Kentucky Member Cindy Norton: Racing to Help the SCI Community

Back in 1997 Cindy Norton was happily working as a dental hygienist in rural Kentucky, and spinal cord injury was probably the last thing on her mind. That all changed on a hot July day when her son Chuck’s best friend, Michael Brent, was injured in a freak rollover car crash on his way home from work. Little could Norton have known that what started with a bake sale and a car wash to raise funds for Brent would end up changing the direction of her life.

“Never at all would I have dreamed what I’d be doing right now,” she says. “I literally figured we’d raise money for a couple of years and then, as a lot of small organizations do, we’d go away. Instead it just continued to grow.”

Over the past 14 years Norton has assembled a legacy of accomplishments that has improved the quality of life for hundreds of people with SCI/D in Kentucky and across the nation. Norton’s involvement began almost as soon as Brent was injured. She remembers going to the hospital and listening to the litany of costs that Brent’s family could expect as he progressed. With some nudging from her daughter, she agreed to start fundraising. The bake sale and car wash led to a raffle, which led to a golf scramble, which led to a 5K. Soon, Norton was soliciting friends’ help and soon after Friends for Michael, Inc. was born. Norton assumed the presidency.

“We just decided that it was something we wanted to continue to do as a group,” she says. “I have to give credit to a lot of people who said this is really important, we can’t let this go.”

Cindy Norton, right, works with IndyCar team owner, Sam Schmidt, center, to organize “Day at the Races” events for his foundation.

Friends of Michael started off by raising money to buy a van for Brent and, after quickly accomplishing that goal, expanded its purview. Brent passed away in 2007 of complications from a perforated ulcer, but Norton says his positive spirit lives on with his friends and family and, she hopes, through the group’s achievements. Over the last 13 years the group has raised money for a variety of SCI-related causes, including: vans, ramps and other adaptive items; scholarships for local high school students pursuing careers in healthcare; a resource room at Frazier Rehab in Louisville; and an accessible playground in their rural community of Campbellsburg, Ky.

Norton is still a board member with Friends for Michael, but stepped down as president to tackle a new SCI challenge. For the last three years Norton has been coordinating the Day at the Races program for the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation. Former IndyCar racer and current team owner, Sam Schmidt, founded SSPF with the goal of finding a cure for SCI. Schmidt is a C3-4 quadriplegic as a result of a crash in Jan. 2000.

The Day at the Races program offers people with spinal cord injuries and disorders a rare opportunityto spend an up-close-and-personal day at thetrack. Each racing season, Norton arranges about a dozen events that coincide with major IndyCar races. She then coordinates with local hospitals and rehab centers to bring up to 60 people, usually half with SCI/D, to the track.

At the track, participants get to meet their favorite drivers and see behind the scenes of one of America’s most popular sports. Norton says the goal is empowering people with SCI/D to pursue their dreams. “A lot of them have written back and said, ‘This has totally changed my outlook on what I can do,’” she says. “A lot of them thought they would never be able to come out and do what they were able to do at a race track— to get around the race track, get up and down the field, and have that kind of accessibility — a lot of people don’t realize what they can do until they get out and do it.”