Here’s a Sampling of our Efforts
Hanger is proud to be a major sponsor of the yearly Endeavor Games for challenged athletes. The Endeavor Games bring people together from all over the U. S. and several foreign countries to compete in archery, basketball, bocce, field, power lifting, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis and track. The games are modeled after the Paralympics and include blind, amputee, and wheelchair-bound athletes.
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Hanger is a sponsor for the San Diego Triathlon Challenge, a primary fundraising event for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). We also sponsor athletes to participate in this event. The San Diego Triathlon Challenge is a Half Ironman distance event featuring world-class challenged athletes, professional triathletes, celebrities and other able-bodied participants on one of the most scenic courses in the country. This is just one of the ways the CAF works to support people with physical disabilities so they can pursue physical fitness and competitive athletics.
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Hanger offices in the northeastern U.S. support the yearly charity race Swim Across the Sound, a 25-kilometer swim from Long Island to Connecticut. Participants are amateur solo swimmers and relay teams who raise pledges to help cancer patients, their families, and 34 cancer prevention, screening and education programs. The first and only all-amputee relay team, Team Hanger, is a group of Hanger employees and patients that have raised more than $40,000 for this event.
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Whether it’s a national event, or a local track meet or golf tournament, we lend our support to a variety of efforts that promote good health and accomplishment for our patients and others. We also work on a national and local level to sponsor challenged athletes, many of whom have gone on to compete in such prestigious events as the Paralympic Games.
Besides our commitment to physical fitness and active lifestyles, we’re also involved in more humanitarian efforts. Hanger team members participate in mission trips to parts of the world that are ravaged by poverty and war. They have provided prosthetic care to people in India, Africa, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and other places where limb loss is common yet prosthetic care is not widely available. Our local offices often partner with private organizations like Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs, and foundations such as Limbs for Life, to provide prosthetic and orthotic devices to Americans who cannot afford to pay for them.
Our Clinicians Help in Creative Ways too
Our desire to help sometimes takes an unusual turn. A team of Hanger Clinic prosthetists in Florida spent more than a year developing a prosthetic tail for a dolphin. It all began when a young bottlenose dolphin---now known as Winter--- became ensnared in the rope of a crab trap. The rope cut off the circulation to her tail, and after she was rescued and taken to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, her tail slowly fell off.
Kevin Carroll, Hanger Clinic’s Vice President of Lower Extremity Prosthetics, heard the story on the news and decided to try and help Winter. All prosthetic services for Winter have been donated and she is now learning to swim and jump like a regular dolphin with the help of her new prosthesis. While her story may be unusual, Kevin has also designed prosthetics for dogs, an ostrich, and even a duck.
Learn more about our community involvement here.
