2011 Chairman's Award - Stephen Wampler
The Chairman's Award is a special award recognizing a person with a significant physical disability who expresses courage in the face of adversity by achieving a significant accomplishment in sports.
In September 2010, wheelchair-bound Stephen Wampler was the first person with cerebral palsy to climb the 3,000-foot rock formation, El Capitan, in California's Yosemite National Park. This feat was accomplished by using a pulley system and a climbing chair. It took six days and more than 20,000 four to six-inch pull-ups to reach the top.
The purpose of the climb was to increase awareness and to raise money for the Stephen J. Wampler Foundation, which sponsors an outdoor wilderness program for physically disabled children from five western states. Through a unique partnership with the City of Sacramento, the foundation sponsors the programs at Hawley Lake and a number of other programs throughout the state.
When Steve was nine years old, his parents enrolled him in an annual wilderness camp in the High Sierras where he fished, hiked, played in the lake and slept under the stars. He attended the camp for 10 years. He learned he could do anything he set his mind to do and camp became his favorite place on earth. When the camp closed, Steve and his wife, Elizabeth, stepped in to establish a wilderness camp for children with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and spinal cord injuries. Now, ten years later, thousands of children have experienced those same life-changing experiences and all at no cost to their families, thanks to the Stephen J. Wampler Foundation.
Steve is a testament to overcoming incredible odds in life. He has devoted his life to changing physically disabled children's lives. The value of attending the programs that Steve's foundation sponsors are a life-changing experience for everyone who attends.
Steve is a 1992 graduate of the University of California, Davis. Prior to founding the Stephen J. Wampler Foundation, he and his wife, Elizabeth, owned The Convention Company, a management-consulting firm. They reside in Coronado, California with their two children.
