Maribel Melendez used to be terrified of drowning and of falling from heights, understandable for someone who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and spends much of her time in a wheelchair because of her weak legs.
But the 20-year-old student from Berwyn grew weary of her fears and decided to face them down several years ago.
Now, she goes scuba diving off Key Largo, Fla., and rock climbing in the Mississippi Palisades State Park in Savanna, Ill., and she loves long-distance bicycling, boxing, wheelchair aerobics, wheelchair basketball and archery.
Her transformation from timid person to enthusiastic athlete in a just a few years gained the attention of the March of Dimes Foundation, which, along with Comcast SportsNet, named Melendez inspirational athlete of the year earlier this year.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to give myself a reason for being scared,’ ” said Melendez about her fears of heights and rock climbing. “I was hoping I would overcome my fear but at least I could say I climbed a 30-foot mountain and survived.”
She was nominated for the March of Dimes award by Darlene Kelly, director of recreation therapy at Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago and by Pamela Patt, a clinical dietitian at Shriners, where Melendez underwent therapy for a number of years after undergoing several surgeries on her leg and foot.
“She was willing to try everything and was very encouraging to other kids who might have been having a tough time,” Kelly said about Melendez’s participation in a wellness camp at the hospital in 2007 when she took part in sports, wrote a journal and learned about nutrition.
Others have taken notice. Teachers at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, where Melendez is a sophomore on a full scholarship, are also wowed by her perseverance.
“She’s very inspirational because she moves around in a (manual) wheelchair, navigating through all the closed doors, and I never see her get angry or frustrated,” said Lou Sytsma, who teaches Melendez in his organic chemistry class.
Melendez, who hopes to become a research chemist and help develop more efficient and less toxic gasoline, said she got her grit from her mother, Carmen Melendez.
Her mom never assumed she couldn’t do things and would wait until her daughter asked for help. Today, Maribel Melendez likes being independent but isn’t afraid to ask for help.
“It was hard when I got out into the world and people assumed I couldn’t do things, and then they get in the way,” said Melendez, who punctuates her conversations, using her hands.
Her enthusiasm and self-confidence have rubbed off on fellow students in her yoga and karate classes, held on Chicago’s North Side at the Drucker Center and run by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and the Thousand Waves Martial Arts and Self Defense Center. The students, ages 3 to 20, also have physical disabilities.
At a recent session at the Drucker Center, Melendez spent an hour doing yoga then went to her karate class, where she sat on the floor, bending her legs and punching the air as she counted to 10 in Japanese.
Her sister Marisela Melendez, who has a more severe form of the same disease, takes the classes with her.
Melendez has another fan in karate classmate Alexis Winkelman, 7, said Alexis’ mother, Cindy Winkelman.
“She inspires her because (Alexis) sees anything is possible,” Winkelman said.
