In 2018, founder Rob Tortorella made a full-time transition from CEO of a successful business to active leadership of Endless Highway, carrying out his life’s goal of providing funding for youth with disabilities to participate in sports and recreation. One year and several new partnerships later, Endless Highway shared their story in the Rochester Business Journal.
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Shea Kulp has spent more than half his life racing in track and field events. At nearly 13, Kulp competes with the Rochester Rookies in the 400-meter dash, the 800-meter and the 1,500-meter track events.
But for Kulp to compete, he must have special equipment…
“It came to the point where Shea wasn’t fitting in the chair an d we had to figure out what we were going to do because we didn’t want to tell him he couldn’t race anymore. But also, we have five kids and these racing chairs are super-duper expensive, and insurance doesn’t pay for recreational equipment,” [Kulp’s mom] recalled. “The first time we met Rob we were at a dinner banquet. Shea and Rob met in the elevator and they started chatting and hit it off.”
Before long, Shea had his new racing chair.
Acquiring Kulp’s chair was the first real undertaking of Endless Highway Inc., a nonprofit founded and led by Tortorella to expand adaptive recreational opportunities for kids and young adults with physical limitations.
Tortorella’s desire to help children and young adults who have limits to their mobility stems from a shattering car accident just days after his college graduation that left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair….
“I lived in Boston (after the accident) and I was able to join a wheelchair track and field team,” Tortorella recalled. “I was 21 or 22 and it really helped me navigate my new life being disabled. And I think the participation, the camaraderie with other disabled (individuals) allowed me to really start to build my self-confidence again and know that I could get back into society and be a productive citizen.”
Read the full news story here.