by David Ball
Staff Writer
Dick Hoyt said he is thrilled about what Arc Jacksonville does for disabled residents of Northeast Florida, especially in providing employment opportunities.
“What these people are doing is just awesome,” said Hoyt. “They are helping people be independent, and that’s so important.”
Hoyt knows something about looking past a person’s disability. For 27 years, Hoyt and his son, Rick, have competed as a team in 955 marathons, triathlons and some of the most challenging athletic events in the country. Yet Rick, who has lived with cerebral palsy since birth, can not walk or speak.
Hoyt shared his inspirational story and his motto of “yes you can” as the guest speaker for Arc’s annual Dinner with Bill awards and fundraiser Thursday. The event, named after a disabled Iowa man who gained independence as a business owner, raised $125,000 for Arc and awarded local companies for efforts to employ people with disabilities.
The award winners, selected by the Mayor’s Disability Council, included Mandarin Veterinary Clinic and North Florida Schools (for companies with less than 100 employees) and Starbucks and Stein Mart (for companies with 100 or more employees).
The Arc Jacksonville’s employment program has placed more than 50 disabled residents into jobs at more than 30 local businesses, and another 200 work at the Arc facility on contracts with companies.
The event also recognized Arc’s Artistic Realization Technologies (A.R.T.) program that allows severely physically disabled children and adults to create works of art. One of the art pieces was awarded to former Mayor and University of North Florida President John Delaney for his efforts to promote a new Arc program that allows disabled young adults to attend classes at UNF.
Still, the highlight of the evening was Hoyt, who led the audience through emotional videos and a slide show of his and his son’s accomplishments.
“For forty-five years, people have been saying, ‘no you can’t,’” said Hoyt. “But what people have said and what we did are two different things.”
Their story began in 1975, when Rick, through an electronic communicator, told his father he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Although he wasn’t a conditioned long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they achieved an even greater triumph.
“Rick said to me, ‘running makes me feel like my disability disappears,’” said Hoyt.
The new “Team Hoyt” began entering in more and more races such as the Boston Marathon, which they have competed in 25 times. They then moved up to triathlons, where Hoyt would run while pushing Rick in a wheelchair for 26.2 miles, bike while towing Rick in a cart for 112 miles and swim while pulling Rick in a boat for 2.4 miles.
Rick became the first disabled person to complete the grueling Ironman triathlon in Hawaii, a race he and his dad have now completed eight times.
The Hoyt’s story appeared on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” and won a Sports Emmy Award for Best Long Feature. Dick Hoyt often travels to speaking events between races, while Rick, now a graduate of Boston University, currently lives on his own.
Hoyt said he would like to run along Jacksonville’s riverwalk with his son next time he’s in town.
“It’s really beautiful here, and I think it’d be a great run,” said Hoyt, who will be back in Florida with Rick to compete in the Ford Ironman World Championship in Clearwater on Nov. 10. “That’ll be a good one. I know Rick is ready for it.”
For more information on the Hoyts, visit www.teamhoyt.com. For more information on Arc Jacksonville, visit www.arcjacksonville.org.
Who is Bill?
The Arc Jacksonville’s annual Dinner with Bill event is named after Bill Sackter, a developmentally disabled man whose story to gain independence has inspired advocacy groups across the country.
Sackter was placed in the Faribault State School for the Feeble-minded and Epileptic in Iowa at the age of seven, and he never again saw his family.
But during the deinstitutionalism trend of the 1960s, Sackter was forced onto the streets of Minneapolis, where he drifted for 10 years until he met and befriended a man named Barry Morrow. Morrow was eventually awarded custody of Sackter and took him back to Iowa when Morrow was offered a job as a professor at the University of Iowa.
Sackter worked a variety of jobs at the university, but he gained his fame as sole proprietor of Wild Bill’s Coffee Shop on the university campus. He became a national celebrity as a result of the 1981 Emmy-winning television movie, “Bill,” about his life.
Sackter passed away in 1983, although his story of independence continues to epitomize what people with disabilities can achieve if given the opportunity. “What a man needs to succeed,” Sackter once said, “is a good home, a good job and a good buddy.”
Source: The Arc Jacksonville