Paralysis recovery center celebrates 5 years at new facility

POMONA, Calif. (KABC) -- Local paralysis recovery center, The Perfect Step, is celebrating a milestone at its new facility in Pomona. Here, specialists help empower clients through innovative recovery programs, community engagement, and accessibility.

It's called The Perfect Step for a reason - marking the moment someone with paralysis decides to take a bold step towards recovery. Like - Bruce Zang, who came in with a spinal cord injury. He recently decided he wanted to start walking with a cane, instead of a walker.

Then there's 16-year-old Gavin Martin, who had a brain tumor removed. Complications left him paralyzed on his left side. He said it was tough watching his friends go and do stuff and he couldn't. It took an emotional toll on Gavin, but since coming to The Perfect Step, things have started to turn around. His goal is to drive a race car.

"He wants to drive a car, he wants to do the normal things and this place here gives you hope that you can do the normal things," said his dad Mark Martin.

That's exactly what founder Hal Hargrave wants for every client that comes through their doors.

"If somebody's gonna put risk into our hands, we've got to meet them in a place with trust and with hope and with love. So the Perfect step was cultivated out of this," said founder Hal Hargrave.

He himself suffered a spinal cord injury 18 years ago. He was a student athlete hoping to play baseball in college.

"I was redirected to a greater purpose, and my pain became my purpose," he said.

Ever since, he's been serving the paralysis community, creating roadmaps to success, one client at a time.

"I can relate. I can also understand. I've lived it, but no two stories are the same," said Hargrave.

That passion trickles down to the specialists and assistants who do most sessions out of the wheelchair or away from as assisted device.

"When they're here in their sessions with us, we take that away and we try to take what they've lost and gain that back," said Director of Operations, Ashton Wray.

Just recently they celebrated 5 years at their new, state-of-the-art facility, with a red carpet shining the spotlight on clients who are getting their lives back, one perfect step at a time.