Racer’s Widow Begins Push to Make L.B. Parks Playground for Disabled

Race driver Gary Gabelich spent the last night of his life attending a support group meeting for parents of children with cerebral palsy.

It was a difficult experience, remembers his wife, Rae.

A Poly High School graduate who began his career by racing hot rods through the streets of Long Beach, Gabelich had set a world land speed record of more than 622 miles per hour in 1970. He had raced cars, boats and motorcycles, played celebrity golf and racquetball and become a popular speaker at schools and civic groups. He had served on boards and headed committees and been an effective community activist on a number of issues.

‘A Difficult Time’

But with the 1982 birth of his only son, Guy Michael, Gabelich had entered new territory. Guy was born with cerebral palsy, a condition that paralyzed his right arm, made walking difficult and speech almost impossible. And though Gabelich had long been involved in local efforts to aid disabled children, he had never before dealt with being the parent of one.

“It was a difficult time,” Rae Gabelich said. When Guy was 18 months old, she and her husband sought the solace of other parents in similar situations by attending the support group. “Gary loved him very much; being a father had made him fonder of living.”

The next day--Jan. 26, 1984--the 43-year-old race driver known as “Rocketman” took off on a motorcycle and never came back. He had survived a number of major accidents in his career as a professional driver. But the ride that was his last, said his wife, ended in a collision with a truck on a San Pedro street as Gabelich was on his way to go whale-watching.

“He liked the ragged edge,” said Rae Gabelich, using a term her husband often used to describe the thrill he felt in pushing his skills to the limit. Added Long Beach City Councilman Edd Tuttle, a longtime friend: “He was one of the most outstanding individuals I’ve known.”

Gabelich will be honored for his community contributions tonight at a ceremony dedicating North Long Beach’s Los Cerritos Park to his memory.

At the same time, his widow will kick off a campaign of which she is convinced Gary would have approved: to provide local park playgrounds with specially designed equipment accessible to children with handicaps.

The idea came to her, she said, the first time she took Guy to a local playground and found most of the equipment inappropriate to his needs.

“It was frustrating,” she recalls. “He couldn’t do anything--only watch.”

Although her campaign to rectify the situation is still in its early stages, she said, the idea has the approval of everyone who has heard of it.

She estimates there are more than 5,000 children in Long Beach whose physical disabilities prevent them from using standard playground equipment.

“It’s a very big need in the community,” said Dr. Laurence Carnay, a pediatric neurologist and president of the Long Beach Children’s Clinic.

Handicapped children generally attend special schools, he said, and the fact that appropriate play equipment is not available to them in most public parks is unfortunate in at least two respects. It deprives disabled children of opportunities for normal play, creating in their minds an impression of ostracism. And it deprives children without handicaps of the opportunity to interact with and develop sensitivity toward those whose physical abilities are more limited.

“In our society we tend to take people with handicaps and hide them away,” said Carnay. “Now it’s coming out in the open that it’s OK to be who you are.”

Important to Development

Patti Webster, an occupational therapist who has worked with Guy Gabelich for more than a year, said that the sensory input provided by playing on such equipment as slides, swings and merry-go-rounds is important to a child’s physical development.

Most standard playground equipment, Webster said, is dangerous to handicapped children who lack the balance, coordination and “protective response” to use it safely. Although specially designed equipment--such as some with special straps or body seats--is commercially available, she said, it is hard to find and usually expensive.

Les Arehart, administrative officer for the Long Beach Department of Parks and Recreation, said that last year the city installed swings designed to accommodate disabled children in 42 local parks. Beyond that, he said, there are no immediate plans to increase the number or variety of specialized equipment.

Of Rae Gabelich’s efforts, he said, “It’s a great idea. Anytime somebody wants to raise money to meet specialized needs, we’re for it.”

Rae Gabelich, who is a board member for the Long Beach Foundation for Children’s Health Care, said that at tonight’s gathering she intends to ask for volunteers to begin fund raising.

Husband Played There

Although she would eventually like to see specialized equipment in all of the city’s parks, she said, Los Cerritos Park--by the Los Angeles River basin near the intersection of the Long Beach and San Diego Freeways--would be an appropriate place to start. Her husband played there as a child and it is within a mile of where Rae Gabelich and Guy now live.

“Gary was a very strong role model for young children,” said Councilman Tuttle, who originally proposed that the park be dedicated in Gabelich’s honor. “He made significant contributions to the community in an unselfish manner. I think it would be fitting to have an area where (handicapped) kids with special needs would have a place . . . for recreation.”

Rae Gabelich has her own reasons for wanting it to happen. “I feel like he’s pushing me on,” she said of her late husband. “This was a special interest for him and now it’s a special interest for me--much closer than either of us ever thought it would be. It keeps him here with me.”