Osceola native talks about life after accident

Motocross is Jesse Gildea’s life. Following in his father’s footsteps, Gildea started racing when he was only five years old.

He dreamed of becoming a professional racer. Even after a motorcross accident left him paralyzed from the chest down (T4 paraplegic), when he was a senior in high school, he hasn’t let the paralysis stop him from doing what he loves.

“When I was 18, I wasn’t ready to give it up,” he said. “We’ve done what we’ve had to to get back on the bike.” Gildea is still is able to ride with the help of a specialized modified bike. In fact he has competed in the ESPN Summer X Games and is preparing to compete in the Winter X games in Adaptive Snocross in Aspen, Jan. 30.

But the accident helped open his eyes to how life can change in a split second.

When the Osceola native isn’t riding his bike, he promotes a message of safety to students across Iowa through the ThinkFirst Iowa program, sponsored by the Blank Children’s Hospital.

THINK FIRST

ThinkFirst Iowa is a school-based assembly program which reaches 30,000 students a year and is geared toward junior high and high school students.

The program is committed to educating students about making good decisions in their activities so they can help avoid injuries that could leave them disabled or claim their life. The program which targets sophmores, who are about toget their driver’s licenses, reminds students of the importance of putting on a seatbelt, checking water depths before diving and driving sober.

Reminding kids to wear a helmet is a safety message that hits home for 23-year-old Gildea, now of Des Moines. He brings the helmet he was wearing during his accident, along to show students just how important it is to always wear a helmet.

The helmet sustained some damage from the accident but it protected his head.

“Once you sustain a brain or spinal cord injury, it’ll be with you the rest of your life,” he said. “It’ll affect how you live your life everyday.”

• For more of this story see the January 20 issue of the Sentinel.