NEHP Adaptive Athlete Scholarship Program Kickoff

One in four persons in the United States are disabled. Of those who are disabled, only a fraction exercise. According to the United Nations, " It is reported that 93% of women with disabilities are not involved in sport [1]."

The barriers to adaptive exercise and sport are endless. Speaking as a female adaptive CrossFit competitor, some of the obstacles are the following:

• The unemployment rate for people with disabilities in the USA is 78.7% [2]

• Those who are un/under-employed cannot work full-time due to the constraints of their SSDI benefits.

• Let's face it: good adaptive exercise programs are not cheap, and those personal trainers deserve compensation for their services.

We will be hosting a workout event on September 30, 2023 to bring fitness awareness to the adaptive community and celebrate our rebranding to NorthEast Health Performance (NEHP)!

As we are preparing for this monumental event Manny, Omar, and myself (Candice) wish to raise funds for local adaptive person (s) to offset the costs/barriers for individuals to train in group or individual exercise.

100% of the proceeds will go to a scholarship program whereby NEHP will sponsor adaptive athletes in need at their local fitness facility of choice. I, Candice, am managing the funds in good faith on behalf of NEHP since I am a grants officer by trade.

Criteria of the sponsorship program for a potential adaptive grantee is as follows:

1) The individual must have a permanent physical disability (CP, MS, upper limb, lower limb, dwarfism, wheelchair user etc) or intellectual disability (down syndrome, autism etc).

2) The individual must reflect on a personal statement purpose in a short essay (500 words or a video of 2-3 minutes).

Please note, in your personal statement include what receiving the scholarship means to you and how the scholarship will help you achieve your goals.

3) The appointed trainer/coach will report attendance rate of scholarship grantee to NEHP (Manny/Candice).

4) The individual must be based in the New York metro area (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut).

5) Temporary injuries are not applicable.

6) Competition support is not applicable.

It is our sincere goal to give scholarships at $1,000 per person.

Please give what your means can allow.

Our most sincere thanks for your generosity! Thank you for your time and consideration with our new scholarship program.

Manny Alayon, Omar Iglesias, and Candice Arnone

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[1] https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/issues/disability-and-sports.html

[2] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf