From Florida Today:COCOA BEACH -- Even in her 50s, Dahmen DeCesare Griswold (pictured) is known around El Salvador beaches as a surfing extraordinaire. Pictures show her lean and tan, executing a bottom turn with one hand swinging free, crouching on her surfboard as she exits a 10-foot wave.
All that changed one year and one month ago when Griswold, a retired professional surfer, was hospitalized with a mysterious infection that wrapped around her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed and unable to speak.
Saturday, she was back out on the ocean, kept afloat with the help of volunteers with "They Will Surf Again," one of several charitable programs through the California-based Life Rolls On Foundation, which also helps raise funds and awareness for spinal cord injury research.
Griswold was one of more than a dozen quadriplegics, paraplegics, amputees and people with cerebral palsy or other disabilities who participated at the second annual event Sept. 20 on Cocoa Beach.
The program also is offered throughout the year along the east and west coasts.
"I was curled up, I couldn't move my arms. The only thing I could do was blink my eyelids," said Griswold, 54, who began walking two weeks ago with the help of a walker and workers at ManorCare, a rehabilitation center in Sarasota.
Being able to surf again "made me cry, I was so happy," she said. "There are no words to describe what a gift this is."
Volunteer teams of at least 12 people, including a Brevard lifeguard, surround the athletes at all times, carrying them to their surfboard, helping them paddle in to shore and catching them if they fall.
"It was awesome because it brought me back to the first time I rode a roller coaster, where you feel weightless," said 20-year-old Orlando resident Joey Sade, who was born with cerebral palsy and also competes in bowling and track and field through the Special Olympics.
But it was the nearly 100 volunteers who were the stars in the participants' eyes."They make it possible," said Shannon Horne, 27, of Jacksonville. She has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.
"A lot of people who have been injured are afraid to get out there again," while others who are born with disabilities may be afraid to even try, said Horne, who also skis, skydives and hand cycles.
"Doing events like this breaks the mold and shows people you can do anything, and hopefully not just inspires disabled people, but able-bodied people too," Horne said.
