by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

Christmas came early for Claremont resident Alexander Harris, 23, who got a much needed piece of adaptive sports equipment to help him snow ski for many winters to come.

Harris, a paraplegic, received grant money for poles and a “monoski,” a single ski with a wide base, adjustable springs, brakes, and a chair, which will allow him to continue his newfound passion.

Before taking up monoskiing, Harris was an avid motocross rider and had hoped to one day go pro. He and his family took many trips to the desert.

“That’s where I learned to ride and stuff, and, yeah, I wanted to race from there,” Harris said. “I really liked it.”

His life changed drastically on August 19, 2018. He was 17, and was realizing his dream in his first professional motocross event at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino.

“I was going over a jump,” Harris recalled. “My foot hit the ground going off the jump and coming down my head hit the handlebars, which broke my neck.

“When I was crashing I was like, this is kind of weird, I don’t feel anything … Then when I stopped, after rolling and stuff, I tried to get up because I usually try and get up [as] my first instinct, and I couldn’t move.”

Paramedics transported him to Loma Linda University Medical Center. He remembers being able to move his arm in the ambulance. At Loma Linda, surgeons repaired his fractured C5 vertebra in his neck.

Alexander Harris pictured at his Claremont home. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

Over the next two weeks at Loma Linda he regained motion elsewhere. He was then transferred to Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare in Pomona, where he began physical therapy. He enrolled in the hospital’s transitional living center, which helps people adjust to the serious challenges that arise from a disabling injury or illness. After six months at Casa Colina, he began a two-year outpatient program.

Since being discharged, Harris has been a regular at The Perfect Step in Pomona, a paralysis recovery center. Throughout the ordeal, he’s been mindful to keep a cool head, he said, and endeavors to replace negative thoughts with positivity.

“I’ve had injuries before, and I also knew if I had those thoughts then like it wouldn’t turn out good,” Harris said. “I just tried and kept a positive outlook on it. I always said I will ride a bike again. And I will do that. Just to keep positive, I knew that it would help, and I think it did help with the recovery.

“It’s not like I can’t do anything. I’m still doing things that I want to do and stuff like that. It’s changed a lot, but it also hasn’t changed a lot. [I’m] just doing things differently. Nothing about me has changed, just that I’m in a wheelchair now. That’s pretty much it.”

The 2019 Claremont High School graduate is studying kinesiology at Citrus Community College, where he’s on course to graduate next spring. It’s a field of study he became interested in following his accident.

“After doing the therapy and stuff and listening to all the doctors talk about it, it’s like, oh, this is kind of cool. I’ll do this. That’s how I got into it,” Harris said.

He’s gained newfound respect for Paralympic athletes and said the recent winter games spurred him to try monoskiing. He now hopes to one day compete for Team USA in the Paralympics. “That’s my main goal,” Harris said.

In order to get there, he needed the proper equipment to train.

Last year, his family shared his story with the Kelly Brush Foundation, which awarded Harris a grant worth $2,500 this spring. Another $3,500 grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation helped cover much of the $10,000 monoski.

Kelly Brush Foundation spokesperson Andrew Bernstein wrote in an email that Harris was one of 157 recipients of its spring grants, which totaled $454,400.

“The important thing to us is that people with spinal cord injuries have the equipment they need to enjoy being active in whatever way can,” Bernstein wrote.

Harris said he hopes his story inspires others.

After the winter monoski season and his studies are completed at Citrus College, Harris said he’s eyeing attending ultrasound technician school. He’s also considering a return to cycling, in the form of adaptive mountain biking.

“We’ll probably need a grant for that one too,” his mother Peggy Harris joked.