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Special trip for Lancaster athlete with cerebral palsy | The Herald - Rock Hill, SC
As an infant, weighing just more than a pound, Neal Ellis wasn't supposed to live.
When he did, he couldn't hear.
Bleeding in his head led to cerebral palsy later in life, and doctors told his mother, Tammy, that he would never function in society.
Now, at 19, Ellis does more than many people who were born without disabilities.
The Lancaster native will travel to Lincoln, Neb., this summer to compete in the Special Olympics 2010 National Games. He'll play soccer with a group of other multi-handicapped teenagers who live and learn at the S.C. School for the Deaf and Blind in Spartanburg, and with a smaller group of teenagers without disabilities.
It won't be his first time competing.
Ellis already has racked up hundreds of gold, silver and bronze medals, in boxes and categorized by sport at his family's home.
They show he is a swimmer and a runner.
Ribbons boast he can bowl, play volleyball and ride horses.
Nine medals are framed in a box in his bedroom. They are the ones Ellis scored at the 2006 Special Olympics National Games in Iowa. In gymnastics.
Then-16-year-old Ellis, who had been through dozens of surgeries on his legs, hips and feet, conquered the high bar, still rings, vault, pommel horse and more.
Pretty good for a child who doctors said “didn't have a lot of hope for anything,” Tammy Ellis said tearfully in her son's bedroom recently.
On Mother's Day 1990, she held her son for the first time and was told not to show emotion, as it might be dangerous to the infant, who for one month, had been through open-heart surgery and life-support in an incubator.
Four years later, when Tammy Ellis and her husband, Mark, couldn't find a public school to accommodate their son's disabilities, they sent him to the residential School for the Deaf and Blind in Spartanburg, where he has been ever since.
“He loves everybody,” said Kim Speer, the athletic director at the school who for years was Neal Ellis' physical education teacher. “He has really overcome a lot.”
Now a resident at the Gray House, a special living quarters that teaches older teenagers how to live on their own, Ellis can cook, clean and make his bed.
He recently stopped to take a video phone call from his parents. Wearing an apron and surrounded by friends with spatulas, Ellis signed that he was excited about competing in the National Games this summer.
His younger brother, 17-year-old Dylan Ellis, will travel as an alternate on the team.
The 2010 Special Olympics National Games will be held July 18 to July 23.
Want to help?
Travel expenses for athletes in the Special Olympics are paid for through donations. Cost per student is $600 and includes airfare and lodging. All athletes are responsible for raising money to travel.
If you would like to donate, call Kim Speer at the S.C. School for the Deaf and Blind, 864-577-7628. Checks must be made payable to the Special Olympics.
As an infant, weighing just more than a pound, Neal Ellis wasn't supposed to live.
When he did, he couldn't hear.
Bleeding in his head led to cerebral palsy later in life, and doctors told his mother, Tammy, that he would never function in society.
Now, at 19, Ellis does more than many people who were born without disabilities.
The Lancaster native will travel to Lincoln, Neb., this summer to compete in the Special Olympics 2010 National Games. He'll play soccer with a group of other multi-handicapped teenagers who live and learn at the S.C. School for the Deaf and Blind in Spartanburg, and with a smaller group of teenagers without disabilities.
It won't be his first time competing.
Ellis already has racked up hundreds of gold, silver and bronze medals, in boxes and categorized by sport at his family's home.
They show he is a swimmer and a runner.
Ribbons boast he can bowl, play volleyball and ride horses.
Nine medals are framed in a box in his bedroom. They are the ones Ellis scored at the 2006 Special Olympics National Games in Iowa. In gymnastics.
Then-16-year-old Ellis, who had been through dozens of surgeries on his legs, hips and feet, conquered the high bar, still rings, vault, pommel horse and more.
Pretty good for a child who doctors said “didn't have a lot of hope for anything,” Tammy Ellis said tearfully in her son's bedroom recently.
On Mother's Day 1990, she held her son for the first time and was told not to show emotion, as it might be dangerous to the infant, who for one month, had been through open-heart surgery and life-support in an incubator.
Four years later, when Tammy Ellis and her husband, Mark, couldn't find a public school to accommodate their son's disabilities, they sent him to the residential School for the Deaf and Blind in Spartanburg, where he has been ever since.
“He loves everybody,” said Kim Speer, the athletic director at the school who for years was Neal Ellis' physical education teacher. “He has really overcome a lot.”
Now a resident at the Gray House, a special living quarters that teaches older teenagers how to live on their own, Ellis can cook, clean and make his bed.
He recently stopped to take a video phone call from his parents. Wearing an apron and surrounded by friends with spatulas, Ellis signed that he was excited about competing in the National Games this summer.
His younger brother, 17-year-old Dylan Ellis, will travel as an alternate on the team.
The 2010 Special Olympics National Games will be held July 18 to July 23.
Want to help?
Travel expenses for athletes in the Special Olympics are paid for through donations. Cost per student is $600 and includes airfare and lodging. All athletes are responsible for raising money to travel.
If you would like to donate, call Kim Speer at the S.C. School for the Deaf and Blind, 864-577-7628. Checks must be made payable to the Special Olympics.