Benevolent Hearts

Sutton Salazar loves to rock.

The happy-go-lucky, four-year-old from Burleson doesn’t watch much television, unlike many children his age. His love of music trumps the TV, especially when it’s a hard rocking  song where he can bang his head. Sutton’s long hair and Def Leppard T-shirts speak to his preferred genre of hard beats and screaming guitars.

“You will catch him rocking out, and that’s no joke,” said Salazar’s mother, Cheyenne Holliday. “He’s a very happy guy all the time.”

Despite his positive demeanor, Salazar’s life is more complicated than most 4-year-olds. Cerebral palsy prevents him from walking without the assistance of a gate trainer. Without the device’s support, he is completely dependent on a wheelchair.  Holliday said  buying a stander, wheelchair and gate trainer—along with other mobility and accessibility equipment he needs—is expensive.

“Insurance only provides our family two pieces of equipment every five years, which leaves us having to choose what we need most,” she said. “Not only is it a difficult decision, but also we’re out of luck or paying thousands of dollars out-of-pocket for the remainder of the needed medical equipment.”

As Salazar grows up, new equipment becomes necessary sooner than insurance is willing to provide it.

Holliday said that when insurance pays for the equipment Salazar needs, it can take months to obtain it. At the rate her son is growing, the timing of when the supportive equipment arrives is imperative because minimal adjustments can be made to a singular wheelchair or gate trainer.

Holliday said the family has struggled with finding trustworthy organizations to assist them because many medical assistance programs found on the internet are fraudulent. They regularly explored various ill-intentioned websites that claimed to provide medical equipment at a lower cost, only to discover  these websites  would take the family’s money and provide nothing in return.

The medical clinic that Salazar attends nominated their family to be helped by Wheelchairs 4 Kids, a national organization that provides support and medical mobility equipment for children with physical disabilities.

Salazar and his family attended the 2022 Marine Corps League Charity Golf Tournament, where Wheelchairs 4 Kids gifted Salazar with the gate trainer he needed. Receiving the device meant that Salazar would no longer only be confined to his wheelchair.

“The properly fitted gate trainer teaches him the right form to walk and gives him support,” Holliday said. “So, where before he was not able to walk, the new mobility equipment gives him the assistance to be able to do so,” Holliday said.

Wheelchairs 4 kids helped Salazar so much because now he will be granted his main form of transportation, which is a wheelchair because insurance coverage is no longer needed for the gate trainer, she explained.

Wheelchairs 4 Kids is Florida-based. Until 2016, it hadn’t reached children in Texas. That changed when Longhorn Detachment 1069 of the Marine Corps League decided to use its annual golf tournament to transform the lives of children in need. Through the golf tournament, the Marine Corps League has raised about $10,000 each year and $14,600 this past year to donate to Wheelchairs 4 Kids. In the past seven years, the  Marines’ partnership with Wheelchairs 4 Kids has helped 54 Texas families to receive the equipment and support they need.

“Somebody needs this, and there doesn’t seem to be many people paying attention, so we will continue to help Wheelchairs 4 Kids,” said Jack Mattson, Marine Corps League Commandant of 6 years. “The last thing we want is to have these little kids hurting and in pain from making do with the wrong size of equipment.”

Every year at the Marine Corps League Annual Charity Golf Tournament, a room full of teary-eyed supporters applaud as they witness Wheelchairs 4 Kids-sponsored children transition from mobility equipment they have outgrown into new equipment that can support their changing needs.

Mattson plays a large role in bringing the charity golf tournament to life, but he said his favorite part is watching a room full of excited supporters have their breath taken away as they watch the children make their transition into new equipment.

At the 2023 tournament, Mattson said he witnessed a 4-year-old boy with Trisomy 18 walking  for the first time using a gate trainer.

“He was strapped into the gate trainer, so his feet were able to touch the ground, and he was able to move forward and learn to walk,” Mattson said. “He started to walk, and then was walking a little bit faster, and soon he was motor scooting around that room where we were standing. We almost had to catch him. Watching him go from barely being able to exercise his legs to being able to walk around the room was a heart-warming and moving experience for everyone involved.”

Mattson, who said he is thankful for United’s contribution, explained that donations from the community are what enable the Marine Corps League and Wheelchairs 4 Kids to help each of these children receive the equipment they need and to provide much-needed support for families who need it.  

“None of this happens without companies like United who have benevolent hearts and willingness to give to charity,” he said.

In addition to providing equipment, Wheelchairs 4 Kids also offers new experiences and builds community for families of kids with similar disabilities.
Last year, Salazar and his family attended a trip to Sea World with Wheelchairs 4 kids.

“Events like that connect us with other families that are similar to us, and it’s so cool,” Holliday said. “You don’t really think that children like Sutton notice the importance of representation, but he was smiling the whole time because he was surrounded by people who were just like him. It really lightened his whole day for him to see that he belongs to a community.”

The Marine Corps League is able to host its golf tournament and change the lives of these children due to hard work, generous hearts and donations. As a part of United’s mission to give back to the community, the cooperative supports the Marine Corps League charity golf tournament by being a sponsor that contributes donations to help make the event possible.

“Wheelchairs 4 Kids has become a great support system for us,” Holliday said. “They became a part of our family, and we hope that our story and experience can help another family like ours.”