Kevin Sullivan's Story

Daytona Beach. Spring Break, 1984. We can picture a young man and his buddies running freely into the ocean. We can picture him diving gleefully into a cresting wave, but it’s harder, much harder, to picture him breaking his neck against that wave and floating limply to the surface.

After six weeks in a Miami hospital, and three months in a Minneapolis hospital, Kevin Sullivan had two choices: move back home with his parents, or find an accessible apartment suitable for someone with quadriplegia. "I thought I could do it on my own," recalls Kevin, "still, I agreed to take a tour of Courage Center. What impressed me most was that my tour was given by another person with quadriplegia. I thought, ‘I can learn something here.’"

Six months after entering Courage Residence, Kevin was back behind the wheel of a car...which got him back to school, which got him into the workforce, which got him back into his plane, and which led him to launch American Flight Instruction in 1990.

"The services at Courage Center are so well integrated that once I got my wheel in the door, it all came together quickly. I thought it would take four years before I could get back to work, but in just one year, I was back doing many of the things I feared I would never do again, including flying a plane and interviewing for a job. If not for Courage Center, I might still be watching soap operas."

A couch-potato Kevin is not. He likes people. He likes to learn. He likes to fly. In 1991, he launched a second business which provides home health services for people with disabilities. "Ten years ago I couldn’t find decent help for myself. Now I’m certain it’s available," he says.

Today, Kevin consciously lives every day as though it’s his last. That perspective influences his work and his play. Sunsets are no longer a nuisance on the drive home. Roses get noticed and smelled. And abilities outweigh disabilities.

It sounds cliche, but for Kevin it’s true. One day he can’t reach the kitchen cupboard, another he’s 2,000 feet in the air. "Focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t," he says. "Don’t wait for a tragedy to teach you how to live. Appreciate the beauty around you. Look. Listen. Live. Do it now."

Excerpted from the Courage Center website and reproduced here with permission.