Move United Recognizes Gwena Herman With 2024 Jan Elix Award
Move United, the national leader in community-based adaptive sports, recently presented its 2024 Jan Elix Award to Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Gwena Herman, of Abingdon, Maryland.
The Jan Elix Award is given in honor and memory of Jan Elix, a dedicated woman that made an impact as an athlete, coach, national board member, mentor, and long-standing volunteer of Move United’s Competition Committee as well as the local organizing committee in the Far West for decades prior to her passing.
Intended to recognize a program administrator, coach, organizer, official and/or classifier in the adaptive sports movement that displays Elix’s core values and positive characteristics, the award was presented to Herman at The Hartford Nationals, which took place in Hoover, Alabama in July.
Award recipients must have dedicated their time and effort to the expansion and growth of competitive sports for athletes with physical disabilities or visual impairments in their local community and/or at the national level by serving as a mentor to the athletes or to their colleagues. In addition, award recipients must have a long-standing commitment to the vision and future of competitive sports for athletes with a physical disability.
Herman is co-director of the Bennett Blazers Physically Challenged Sports Program at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and has successfully managing all aspects of that program since its inception in 1990. This includes a personalized approach for each athlete, often beginning as early as two years old. She has a degree in Motor Development Therapy and has been previously inducted into the Adaptive Sports Hall of Fame.
According to her nomination for the award, “Gwena has changed the lives of countless athletes and coaches through her dedication to adapted sports. Over her career of close to 40 years, she has led the way for inclusion of girls and athletes with cerebral palsy in sports and has been a catalyst for fairness in classification of said athletes. She is known for her approach of getting athletes involved at the earliest possible age with the motto of ‘teach children they can before they are told they cannot.’”
“I often tell people I have the best job around as I get to use sport as an avenue to help kids see and reach their potential,” Herman said. “Being recognized for my almost 40 years in this field is a great honor. Receiving the award that was established in Jan’s name made it that much more special as I had the opportunity to work alongside Jan through the 1990’s and up to 2005 when she passed. The adapted sports world is an amazing community, and lifelong friendships are formed, and Jan was one of those individuals that I thankful to have called a friend.”
To learn more about the Jan Elix Award, visit https://www.moveunitedsport.org/sports/adaptive-sports-awards/.
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