Feb. 26, 2008

A Shining Star From the Civitan-Sparks Clinics

Used with permission from Civitan International

John Millhouse is like many other successful college graduates. He was honored as the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Mass Communications Student of the Year, he volunteers as a coaching assistant on the Samford University football team, and is a member of the Civitan International Research Center's Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC). But unlike his fellow graduates, John's journey to success began 20 years ago with his mother and the therapists at UAB's Civitan-Sparks Clinics. In the days when early intervention, augmentative communication and intense physical therapy were only beginning to be realized for persons with cerebral palsy, the dedicated therapists at the Civitan Sparks Clinics helped John realize a future that many similarly disabled people would have considered impossible.

It was at the Clinics that John first began talking publicly, and made life-long friends with other clients and his therapy team. John and his mother give the Sparks therapists much of the credit for helping him get through those tough, early years. His mother, Phyllis, led him through an array of challenges, including special transportation needs, education programs, and numerous surgeries to minimize the affect of John's extreme spine curvature. Doctors and therapists in the field of developmental disabilities, such as the UAB Civitan- Sparks Center Clinics for Developmental Disabilities,have led the way in helping families achieve their impossible dreams.

These days you are likely to see John in his motorized wheelchair on the football field at Samford University. Starting in high school, John developed a passion for sports and met a motivating inspiration, Pat Sullivan. As a Heisman Trophy winner and assistant coach at Auburn University, Pat encouraged John to attend college and follow his dreams. When Pat was named Head Coach of Samford University's football team in Birmingham, Alabama, John quickly joined him on the field as a volunteer assistant.

While studying at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, John was made a member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, and was named Broadcast Student of the Year. Now that he has received his college degree, John gains valuable leadership experience and shares his knowledge to help others as a member of the Research Center's Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC), which actively helps shape Center programs that directly serve consumers in the community. The committee allows him to translate this knowledge directly into services, the education of trainees about developmental disabilities, and programs to serve the community.

There's a bit of irony here too. Researchers at the Civitan Center are now studying the mechanisms that cause the high rates of cerebral palsy in premature infants like John. In essence, through his efforts with the CAC, John is now a member of the team that hopes to someday prevent the very developmental disability that has so directly affected his life and the life of hundreds of thousands of others with cerebral palsy. All Civitans take great pride in John's accomplishments, and the role the Civitan Sparks Clinics played in his success.