By LINDA CHION KENNEY
The crusade for the freedom to walk is a journey Daisy Vega of Ruskin has taken for more than a decade as both the user of a device and founder of a nonprofit that supports the gift of mobility through the use of that device.
With its mission to change lives “one foot at a time,” the Freedom to Walk Foundation raises funds to help acquire mobility devices for children and adults with foot drop.
Toward that end, the nonprofit’s “Designer Bag Music Bingo” fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, April 25, at The Regent in Riverview.
The event is similar to the “Leap Year Music Bingo” fundraiser Vega organized as membership director for the Sun City Center Woman’s Club. Vega said about 30 attendees at the Feb. 29 event sang and danced in their seats, as music Bingo involves playing snippets of tunes associated with song titles printed on Bingo cards. “The event was so popular, we aim to hold a larger music Bingo for the club in the future,” Vega said.
PHOTO COURTESY Freedom to Walk Foundation
Daisy Vega, left, Freedom to Walk founder, with Jasmin Cervantes Garcia and Cruz Cervantes, her brother, at the foundation’s 2023 fundraiser.
Meanwhile, tickets are being sold for the April event at The Regent, a fundraiser and showcase for electrical stimulation devices known as the WalkAide and the Bioness L300 Go.
Scheduled to attend the Freedom to Walk fundraiser, after her introduction at the group’s 2023 fundraiser, is Jasmin Cervantes-Garcia, who in 2022 survived a car crash in Mexico that killed her parents and grandparents. Suffering serious injury to her brain’s frontal lobe, the south Hillsborough County teen had to learn again how to walk and talk. The foot drop device she received last year aided in that journey.
“With the help of Helping Hands in SouthShore, a Facebook group, and other businesses and individuals, we raised more than $10,000, which covered the cost of Jasmine’s $5,500 device,” Vega said. “We’re inviting her back this year to The Regent in April, at which time her brother will recount how the foot drop device has impacted her life for the better.”
Worn on the calf, the device emits low-level electrical impulses to stimulate muscle to enable the wearer to lift their foot and improve their steps. According to the Mayo Clinic, foot drop (or, drop foot) is the difficulty a person has lifting the front part of the foot, which can be caused by a number of health conditions, including polio; stroke; muscular dystrophy; brain and spinal cord injuries; and peripheral neuropathy, most often caused by diabetes.
In Vega’s case, foot drop resulted from multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system, thought to be an autoimmune disorder.
Vega, 62, said she first experienced foot drop at age 21, and in 2012, with her husband, Wilfredo, purchased a WalkAide mobility device. Its low-level electrical impulses stimulate muscle to allow for the foot to lift.
“I first used my device in 2012, and I started walking naturally, which was a blessing, because the device doesn’t work on everyone,” Vega said. “I’m thankful it worked on me.”
It did; so much so that three months after she purchased her device for $5,000 in November 2012, Vega said she “answered a calling from God” to launch a foundation to educate and help others in a similar situation.
According to Vega, the nonprofit gives $1,000 to the vendor to offset the cost of the medical device, then educates people about ways to raise the additional funds for themselves or others.
In certain instances, as for Cervantes-Garcia, Freedom to Walk covers the full cost, which is then highlighted at an annual event.
Vega has her own success story to share. As she put it, “I wore my device for two-and-a-half years, and I noticed after that time I didn’t need it anymore, and I’ve been walking without it ever since.”
Vega said she is not paid for her work with the foundation she founded in 2013. Indeed, volunteerism is nothing new for Vega, who in February was named the Margy Watkins Volunteer of the Year Award winner by the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce, now known as the Central Hillsborough County Chamber of Commerce.
Daisy Vega, center, receives the 2023 Margy Watkins Volunteer of the Year Award at the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce dinner in February. With her is Jill Jofko, left, the 2022 award recipient, and Tammy See Folsom, chamber chair.
Vega said she volunteers with Seniors in Service Sun City Center, Campaign Against Human Trafficking SouthShore and the Hope Fund for Children, among other groups and organizations, including the Central Hillsborough County, SouthShore and Uptown Temple Terrace chambers of commerce.
“I always tell people I’m born to serve,” Vega said. “I have the heart of a servant. Knowing that I was a part of helping someone, and maybe changing their life for the better forever, you can’t put a price on that. You can’t help everyone, but you can at least help one person at a time.”
Freedom to Walk Foundation’s Designer Bag Music Bingo is set for 6 to 10 p.m. April 25 at The Regent in Riverview at 6437 Watson Road. The cost is $60 per person and includes food from Carr’s Custom Catering and Sugar Lees Gourmet Coffee. Also on tap, a cash bar and entertainment by Johnny Gee from the original Bandingo.
For tickets, sponsorships and donations, visit www.freedomtowalkfoundation.org/. Call Daisy Vega at 813-546-2329.