National Speaker and Physically Challenged Athlete, Rudy Garcia-Tolson, will speak at St. Alexius
An athlete in the truest sense of the word, thirteen-year-old Rudy Garcia-Tolson has excelled in swimming, running, cycling, skateboarding, and many other activities. These activities may have hindered any other average kid, but Rudy is not your average kid. He was born with rare, multiple congenital birth defects. A combination of leg-crippling Ptergium Syndrome, one club foot, webbed fingers, and a cleft lip and palate, presented some challenges. After the first five years of Rudy’s life in a wheelchair, Rudy and his family made the choice to have both of his legs amputated at the knees and fit him with artificial limbs, or prepare him for a lifetime in a wheelchair. This decision was like giving flight to a broken winged bird.
Rudy has courageously adapted to and excelled at most sports and frequently competes against able-bodied athletes, and wins! His friendship with actor, Robin Williams, and appearances on talk shows like “Oprah,” have earned him national attention. His motto is “A brave heart is a powerful weapon.”
Rudy Garcia-Tolson will be meeting a three-year-old boy from Hazen, Jake Frank, who has the same type of bilateral amputation as Rudy. Coincidentally, the prosthetist, Michael Davidson, who assisted Rudy with his artificial limbs, is the brother of a local prosthetist, Peter Davidson, of Great Plains Rehabilitation Services. It is the hopes that the two boys will spend time together and continue a supportive friendship into the future.
On Monday evening, April 29, Rudy will be speaking at St. Alexius Medical Center’s Boniface Auditorium at 7 p.m. This community service event is open to the public and is co-sponsored by the N.D. Association of the Disabled. For more information, contact Jill Ackerman at 530-7051.
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