About Us
Mission Statement: The QUAD Foundation is committed to assist and support survivors of spinal cord injury resulting in quadriplegic paralysis. The foundation actively works to improve their quality of life through resource assistance, education, rehabilitation and research. We also strive to provide a support center for survivors and their families.
The QUAD Foundation is a nonprofit organization formed in 2003 to benefit quadriplegic survivors and their families in southern California. Our organization was formed after a devastating car accident involving a drunk driver left Pete Flynn, an active 20-year-old, quadriplegic. In the midst of the devastation, his mother, Debbie, found herself needing to make critical decisions with limited information and resources. She immediately began seeking a cure for her son: she looked into current spinal cord injury (SCI) research. She made contact with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (CDRF), the organization with access to the leading scientific advances and information. She talked to everyone she knew about SCI and the information that she had learned. And she decided that the next step she needed to take was to become a voice for all quadriplegic individuals. She needed to make sure they received the therapy necessary to live a full life and to make sure that every attempt was made to find the imminent cure.
Her friends and business contacts from the community came to her aid. Together, they formed the QUAD Foundation, dedicated to assisting and supporting survivors of spinal cord inury resulting in quadriplegic paralysis. Debbie Flynn is our Vice President, and she is the driving force behind our commitment to the quadriplegics of the greater San Diego County.
We have three main objectives at the QUAD Foundation: Supporting the Research, Applying the Research, and Mobilizing the Research. The scientific research dedicated to finding a cure for paralysis is the hope for all quadriplegic individuals: they will walk again some day. We want to make sure that they are able to participate in the cure when it happens, and they must be in a certain state of physical fitness and mental clarity to do that.
By supporting the research financially, we will help scientists discover the imminent cure sooner.
By applying the research, we identify which research is the most supported academically and which will most likely lead to a cure. We thenuse that research to determine which therapies are most beneficial to our clients. At the time, the ERGYS-2 FES bicycle is supported by research to improve the physical health of quadriplegic individuals, and we have acquired this bicycle for our clients' use.
By mobilizing the research, we enable our quadriplegic clients to use this bicycle at their home. Due to their phycial constraints, it is often difficult for our clients to leave their home. our Hope On Wheels (H.O.W.) program involves driving our trailer, which carries the ERGYS-2 FES bicycle and other specialized equipment, to the home of our clients for their personal use.
Our future projects include opening a therapy center for our current clients to use as they become more accustomed to the FES bicycle and are able to travel more, so we can use H.O.W. to assist new clients. At this gym, we will have the specialized equipment in our H.O.W. trailer, such as a standing frame, UpperTone weight training equipment, and handheld FES units for contracting and strengthening lower arm, wrist, and abdominal muscles. In addition, we plan on providing treadmill therapy, another widely accepted and research-supported therapy.