Kyle Gieni and Megan Brousseau with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson
ICORD’s Physical Activity Research Centre (PARC) was honoured with the 2017 Accessible City Award at the City of Vancouver Awards of Excellence ceremony last night.
These awards recognize outstanding achievements made by individuals and organizations, and celebrate excellence in five categories of achievement that benefit everyone by making Vancouver more green, healthy, diverse, and accessible.
PARC is a community-based research facility within ICORD. PARC’s goal is to advance research to understand the best strategies for providing opportunities for people with complete or partial paralysis due to spinal cord dysfunction to participate in physical activity. The first of its kind in Canada, PARC is an innovative research gym, equipped with fully-accessible, state-of-the-art exercise equipment. Members of the SCI community use PARC to exercise and improve their well-being in an inclusive and supportive environment, while contributing to research into better rehabilitation strategies.
PARC Coordinator Megan Brousseau and research participant/volunteer Kyle Gieni accepted the award at last night’s ceremony. They were accompanied by ICORD’s Director, Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff, as well as several research participants and staff members.
ICORD Director Dr. Wolfram Tetzlaff (left) with staff and research participants after the award ceremony.
“On behalf of ICORD, I’d like to thank Mayor Robertson and the City of Vancouver for this award.” said Dr. Tetzlaff. “It’s an honour to be recognized for what we are doing here at ICORD, and see the value and importance the City places on becoming more accessible for people with disabilities.”
At the same ceremony, former BC Premier Michael Harcourt was awarded the Freedom of the City, which is the highest honour bestowed by the City. Mr. Harcourt served as the Chair of ICORD’s Community Advisory Panel from 2002 until 2008.
