Manatee resident receives grant for adaptive hockey equipment

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — One Bradenton resident is receiving new adaptive hockey equipment through a grant from the Kelly Brush Foundation. The nonprofit distributes $500,000 in grant money every year for people with spinal cord injuries.

When it comes to sports, Monica Quimby is all in. “I love the early morning mist on the rink, I love the community too — the family aspect,” she said.

Quimby is paralyzed from the waist down. It might take her extra time to get ready, but she has a mindset that drives her to succeed.

“Instead of the ten thousand things I can’t, you need to focus on the things you can still do and enjoy your life,” she said.

She was a Division 1 skier in college, but in 2006, she fractured her right hip and injured her back during a bad fall. She was left wheelchair-bound.

“In the beginning, it was really hard. The biggest thing was learning how to get dressed, how to transfer into the chair,” Quimby said.

She started playing sled hockey in 2012. “I grew up in New England, I grew up in Maine. It’s honestly a way of life,” she said.

Her skating experience as a child helped her learn fast on the sled, but sometimes she has setbacks. “Sometimes if you just fall down, you got to get back up,” she said.

A few years later, she made the U.S. Women’s Development Sled Hockey Team and has been part of two gold medal-winning teams.

“I love hockey, because it gives me that freedom of being on the ice. I can be independent, I can get on the ice whenever I want and just forget about everything. This is my number one therapist,” Quimby said.

But she couldn’t compete without the basics, like her sled that costs thousands of dollars: an expense her insurance doesn’t cover.

“Well, adaptive equipment is so expensive. Just my wheelchair alone is $7,000 and adaptive sports equipment always tacks on another zero. It’s a premium. It’s a luxury to be able to do this,” she explained.

Quimby applied for and received a grant through the Kelly Brush Foundation that covered the entire cost of a new hockey sled that she says she desperately needed. “The frame is bent, the nose of the sled is bent. I pretty much reconstructed it as much as I can. I got duct tape holding on the strap right here, you can rebuild these so many times until I just needed a new one,” she said.

She considers herself an elite athlete and focuses on her nutrition. “Health is so important to me because it keeps me having an active lifestyle. I think without being able to eat healthy and move your body, that’s literally what gives you your independence,” Quimby said.

It’s even more important since she became wheelchair-bound. “If you aren’t eating the right things, it can be detrimental and lead to secondary complications,” she said.

But Quimby’s determined mindset keeps her at the top of her game both physically and mentally. She says it will take about 6 months before she will receive the new sled since it’s custom-made for her.

Quimby even changed her career to continue helping others with spinal cord injuries. She works remotely as a coordinator for the Backbones Leaders Program.