The Trae Young Family Foundation is all about finding unique ways to give back to our community and we believe our latest initiative with Norman Regional Health gives us the opportunity to do just that.
We recently made a $250,000 commitment to the Norman Regional Health Foundation In support of Norman Regional’s Rehabilitation Center in an effort to bring innovative facilities and programs to those in need.
The gift was used to build out a brand new kitchen and the state of Oklahoma’s first Gait and Balance system for adult patients. These two additions will provide a lifeline to local patients recovering from strokes and other traumatic injuries.
Trae’s great-grandfather was a stroke victim, so the cause hits close to home for the Young Family.
“My grandpa had a stroke when I was in high school and watching him relearn how to do something as simple as go downstairs or walk down his hallway, things like that, he would have been able to use this technology to do things even easier and safer. So that’s why we did this partnership,” said Trae’s mom Candace Young. “It’s important to me and the Trae Young Family Foundation because Norman Regional is a partner in our community and they’re a pillar.”
This gift enabled the center to have both a state-of-the-art kitchen and a Gait and Balance system, which is the only of its kind in Oklahoma for adult patients.
Candace also took the time to join occupational therapists from Norman Regional Rehabilitation Center for a shopping trip to The International Pantry to stock the kitchen. They shopped for essentials that patients will need to re-learn kitchen skills, including oven mitts, measuring cups and cutting boards.
“We can easily take for granted a task like baking a cake, but after a stroke, this task becomes much more complex,” said program manager Ben Vandaveer said. “Our therapists use our kitchen to take patients all the way through a task like this, from creating a shopping list, determining costs, gathering ingredients, measuring and timing the different steps needed, and adapting any of these steps as needed based on the individual patient and their impairments.”
It’s just another initiative and opportunity for Trae and the Trae Young Family Foundation to make a difference in the Norman community.
“Partnering with businesses and organizations that are local, we’re local and being with Norman Regional, The Trae Young Family Foundation is just grateful for the city partners that we get to have,” Candice Young said.
