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Eagle Scout Christian Bowen
 


Eagle Scout Christian Bowen and Mountain Shadows Connect4 Fun
 
By: Sheryl Wilde
Connect4 is a vertical game of tic-tac-toe. Players take turns dropping colored discs from the top into a seven-column, six-row, vertically suspended grid. The pieces fall straight down, occupying the next available space in the column. The objective of the game is to be the first one to form a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of four discs. The first player can always win – Connect4 – by playing the right moves.
Christian Bowen, nephew of Pine House resident, Mark, loved to play Connect4 as a child. He spent many hours playing the game – planning winning game strategies, laughing, and just enjoying the time spent with his friends. Little did he know that his childhood pastime would lead to another kind of win in life.
“My uncle Mark loves Pine House,” says Christian. “He lived in multiple care facilities before finding Mountain Shadows, and he didn’t like any of them. Now, when we take him out for dinner, he always asks what his roommates are doing back at home. He wants to be back at Pine House with them. He enjoys being there. We are so thankful to have Mountain Shadows.”
As do many young men his age, fifteen-year-old Christian is already planning for college. But, what sets him apart, perhaps, from many of his peers is his commitment to what he believes to be most important at this stage in his life: achieving good grades and staying close to God. The foundation of many of his character traits were cultivated in the Boy Scouts of America.
“I started in the Boy Scouts when I was seven-years-old. The Scouts taught me so many skills not learned in school. I feel more accomplished, well-rounded, from what I’ve learned in the Scouts.”
Christian was recently awarded the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest designation attainable in the Boy Scouts. In order to receive this ranking, Christian was required to lead a project to benefit the community. His thoughts for a service project immediately turned to his uncle Mark and Mountain Shadows, the community he now called home.
“When Christian contacted us, offering to do a service project for us, we were thrilled,” says Arlene Galvan, Director of Program Development, Mountain Shadows Support Group. “It’s always difficult for us to find games that meet the needs of our residents and clients, so we thought that would be a perfect project for Christian.
“We did some research and agreed it would be a great idea to build a Connect4 game for our Outreach clients. We needed a larger version of the game, wheelchair height, so the clients could roll-up to it and play while in their wheelchairs. When we contacted Christian with the idea, he said, ‘Oh yes! We can do this!'”
“It had never come to my mind to create a version of the Connect4 game for Mountain Shadows,” adds Christian. “That I had enjoyed the game as a child made it that much more motivating, not only to create it, but to deliver the final product to the people of Mountain Shadows.
“The idea was to build a Connect4 game out of wood. It took 25 people 4 days to build it. We designed it, bought the wood, cut and painted it. And it worked! It looks cool. It’s about 4 feet high, with larger discs so the residents can use it while in their wheelchairs.”
“Christian and all of the Scouts did an amazing job!” says Flor Angel, Program Director of Outreach. “The clients love it! They play with it all the time. It’s so fun for all of the clients.
“Mark especially is really excited about the game. He knows his nephew built it. He was so excited when Christian brought the Connect4 game over here. He was very proud of his nephew.”
Staying connected – with friends, with family, with life – when you are disabled can be challenging. Mobility, mental, and physical differences can make simple things that many of us take for granted, like playing a game with a friend, more difficult.
Christian Bowen and the Boy Scouts made all the right moves. Thanks to their generous efforts, our Mountain Shadows Outreach clients can now Connect4 Fun – learning and laughing together – and connecting through the simple joy of play.
Horizontal, vertical, diagonal – whichever way you line it up – we’d say that’s a big win for everyone.
To help Mountain Shadows Outreach clients like Mark
continue to live more fulfilling and active lives,
please click below.

Don King: On Kilimanjaro

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By: Sheryl Wilde
Step.
Stop.
Breathe.
Step.
Stop.
Breathe.
It was like living in a barbeque pit for 9 days – a barbeque pit measuring more than 24 miles across. Ash filled the air – burned the nostrils, the lungs. And the dust. A storm cloud of dust and ash rose on the 50-mile-an-hour winds, relentlessly whipping everything in its path.
It was 20 degrees below zero on that first day – and the air on Kilimanjaro was already getting thin.
Breathe.
“We had a long list of reasons why climbing Kilimanjaro didn’t make sense at all,” says Don King. “We were too old. It was too dangerous. It was too scary. There were many who didn’t think it was possible.”
At 19,341 feet, Mount Kilimanjaro’s summit stands in austere grandeur against the Tanzanian sky, claiming its birthright as the highest mountain in Africa. Some 35,000 people attempt to climb the mountain, also known as “The House of God”, each year. Roughly 45% are successful.*
“We started at 7,000 feet. It took us 6 days of hiking very slowly – very, very slowly– to get to base camp at 15,500 feet. If we would have hiked too fast, our bodies would have shut down due to the changes in altitude. Each night at dinner, we passed around the oxygen meter to track how well our bodies were acclimating to the changes in elevation.
“Altitude is the great equalizer. Being able to walk, to talk, to think clearly, to breathe – these are things we take for granted. At 15,000 feet, it takes twice as long to do anything. At 19,000 feet, you struggle just to put two coherent thoughts together. It’s ‘take one step, stop, take a breath … take one step, stop, take a breath.’
“When we reached the top – WOW! None of us could believe we’d made it. We felt so blessed to be there.
“Then, as we stood at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, we looked down and realized we had 15,000 feet of downhill to do in two days.
“As we started back down the mountain, one of my friends started to move too quickly. He walked 25 feet too quickly. He lost all coherency. He didn’t know up from down. He couldn’t move his legs. His body and mind shut down. The guides scooped him up and did a power slide downhill from 19,000 feet to 15,000. Thankfully, he recovered fully.
“It’s amazing what you can do when you just take one slow step after another. We all feel blessed to have done this.”
Pushing himself, and others, beyond perceived limits is nothing new to Don. Known as Pastor Don to our Mountain Shadows community, he is the leader of the Beyond Limits ministry, an adaptive worship service for persons with special needs.
“Our residents had been attending Mission Hills Church for several years,” says Fred Lindahl, Development Director. “Now they hold the Beyond Limits service in the Mary Triplett Park on the Mountain Shadows campus – and it’s a HUGE success!”
“I was at Gateway Church before Mission Hills,” says Don. “The Mountain Shadows folks went there. I was drawn to the group. I sat amongst them as part of the gang. Little did I know I was destined to be a part of their lives so many years down the road.
“Now, each Sunday, we meet in the park at Mountain Shadows and have our own church service for everyone. Everyone gets involved, especially the residents: Heidi sings, “I Can Only Imagine.” Brian sings, “Give Me Jesus.” And Debbie sings and signs both songs. Chris recites The Lord’s Prayer. John is in charge of counting how many people are there. He’s so excited to have a job.
“We sing, we dance, we pray. It’s a Sunday Love Fest! Our motto is: Love God, serve people and bring hope. We do this on whatever level is needed. We give them their own space to do their thing, to shine in their own light.
“I don’t like to use the term Pastor because it’s such a team effort. There are 8 of us from Mission Hills that are blessed to do this. I play a leadership role. I guide, direct, teach, pray, hug, listen, and hug some more. But we all share in the teaching. We all share in the hugs. We all spend time with everyone there. We all do what needs to be done. We all share a passion to be a part of this group. It’s family.
“Every once in a while, someone will ask me, ‘Don’t you feel sorry for the people at Mountain Shadows?’ Heavens no!!! I refer to the residents as having Ph.D.’s in Humanity. Every time they leave campus, they are instructing everyone about what it means to be human. When they approach the world it’s amazing to see their impact on others around them. We learn more from them than they from us.
“They teach us about grace, about spirit. They teach us everybody matters. The wrapping paper may be different, but it doesn’t matter. Everyone is important in God’s plan. We all have hearts and that is all that God is concerned with.
“We can’t out-dream God. Sometimes I get up in the morning and wonder, ‘What’s going to happen today?’ I have no clue. But I’m an optimist. I know something amazing is going to happen. Then God shows up and it always does.
“I stutter, and when I was a child, my mom and dad encouraged me to keep talking. There are plenty of people who stutter and too often they are told to shut up. My parents told me, ‘The world needs to hear what you have to say. The world needs to hear what’s in your heart.’ I believe everyone should have that type of encouragement.”
“Don has also been our Spiritual Leader during resident memorials,” adds Fred. “He and all of the folks at Mission Hills Church have done so much for us. They recently put on a family BBQ at Mountain Shadows. They provided food for all our residents and staff members. They even brought an orchestra!”
“I play the trombone in North County Winds orchestra. We’re a 40-piece concert band and we play all types of music from Chicago, to Santana, to Stevie Wonder, to Eric Clapton. When I mentioned playing at Mountain Shadows, everyone in the band said, ‘Great! When and where?”
Don has climbed Mount Fuji, Mount Whitney, and now Mount Kilimanjaro. He’s also walked the John Muir Trail. What’s next for him?
“At the top of Kilimanjaro, and all the days since, I’ve realized my friends at Mountain Shadows climb that mountain, that path, every day.
“It’s amazing what we can do when we take one slow step at a time. In climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, we did what we didn’t think we could do.
“I want to help others, especially my Mountain Shadows friends, do what they don’t think they can do.”
Step.
Stop.
Breathe.
*Figures published by the Kilimanjaro National Park.
To help Mountain Shadows residents like Heidi, Brian, Debbie,
Chris and John continue to live more fulfilling and active lives,
please click below.

Eagle Transportation: Making Christmas Wishes Come True

By: Sheryl Wilde
BAMM!
The shiny new Mercedes-Benz convertible crashed into the wall of Laurel Park house as Marquez squealed with glee.
BAMM!
The car hit the wall again.
Then, his eyes bright, lost in a world of his imagination, he revved the engine, screeching out a tight 360 with the remote-controlled car.
Many of you may know Marquez, who suffers from Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. He’s wheelchair bound but nothing can contain his free-wheeling, live life to the fullest spirit. He loves fast cars, baseball, and his older brother Maurice, who is afflicted with the same disease. The brothers were orphaned several years ago when both of their parents died within a month of each other. They were moved to Mountain Shadows soon after.
If all wishes came true, Marquez would be able to stand on his own, pick up the keys to a real Mercedes and walk on his own two legs to the car, then get in and DRIVE!
Unfortunately, due to the debilitating effects of Duchenne’s, Marquez will never be able to do a simple thing like drive a car. But that hasn’t stopped him from dreaming.
When he was a boy, like most boys, he played with toy cars and pushed them along the carpet mimicking the engine’s roar – VROOM! VROOM! And he dreamed of being free to drive – drive to his heart’s desire on the open road with the top down. And with his imagination on fire, he could almost feel the warmth of the sun on the back of his neck as he drove. He could almost see his girlfriend’s long blonde hair blowing gently in the wind as they cruised down the 101. And he would smile and laugh, and sometimes his heartbeat would even quicken as he played with those cars, because the story playing out in his imagination felt so real.
Like many young men his age, Marquez still dreams of sports cars and speed. In fact, when asked what he wanted for Christmas this year, he had but one wish – a remote-controlled toy car. It had to be remote-controlled because he can no longer get down out of his wheelchair to push the car along the floor.
Thanks to Eagle Transportation, his Christmas wish has been granted and Marquez is now driving in his dreams.
“I received a call from Marie Miltimore at Eagle Transportation a few weeks before Christmas,” says Janet Steen, Mountain Shadows – Riverside.  “She said they’d like to buy all of our kids something for the holiday. I was so excited for our kids! To me this is huge that someone who had never even seen our kids wanted to buy presents for them all. This rarely happens for our children. It’s truly a blessing.”
Truly a blessing, especially for Marquez, who otherwise most likely would not have received anything for Christmas.
Says Tom Holt, owner of Eagle Transportation, about why they contacted Mountain Shadows to make this incredible gift, “I love kids. I love ’em point blank. If my wife and I were younger, we would adopt every one of the children at Mountain Shadows. We’ve always been close to our own kids. We’ve devoted our lives to our kids to be honest. And we like to do it. A lot of people, when they have kids, take one big, fancy vacation each year. We do everything as a family – camping, desert riding, school activities, everything. We stayed active and involved with our children every day. And we enjoyed it.
“We started Eagle Transportation about 15 years ago. Since that time, we’ve grown into a multi-million dollar company that provides a wide variety of trucking and transportation services throughout the L.A. basin. We believe it’s important to take time out of life to make someone else happy, someone who can’t do it for themselves. I think if more people took time out to do this, it would be a very nice world.
“I’ll just tell you that I’m a very kindhearted person. Anyone would tell you that. I know I can’t take my money with me, so I try to share it and make as many people happy as possible. That’s probably why I’ll never be rich.
“We started doing this about 4 years ago. We have an army truck and it’s all decorated with lots of lights for Christmas. We started out caroling in the neighborhood on Christmas Eve. Then we started visiting Totally Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in San Bernardino. We park the truck and play Christmas music for the children. Santa and his elves, my grandchildren, are there. We hand out lots of gifts. The kids really enjoy it. We learned about Mountain Shadows through Totally Kids.
“This year, Mike Rodgers and Brandon Myers of Hi-Way Safety in Chino partnered with us. Procast Products donated toys. They are all very loving people.”
“It was rainy and cold on the night Tom and Brandon delivered the toys,” adds Janet. “But as they were taking the toys off the truck, they were both smiling the whole time. I think Tom is a big kid at heart. He likes toys and he loves giving.
“Thanks to Tom and Eagle Transportation, all of our Mountain Shadows kids had a fun and great Christmas, especially Marquez!”
BAMM!
The Mercedes slammed into the wall again.
Marquez maneuvered it back to the center of the room, still lost in his beautiful dream – where his feet can press the gas pedals, where his hands can turn the steering wheel, where he can drive in the sun with the top down, feeling the wind dance across his thick black hair.
Thank you, Eagle Transportation, for making this Christmas wish come true for Marquez – and all of our children at Mountain Shadows – Riverside. Because you took time out to do this, our children’s world is a little bit nicer.
Tom Holt, you are a very kindhearted person. And we will tell everyone that.
To help Mountain Shadows residents like Marquez continue
to live more fulfilling and active lives, please click here.