Appreciating all of life’s moments Wheelchair-bound Longwood woman to be ambassador for charity run
A decade to the day after Amanda Perla last took a step on her own, she was in a celebratory mood.
Why else did she lead a party of seven to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico several weeks ago? People don’t venture to one of the world’s most beautiful places to bemoan life’s tough breaks.
Least of all Perla, 28. The Longwood resident was happy to make it this far — and happy to realize she is just getting started.
“Ten years, I felt, was a lot bigger than any other year leading to that point,’’ Perla said. “I didn’t want to get upset or get discouraged. I just wanted to be surrounded by love and support and to celebrate the day somewhere new and exciting.’’
Perla, who attended Lake Mary High School, was paralyzed from the chest down after an auto accident on April 21, 2007, in Port St. Lucie.
She will be a race ambassador for the Wings for Life World Run App Run at 7 a.m. Sunday in Orlando. About 100 runners are expected to begin at Subu CrossFit (114 W. Robinson St.) and run a two-mile course, which includes Lake Eola and no finish line. They will complete the loop as many times as they can until a virtual car — participants should download the Wings for Life World Run app — catches them.
More than 300,000 runners in 58 countries and 111 locations are expected to start the run at the same moment. Amy Daugherty, CEO of Wings for Life, USA, said the organization’s goal is to raise $7 million to research spinal-cord injuries.
“If they can clone a goat and do all of these other amazing things nowadays, it is just around the corner where they will find the leads that will take them to curing spinal-cord injuries,’’ Daugherty said.
Perla handles social media and helps her mother at NextStep Orlando. Liza Perla-Riedel opened the paralysis rehabilitation facility in Sanford in 2008, about a year after her daughter’s injury.
NextStep Orlando now operates out of a 3,000-square-foot facility in Longwood, with designs to expand within the year.
“I was probably an enabler at first, because you want to do everything,’’ Perla-Riedel said. “Now it’s like, ‘I can pick that up. No, I can do that. I can get that.’ ’’
According to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, about 5.4 million Americans were dealing with some form of paralysis in 2013 — the most recent year statistics were compiled. More than 1.46 million of them endured spinal-cord injuries, the second-leading cause of paralysis behind stroke.
“It’s like I tell our clients who are newly injured, ‘You just have to make it through the first year, and then it gets better,’ ’’ Perla said. “It really does. Life doesn’t go back to normal, but in a sense, there is a new normal that you get used to.’’
Normalcy for Perla includes life with her boyfriend of seven years, Matt Jereczek; following the New York Mets; and staying active. She has enjoyed adaptive surfing for several years and recently tried adaptive water skiing for the first time.
Perla is preparing for her driving test while awaiting for modifications to the Honda Odyssey van she bought from a veteran. Oh, and she wants to go skydiving.
“I still need a pretty good amount of help with showering and if I want to wear skinny jeans, if I want to curl my hair, stuff like that,’’ Perla said. “It’s just getting over not being completely independent anymore. That was probably the biggest hurdle.’’
Said Jereczek: “I don’t think there is anything she can’t do.’’
Professional wakeboarder Brad Smeele, who became a quadriplegic after an accident in 2014, said Perla inspired him.
“Before you’re in a wheelchair, you don’t really take notice of that whole side of things,’’ Smeele said. IF YOU GO “After my injury, I noticed and heard from Amanda and her mom, just seeing a lot of things. Even going out to Cabo on holiday, on the boat, doing some cool stuff, not letting this injury really hold her down.
“That’s something that I’m trying to apply as well, starting to say yes to more things, not saying, ‘No, I can’t do that because I’m in a wheelchair.’ ’’
Perla is going places her wheelchair.
“I just learned that tomorrow is not given, and you never know what can happen,’’ Perla said. “Just really appreciate what you have in this moment, appreciate the day and appreciate everything in life.’’
And, by all means, celebrate. in