((PKG)) HOPE INTO ACTION
((TRT: 07:15))
((Topic Banner: Hope into Action))
((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor))

((Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin))

((Editor: Kyle Dubiel))

((Map: New Orleans, Louisiana))
((Main characters: 1 male))
((Main characters: 3 male; 3 female))

((MUSIC/NATS))
Yeah, let’s go. Push. Two.
((Mark Raymond Jr.
Founder & CEO, Split Second Foundation))
Split Second Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to breaking barriers for people with disabilities. And how we do that is by creating resources and programs for people to improve their quality of life. Split Second Fitness is the first rehab-based fitness center in the Gulf South, specifically for people who've had paralysis, amputations, or some type of neurological condition, although now we're seeing people even in like the aging population.
((Courtesy: The Split Second Foundation, Inc.))
The significance was again, a lot of these people were going through health-related situations and being really put in a box with how many visitations they got from insurance. And once they were discharged, they had no place to go to continue their
((end Courtesy))
recovery and rehab journey. We've become that place.
((Mark Raymond Jr.
Founder & CEO, Split Second Foundation))
Unfortunately, rehab isn't just a linear, like you're done in nine months kind of thing, right?
((NATS))
We did it on the mat. We did it just pushing up. There you go. Push up. There you go.
((Mark Raymond Jr.
Founder & CEO, Split Second Foundation))
We founded Split Second Foundation in April of 2018. We opened the first fitness center in February of 2021. It started with me. July 4th, 2016. I had a diving accident that left me a C4 [cervical spinal cord] quadriplegic. Dove in the shallow water and had a burst fracture at the C5 [cervical spine] level in my neck. Woke up in the hospital three weeks later, on a ventilator, to the news that I was paralyzed and may never walk, may never breathe on my own again.
((Courtesy: The Split Second Foundation, Inc.))
I had a really strong support system, and even in my darkest days, they didn't let me get too down. We, after the first year here in New Orleans, we went to Sacramento to check out a facility
((end Courtesy))
similar to what we operate now. And that was where I really like saw the importance of community, the importance of having a space that was for, for me and seeing other people like me thriving, especially immediately after that, still dealing with some of the grief and the depression.
((Mark Raymond Jr.
Founder & CEO, Split Second Foundation))
That, I think, was where I saw like that light in the darkness. And I wanted to be able to provide that light to everybody else here that didn't have it.
((NATS))
((Quanteria “Q” Williams-Porche
Director, Split Second Fitness))
Bye, Elijah. Happy Birthday.
((Eliajah Hartley
Client, Split Second))
Thank you.
((Quanteria “Q” Williams-Porche
Director, Split Second Fitness))
That community part has been great for everyone. And then I enjoy when that happens, when people connect, because it means more to be able to see what resources are out there and what someone else has been through and how they're navigating. And so someone with a stroke who's three years out, versus someone who just had a stroke three months ago, they're able to connect with each other and talk. And, you know, one encourages the other. And so that part's really great for me.
((Mark Raymond Jr.
Founder & CEO, Split Second Foundation))
Well, right now, Split Second Foundation operates two programs and they're very unique: Split Second Fitness and Split Second Cares. The director of Split Second Fitness is a physical therapist by training, and the rest of our staff are either kinesiology background, physical therapy background, or occupational therapy background. The Split Second Cares program, our director is an occupational therapist by training, but underneath that umbrella but underneath that umbrella and really the full understanding of what she brings is mental health, community resource, and how to help people manage the beginnings of this, and think of like a life plan.
((NATS))
((Dr. Mary Delahoussaye
Director, Split Second Cares))
We were stretching it out. We kind of just hang out here for a moment, get weight bearing.
((Devon Walker
Client, Split Second Fitness))
I actually met Mark when he was first injured. I had been injured for a few years already. We met at Touro Hospital where we used to do therapy at, and ever since then, I mean, he's been, he’s a great guy. I played football for Tulane University and on September 10th, I was playing, in 2012, Tulane versus Tulsa, Oklahoma. Had an impact with another football player directly on the top of my head. Freak accident, taking hits like that all of my life. But that one incident, it went the wrong way, wrong degree, and I had a C4 fracture in my vertebrae and my neck.
My favorite therapist is Mary Delahoussaye, Doctor Mary Delahoussaye. Come on over here.
((Dr. Mary Delahoussaye
Director, Split Second Cares))
She and I have been working together since our days at Touro. This gym really improves the quality of my life. It's here with the staff and the crew here, able to offer accessible equipment for me to use, unlike other gyms, which is more like you work out on your own. Obviously, people in my condition can't do that, but you still need to be able to work out, to stretch, to honestly to keep our bodies in shape and just to keep the maintenance up, I guess, you could say. You know the old saying, “If you don't use it, you lose it.”
((NATS))
On the side you’re moving. Strong side. Strong side, but my feet are pointing towards the...
((Eliajah Hartley
Client, Split Second Fitness))
Here, it's really cool because like they focus on the things that I really need to focus on. Like today, I was working on floor transfers. So, if I fall at home, I'm kind of screwed because there's nobody else at home to pick me up. I'm just laying on the ground until 911 [emergency response] comes around. And so, by working on something very specific like floor transfers, then they gave me a time frame. In like three weeks, I should be able to get up on my own.
((Courtesy: The Split Second Foundation, Inc.))
((Antoinette Oubre Rich
Caregiver))
The social interaction is helpful. I'd love to see more gyms like ((end Courtesy))
Split Second in the community because it gives people with disabilities a glimmer of hope that they can get back to normal activities.
((Mark Raymond Jr.
Founder & CEO, Split Second Foundation))
My great-grandfather was a civil rights attorney and from the 1920s to the 1940s, he was the only Black practicing attorney in the state of Louisiana. I think being in that shadow has…and growing in that family and understanding the legacy and the importance of public service, has definitely inspired some of the work that I've done. Anybody's life can change in a split second. Mine did, and now we're trying to impact all of those who have these same instances. And every day, somebody's life is changed in a split second.
((NATS/MUSIC))