Patients from the Shepherd Center are able to get out of “four hospital walls” and onto Peachtree Road to cheer on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race wheelchair racers.
Patient care technician, Dianna Brown, 23, joined her patients outside along the race route to spread encouragement.
“The fact that this just comes past Shepherd gives them the opportunity to break their schedule,” Brown said.
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
The Shepard Center hosts and sponsors the wheelchair division every year and has made it a habit to bring patients and staff members out to the peak of Cardiac Hill to cheer on runners.
The tradition has been alive for the past four decades and this year will be the Center’s 43rd spectating the Peachtree. In addition to spectating, there are several staff members and past patients who are participating in this year’s race.
Tuwanyo Willis, 56, is the office manager for the spinal cord injury unit and said that watching the race is an important experience for patients.
Credit: Sarah Coyne/For the AJC
Credit: Sarah Coyne/For the AJC
“When our patients actually see their peers running this race, making it up Cardiac Hill, it gives them hope,” Willis said.
The center sponsors the wheelchair division of the race each year and successfully advocated for wheel race runners to be awarded the same prize money as racers on foot.
Daniel Romanchuk won the men’s wheelchair division Thursday with an unofficial time of 19:37. Susannah Scaroni won the women’s wheelchair division, for the fourth time, with a time of 21:40.
This was originally published on our Live Updates page.
