Disability History Fact: Hope Therapy at Moody Gardens, Galveston
Office of the Governor Texas sent this bulletin at 10/07/2013 08:00 AM CDTCommittee on People with Disabilities
Hope Therapy at Moody Gardens, Galveston is a facility that provides an innovative rehabilitative treatment program for children and adults. Hope Therapy is part of Moody Gardens, a 140-acre complex consisting of a convention center, an animal park, a water-recreation area, an enclosed rain forest, and an IMAX theater. Hope Arena, as it was called originally, was established after a nineteen-year-old member of the Moody family experienced serious head injuries in a 1980 automobile accident. The young Moody emerged from six months in a coma in need of extensive therapy and rehabilitation. Today, clients include individuals with a wide range of disabilities, including spinal cord injuries, amputation, strokes, cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, mental illness, and vision or hearing disabilities. Rehabilitative therapies include horseback riding, animal-assisted therapy, and horticultural therapy. Hope Arena was designed to provide therapeutic horseback riding (“hippotherapy”) for those with neurological disabilities. The horticultural therapy utilizes the five greenhouses of Moody Gardens to allow clients to nurture, raise, and harvest plants. Hope Therapy is administrated by Moody Gardens and supported by grants from the Moody Foundation and other charitable foundations, private donations, fund raising events, and client fees.
Adapted from:
Megan Seaholm and Cheryl Ellis Vaiani, "HOPE THERAPY AT MOODY GARDENS," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/sbh10), accessed September 23, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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