Eric Northbrook, who resided in Wellington and was a member of the 1983 state championship golf team, is now getting recognition for his charitable contributions on a national scale.
Northbrook has been nominated as one of People Magazine's "All-Stars Among Us."
People Magazine in conjunction with Major League Baseball have three nominees for each team, "who have gone above and beyond to serve their community."
Northbrook is one of three individuals nominated by the San Diego Padres. He is the founder of the HeadNorth Foundation.
Online voters can go to the peopleallstars.com web site and vote for Northbrook. If he wins, he will attend and be honored at the 2009 MLB All-Star Game. One of the winners will be featured in People Magazine.
Northbrook was in a dirt bike accident in 2006 which left him paralyzed from the chest down. He started HeadNorth to help other spinal cord victims in San Diego.
Since then his foundation has raised over $1 million for spinal cord research and provided $200,000 worth of equipment and services to spinal cord injury survivors.
Northbrook spent a couple years in Wellington growing up and was a member of the 1983 state team during his junior year. He and his brother Evan Northbrook, who was a freshman, would move to Arizona his senior year.
He would eventually graduate from Arizona State University with a bachelor of science degree in Business Administration.
With a knack for selling, Northbrook became state and nationally recognized in the San Diego area as an 18-year veteran in real estate.
His accomplishments included the sale and leasing of over 12.85 million square feet of space and 100 acres of land with a total value of approximately $1.47 billion.
But that didn't seem important when on Jan. 27, 2007, in a fraction of a second, Northbrook was thrown from his motorcycle, severing his spinal cord at the T7 vertebra resulting in paralysis from the chest down.
His spinal cord and other internal injuries were so severe that it is a miracle he survived at all, said the founder's story on the HeadNorth web site.
"From the moment of the crash, Eric made a choice to fight for his life," the site said. "His unrelenting spirit remains steadfast and following months of grueling recovery and rehabilitation, they are encouraged by the prospect of fulfilling an active life."
Just one month after his accident, in the midst of his own recovery and rehabilitation, Northbrook established the HeadNorth Foundation to provide the essential support and guidance to individuals and families affected by a spinal cord injury.
While he was in the hospital, HeadNorth's first recipient was 24-year-old Matthew Clinton, a fellow patient, who was afflicted with a rare spontaneous spinal cord stroke that let him a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic.
A $15,000 gift enabled him to purchase adaptive tools essential for his mobility.
HeadNorth also champions a cure for paralysis by supporting advance research and treatment.
Northbrook was unavailable for interview for this story.
Wellington, Kan. —
