This year, SoleSavy is a proud Platinum-level sponsor ($15,000 USD) of the Doernbecher Freestyle. Every year, various patients of OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital become designers of their own special-edition Nike sneakers which are then released via charity auction benefiting the hospital. Due to the pandemic, this year’s event will be a virtual, live-streamed showcase focusing on 17 years of the initiative’s history. In further efforts to highlight this year’s Virtually Freestyle, we wanted to highlight this short letter from 2014 patient-designer Caden Lambert.
Lambert, a survivor of Guilliain-Barré syndrome is now 16 and a high school sophomore. He reminisces fondly on his experience creating his special-edition Air Jordan 8 as a patient-designer back in 2014:
“I’ve made pretty much a full recovery from Guilliain-Barré syndrome, and I know sports has had a big role in that. I remember when I finished physical therapy, everyone figured that wherever I was at that point was as good as I’d get. But, each year after that, I’ve continued to improve.
I never take that for granted. I was excited to learn about the Virtually Freestyle event. It made me think of some of my favorite memories of the program, especially working with Chad and Paul, my design team! They were always open to all my ideas, and my sneaker design really reflects that.”
You can read Caden’s full story here. Click here to make a donation directly to the OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
Tune into the free Doernbecher Virtually Freestyle event this Thursday, February 25th at 6 PM EST.
