Masco Supports New University of Michigan Adaptive Sports Program
Early this year, Masco donated $25,000 from its 2020 Masco Million Differences campaign to one of our young partners, the University of Michigan Adaptive Sports Program. Masco was excited to be one of the first partners of this initiative, which seeks to expand adaptive sports in an intercollegiate environment to offer equal access to health and wellness for individuals with physical disabilities. Led by Dr. Oluwaferanmi Okanlami of Michigan Medicine, the program will not only put Michigan on the map as an educational destination for student athletes with disabilities, but will also provide Michigan learners and clinicians with the opportunity to gain expertise in the care of patients with disabilities. Further, the program can be expanded to offer individuals undergoing inpatient rehabilitation, including veterans, an opportunity for physical or recreational therapy.
Hoping to lay the infrastructure to become a national leader in intercollegiate competitive adaptive sports, the University of Michigan program already consists of wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis, and the program is expected to expand quickly.
Speaking about the Masco donation, Dr. Okanlami stated, “The impact this gift will have on our ability to support our current and prospective adaptive student-athletes is immense, and will demonstrate to them that while we may be new, we are just getting started and are well on our way to being the ‘Leaders and Best’ in this arena.”
Masco was pleased to host Dr. Okanlami at our world headquarters in 2019 to speak to our employees about the importance of adaptive sports. We can’t wait to see the health, wellness and educational opportunities Dr. Okanlami’s team brings to the U-M community!