will start gathering about 10 a.m. Dec. 6 at the TriMet parking lot at 4012 S.E. 17th Ave. Tickets for a chance to win a Harley-Davidson, $10, will be sold there. The drawing will be at noon, and the ride to deliver toys to the Portland Shriners Hospital for Children will begin at 12:30 p.m.

Wagons for hospitalized kids

Local firefighters donate handcrafted wagons to Shriners by Lou Sennick

Two sets of Red Wagons will leave the Bay Area soon and head to the Shriners Hospital in Boston. On hand to see them off last week were, from left, Loren Parrish and Jack Hoffman from Hauser; Jeff Jenkins from North Bay; Mick Sneddon from Charleston; and Matt Fare from Coos Bay.

Each wagon carries a sign listing the groups who helped pay for their construction and shipping. On the back, another sign lists the volunteers who constructed the wooden wagons.

World Photos by Lou Sennick
Two sets of Red Wagons will leave the Bay Area soon and head to the Shriners Hospital in Boston. On hand to see them off last week were, from left, Loren Parrish and Jack Hoffman from Hauser; Jeff Jenkins from North Bay; Mick Sneddon from Charleston; and Matt Fare from Coos Bay.

The Boston Shriners Hospital and its small patients soon will get a gift from local firefighters — two red wagons.

The wagons will be used to help move young patients around the hospital and include an IV hanger. The wagons are the result of the Tofflemire Family Project, which has been donating hand-crafted wagons for the 22 Shriner Hospitals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Local resident Jim Tofflemire and some friends have been building the wagons in honor of his son, Phillip, who was a Shriner patient and passed away in April 2006 at the age of 23. Tofflemire said the wagons should last about 25 years.

The group will have completed 50 wagon sets by early next year. The two headed for Boston were funded with help from the Hauser, North Bay, Charleston and Coos Bay volunteer firefighters. Volunteers got together last week at the North Bay fire hall to send them off. Among them were Loren Parrish and Jack Hoffman from Hauser; Jeff Jenkins from North Bay; Mick Sneddon from Charleston; and Matt Fare from Coos Bay.

Sick children in need of a smile? Send in the clown

Photo by Alex Horvath / The Californian

BY HERB BENHAM, Californian staff writer hbenham@bakersfield.com

Last Updated: Monday, Dec 1 2008 4:28 PM

She’s a clown. It’s not like we couldn’t use a break. Yes, a break given the misery that sometimes wraps itself around us like light gauze.

Gwen Quinton dresses in costumes to entertain children at the Shriners Hospital in Los Angeles. For a November stop at the hospital, she dressed as a chicken.

Photo by Alex Horvath / The Californian

Once a month Gwen Quinton participates in a birthday celebration at the Shriners Hospital in Los Angeles.


Gwen Quinton wouldn’t tell me her age. It’s no big deal and I’m not sure why I asked. What’s important is that now in her sixth decade, Quinton has found her calling.

Clowning. Entertaining children at hospitals like the Shriners in Los Angeles. These are children who have been burned, lost limbs, or were born with cleft palates, club feet, curved spines and a host of other conditions. In other words, children who do not have a lot to laugh about but find reasons to do so nonetheless.

“I was a bookkeeper for 25 years, a certified massage therapist for 15 years and a security guard for five,” Quinton said, “But I never felt fulfilled. This is like my little niche.”

It wasn’t long ago that Quinton didn’t have a lot to laugh about herself. Eight years ago, she had a stroke. The road back included walkers, canes and crutches.

That behind her, or as behind her as a something like that can be, she’s returned to making the two-hour drive once a month to the Shriner’s Hospital located in a fairly textured neighborhood west of downtown LA. Quinton is a member of the Daughters of the Nile, the sister group to the Shriners (think Potato Bowl, colorful purple fezzes, small cars and good works).

The Daughters host a once-a- month birthday party at the 60-bed hospital for between 10 and 25 children. It doesn’t have to be your birthday. If you’re a patient, it’s automatically your birthday. Children are given party bags with coloring books, Crayons, small toys and are served cupcakes, apple sauce and juice boxes. The birthday boys and girls come in wheelchairs, on gurneys and some on crutches.

A couple of weeks ago, Quinton was dressed as a turkey. It wasn’t clear how many of the children knew she was a turkey, but that didn’t matter. Her costume was soft to the touch and Quinton was suitably gentle in her flight path around the large, airy room with the attractive wood floor.

Only one child cried (“some of them don’t like it when your face is covered up,”), and most of the others smiled, laughed or expressed some sort of delight.

“It gives me an opportunity to make the kids, who don’t understand not feeling good, feel better,” she said.

She has another reason for playing the clown, aside from her latent thespianism. It is a way of remembering her family. Quinton’s only daughter, Ginger, died in an auto accident in Arizona in 1991. She was driving with a friend who fell asleep. Ginger was 19.

“She loved kids too,” Quinton said. “When I’m clowning, I feel her presence.”

Which is something, because when Quinton would try this sort of thing with Ginger, she would say, “Oh Mom.”

“Mom” can’t help herself. Every third Thursday, unless she is sick or flat on her back, Quinton makes the drive. With an assist from Fantasy Frocks, which loans her the costumes, Quinton can be a dancing bear, an Easter rabbit, Mrs Claus, Puff the Magic Dragon, Bobo the circus clown, or an unusually cuddly turkey that could double as a chicken.

Quinton is expanding. Recently, she passed the background check for the Children’s Hospital in Madera. She plans to make her debut in December.

Standing ovations are not necessary. Quinton doesn’t play for the back row. A smile, hug or a few soft words is payment enough.

Victorville Christmas Parade Dec.6th

Saturdy Dec. 6th The Victorville Annual Christmas Parade goes down 7th street from La Paz to D street, Starts at 10am.
Line up starts on Mesa St at 8am. and thats where you will fined the Apple Valley Shrine Club warming up.

Shriners Hospital team to visit Guam

Pacific Daily News • December 1, 2008

A medical team from the Shriners Hospital for Children in Hawaii will provide free consultative services for children with special health care needs who are age 18 or younger, and who have an orthopedic, arthritic or plastic surgical condition such as deformities, disease and injuries involving the bones, joints and muscles, “healed burns,” including loss of any part of the child's body.

The clinic will be held from Jan. 15 to 16 and Jan 20 to 23 at the Department of Public Health and Social Services clinic in Mangilao. For an appointment, or more information, call Arlean Kloppenburg at 735-7117 or e-mail: arlean.kloppenburg@dphss.guam.gov.