About
Rich Hamill
Founder and President
Will to Walk Foundation
My Story
I grew up in a small rural town in Deckerville, Michigan. My childhood was full of activity: riding horses, motorcycles, and sports. I was a kid that you could not keep in the house.
My teenage years were priceless to me. I was very social and loved football and fast cars. Like most teenagers, thought I was invincible. On February 17, 1992, that mindset was put to the test. Three friends and I were going to a ski resort to ski for the day. This was a trip we had taken several times in the past, and this trip was no different for the first 45 minutes. We were traveling down the wintery road and the vehicle started to slide on black ice and spun out of control which caused us to hit a bridge. All four passengers were ejected.
I was the worst injured of the four and when I regained consciousness, I learned I had sustained a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from my neck down. They told me with hard work, I may regain some function, but it would be limited at best. This was not acceptable to me; I could not understand why the doctor told me the worst case scenario instead of trying to give me hope or at least try to keep me thinking positive. I went through many ups and downs mentally and during physical therapy learned a lot about who I was and who I was not going to be. I was determined not to live the “poor me” life!
In the 17 years since my accident, I have kept up my strength, graduated from college, got married, and have a very successful job, but something is missing. I need more meaning to my life. What was all the struggle and hard work for? I believe we all have something bigger to do in our lives than just live. That’s just what I intend to do, something bigger! I want to leave something behind, something bigger than a memory. The Will2Walk Foundation is exactly that: something bigger.
My passion and belief
I seek a cure for spinal cord injury now. The need to help the 1.3 million Americans with spinal cord injuries is evident both in terms of the devastating effects on individual families and the billions of dollars in lost American productivity annually. I believe we’ve never been closer to achieving a cure than right now.
