A Champion’s Heart

50-year-old Mr. Kennis Price is proud of his 2007 San Antonio Spurs championship prosthetic. Despite the many challenges he faces as an amputee, he says it is much easier to go through life with a smile.

Mr. Price says his ability to maintain a positive outlook began early. “Growing up, I was the fat kid that everyone teased,” he says. “The more I was teased, the more motivated I became to excel.“

As an adult, he kept this motivation and worked his way from washing dishes to being a licensed kitchen manager.

However, in November 2003, Mr. Price started dialysis, and in September 2006, his left leg was amputated. His wife of 27 years, Janis, a former child care worker, also became ill with lymphadema, a condition that causes painful swellings of the lower limbs.

Simultaneously, the Prices’ quaint home, which had been in the family for four generations, started to fall into disrepair. No longer able to work and subsisting on a fixed income, they had no money to make the repairs.

Enter Mary Emerson, the Prices’ next door neighbor and president of the Harvard/Eastlawn Neighborhood Association. She told them about Merced’s “Serve Our Seniors” Emergency Repair Program (SOS), which helps make health- and safety-related repairs to the homes of extremely low-income senior and disabled homeowners.

The Prices’ unsafe bathroom had lacked handrails and had an inaccessible tub. Merced was able to remove the existing tub and build a new, ADA-accessible, walk-in shower with handrails.

The repairs have been a blessing, says Kennis’ sister Marsha Price. Marsha stopped working as a computer programmer to care for her brother and his family.