I was hanging out at Kaiser in Fremont the other day and came across a paper I had not seen in a while and decided to pick it up... Glad I did. Who else did I see, but the Romans! If I have not said it before, I will tell you here- I am so proud of this guy and this family. Big Rome and I have been friends for a number of years now and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. There have been many days when I have had a tough time getting up in the morning or even when I am just having a bad day and I have thought about Roman. What he goes through on an average day puts me to shame. Not only that, but when you think about what goes on behind the scenes and how much his wife Terri goes through on the average day, it has got to blow your mind and make you think twice about complaining. I sure do.
Here is part of the article from the Tri-City voice from December 17, 2008...
Local Heroes
By Justine Yan
On December 11, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico recognized contributions of citizens in the Assembly District who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and generosity in their service to the community.
"Local heroes" include the Reed family of Fremont, Paddy Iyer of Union City, Harold Colon of Newark, Cossette Sun of Castro Valley, Ed Mullins of Hayward, Ray Maglalang of Milpitas, and John McWilliams of Pleasanton.
In addition to the local heroes awardees, Centro de Servicios was named the Community Partner Local Hero, Eden Housing was named the Non-profit of the Year, and Dr. Bhupinder Bhandari was given the Unity Award.
In our first of a series of profiles of these illustrious people and organizations, TCV interviewed Fremont Local Hero, Roman Reed, and Milpitas Local Hero, Ray Maglalang, to learn more about their accomplishments.
The Reed Family
In 1994, Roman Reed sustained a major spinal cord injury while playing football for Chabot College. Soon, however, Reed "turned a negative into a positive." In 1999, the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Act, authored by then-Assemblyman John Dutra, was signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since then, the "Roman Reed Law" has led to the allocation of 14 million dollars in funds to the UC Irvine Roman Reed Core Laboratory, for the purposes of supporting researchers in stem cell research and neural regeneration, in hopes of finding cures for paralysis and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. This is the first state funding for embryonic stem cell research in the nation.
Reed is proud of this great milestone, and looks forward to the expansion of stem cell research in the near future. "I promised my son that I would walk again, and I promised my wife that I'd do everything I can," said Reed.
To Roman Reed, he and his family are "a package deal." While he spoke at the state capitol to promote the law, his father, Don Reed, worked closely with him, taking care of the influx of emails they would receive.
Besides advancing stem cell research, Roman Reed also played a major role in initiating Fremont's most recent park project, the Family Water Play Facility, or "Water Park." As chairman of the Fremont Parks and Recreation Commission, he worked to push the project through, gaining sufficient funds to "do things in an economically responsible way." Reed believes that the Water Park will not only provide a wonderful recreational opportunity for families to enjoy, but also serve as an economic lifeline for other parks and recreation services.
Currently coaching his son's football team, which won the Fremont Football League Championships, Reed insists that he could not have achieved so much without the support of his family.
You can read the full article at this link:
http://www.tricityvoice.com/articlefiledisplay.php?issue=2008-12-17&file=story3.txt
