Run/Roll/Walk for Mighty Oaks
Mighty Oaks Children’s Therapy Center provided physical therapy and other services to Cassie-Jo Robinson of Albany for most of her short life.
Now, the Robinson family is encouraging others to give back to Mighty Oaks, in memory of Cassie-Jo and of all the other families it aids, through the fourth annual Mighty Oaks 5K Acorn Run/Roll/Walk this Sunday.
The run/walk starts at 9 a.m. in Willamette Park in Corvallis. Early registrants for this year’s fundraiser will receive T-shirts with pink butterflies, a modified Mighty Oaks logo designed especially with Cassie-Jo in mind. The Timber Ridge student died in August at age 11 of complications resulting from a rare genetic disorder.
Cassie-Jo’s mother, Tonya-Jo Robinson, said at least one member of the Robinson family hopes to be present at Sunday’s fundraiser, but health issues continue to plague them, so that isn’t certain. Cassie-Jo’s brother Owen-Michael has the same genetic disorder and is struggling with his symptoms.
A year later, LeGrand has reason to believe
WOODBRIDGE, N.J. (AP) — Eric LeGrand makes this face sometimes. He scrunches up his nose and mouth, wiggles them a bit, stretches them from side to side.
He's got an itch. He can't scratch it because he is paralyzed below the shoulders.
If his mom was close by, he'd rub his face against her chest, shoulder or arm. He does that with his girlfriend, too. He'll even do it to one his physical therapists now and again.
But when no one is close enough, he just makes that face.
"I miss the most being able to take care of myself," he says.
On Sunday, Oct. 16, it will be one year since the 21-year-old LeGrand played his last football game, made his last tackle. Rutgers had just scored, and kicked off to Army late in a game at the new Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey. LeGrand, then a 270-pound defensive lineman for the Scarlet Knights, made a hit on Army kick returner Malcolm Brown and fractured his C3 and C4 vertebrae. LeGrand remembers going down and being dazed, but didn't understand at the time how severely he was hurt.