alec cabacungan obituary wants to be a sports broadcaster. It’s been his dream for as long as the 19-year-old Oak Park resident can recall.
Talking with him, you can sense his fighting spirit will make it happen, the spirit that has gotten him through a lifetime of surgeries and physical therapy.
You can see the determination in his infectious smile and the big brown eyes that have endeared him to thousands of TV viewers.
Cabacungan is THAT Alec, the patient ambassador/spokesman for Shriners Children’s Chicago (formerly Shriners Children’s Hospital) who, through a series of commercials the past seven years, has asked people to give generously to the nationwide hospital system and receive one of those “cuddly” red Teddy bear blankets as a thank-you.
Alec Cabacungan wants to be a sports broadcaster. It’s been his dream for as long as the 19-year-old Oak Park resident can recall.
Talking with him, you can sense his fighting spirit will make it happen, the spirit that has gotten him through a lifetime of surgeries and physical therapy.
You can see the determination in his infectious smile and the big brown eyes that have endeared him to thousands of TV viewers.
Cabacungan is THAT Alec, the patient ambassador/spokesman for Shriners Children’s Chicago (formerly Shriners Children’s Hospital) who, through a series of commercials the past seven years, has asked people to give generously to the nationwide hospital system and receive one of those “cuddly” red Teddy bear blankets as a thank-you.
For Cabacungan, it meant being able to live a fuller life, including playing wheelchair basketball — Shriners named its onsite basketball court in his honor — and attending “regular school like his sisters and his friends.”
He graduated from Abraham Lincoln Elementary School and Oak Park River Forest High School, and “everyone was tremendous at school. There was no bullying. I had a great support group, from students to faculty to parents, who always looked out for me. I mean, it was tough at times, being the only kid in school in a wheelchair, but they never made me feel out of place.
“I always hung out with the sports kids, and they always made me feel awesome,” he says. “In sixth grade, I found wheelchair sports and got really involved with the Chicago Park District’s adaptive sports programs. From sixth grade on, I played wheelchair basketball and wheelchair softball, and that’s when I really felt like I was part of a team.”