Priceless Freedom of Paddle Days

It was a warm, beautiful weekend afternoon in Long Beach as Lizette Terrio and her family pulled into the overflowing parking lot at Mothers Beach. Terrio shared, “We live out in Fontana. It took us two and a half hours (to arrive) because the traffic was so bad.”

Unfazed, Terrio was all smiles and upbeat as she introduced a stranger to her family, including husband, Ryan Terrio, daughter, Alexis Terrio and Leo Ojeda, Alexis’ fiancée. Then, her son, Isaiah Arreola, Arreola’s girlfriend, Sofia Lomelin and Judith Mendoza, a personal care nurse for her younger son, J.J. Terrio, age 17.

Changing Lives, One by One

J.J. Terrio, who has special needs, was among many scheduled participants in a wheelchair assisted paddle boarding event, hosted by the organization, Adaptive Freedom Foundation.

The six-year-old non-profit, an all-volunteer team that runs on a shoestring budget and social media, has nevertheless changed lives. Lizette Terrio explained, “When you have a child with special needs, you kinda connect with other parents. We found out about it on Instagram.” She added, “The last time we came, there was a family that was all the way from Pennsylvania. I still follow her, they’re such nice people.”

At that moment, Amy Lagera arrived and there was an immediate embrace between her and Terrio, their bond unspoken but evident.

The Adaptive Freedom Foundation was co-founded by a small group, including Lagera, its executive director, and Lance Takenaka. The Foundation offers individuals with special needs a chance to experience being on the water, something virtually impossible for many, through use of a trademarked, wheelchair assisted stand up paddle board.

Takenaka explained, “I got connected (with Adaptive Freedom Foundation) in Hawaii. We were trying to bring that same joy that we got from taking people out in the water, the same joy we got seeing them catching a wave, paddling in the ocean. We wanted to share that with others.”

He added, “If you want to learn how to surf, there’s a ton of groups that can teach you, but for stand up paddleboarding, especially adaptive disabilities, it’s near impossible, so that’s kinda how it started.”

Unexpected Phone Call

Near the end of her life, Takako Kimura was a prisoner in a cell she could not escape. Worse yet, over time, the walls of her cell slowly closed in around her, leaving her feeling trapped and desperate for one last taste of freedom.

Kimura, better known as T.K. was affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rapidly progressing neurological disease with a life expectancy of two to five years after diagnosis. The disease is frequently called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the legendary, Hall of Fame baseball player of New York Yankees fame. Gehrig, whose ALS diagnosis tragically occurred on his 36th birthday, died less than two years later, on June 2, 1941, 17 days shy of 38.

Kimura’s husband, Mike Baker, described his wife’s similar, rapidly deteriorating condition. “The one thing that she’d always tell me was, ‘I really, really miss paddling. Is there any way I can go paddling?’ I said, ‘No, there’s no way.’”

One day, however, life took a positive turn when Baker learned about Adaptive Freedom Foundation. Baker recalled, “I got a phone call from one of the outrigger paddlers. ‘Mike, you gotta come see this.’” Baker raced down to Mothers Beach and met Lagera, who immediately told Baker to go get his wife. Once home, he said, “’Come on, we’re going to the beach’. Thank God. They were waiting for her. Two guys picked her up out of her electric chair and off they went.”

A Spirit Lives On

It was such a positive and powerful experience for Kimura and her friends that the Foundation created “Paddle With T.K. Day,” in honor of Kimura for helping so many others during her lifetime. Baker said, “There must’ve been 150 additional paddlers, all of T.K.’s friends, paddling with them. They paddled all the way around Naples Island.”

Kimura participated in several more events before she had to stop. Baker recalled the end of his wife’s journey. “Right before she passed away, they were doing a Christmas paddle at Dana Point and T.K wanted to go so bad. I said, ‘There is no way you could go.”

By this point, Kimura had only the use of one finger, which she used to write. Baker grew emotional as he recounted what Kimura wrote to him on that day, “She wrote, ‘Okay. I had a great time. It was the best time of my life.”

As the day ends, Lagera is asked to reflect on what has made the Adaptive Freedom Foundation a success. She replied, “Faith is necessary in life but starting this non-profit has been a leap of faith, one foot in front of the other, trusting the right people will come into our path to help us keep going,” she paused, then added, “and trusting that what we do will be what the people we do it for need, whatever that may be.”