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New Steve Ludzik rehab centre unveiled at Hotel Dieu Shaver
Steve Ludzik recalls being a skinny little kid in Grade 5, and a bigger boy in Grade 7 regularly bullying him after school.
One day, Ludzik came home with a black eye, and his mom picked up the phone to call his school to put an end to the torment.
“My father said, ‘put the phone down, woman,’ ” Ludzik told a packed meeting room at the Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre in St. Catharines on Monday.
“He said ‘you have to go get this guy, you have to put the drop on him or he’ll never leave you alone.’ ”
Ludzik, a Niagara Falls resident, did just that — without the typical Hollywood ending.
“I got the s*@t kicked out of me,” he said. But the bigger boy backed off, wary of the pint-sized ball of fury he’d unleashed. “I never got bullied again,” said Ludzik.
That feisty streak would rear itself again later in his life, when Ludzik took to the ice with the Ontario Hockey League’s Niagara Falls Flyers, and then with the NHL’s Chicago Black Hawks. Bob Phillips, who played alongside the much smaller Ludzik on the Flyers, remembered a “scrawny” kid who could find the back of the net and who didn’t need bigger players to fight his battles for him. “If need be, he dropped his gloves and took care of business,” he told the gathering at the Shaver, which included a number of hockey greats such as Rick Vaive, Marcel Dionne and Rene Robert.
Ludzik has now turned his sights on battling a foe that he also considers a bully: Parkinson’s disease.
Last year, he revealed the fact he’s been battling the degenerative neurological disease for more than 12 years. On Monday, officials at the Shaver — Niagara’s regional rehab hospital — announced the formation of the new Steve Ludzik Centre for Parkinson’s Rehab.
The centre, with $60,000 in seed money from an annual celebrity roast that Ludzik organizes with the help of a volunteer committee, along with about $25,000 from the annual Hockey Night in St. Catharines event organized by St. Catharines riding MPP Rick Dykstra, will see a new multi-disciplinary rehabilitation program for Parkinson’s patients. The program, involving experts in fields such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech language, is the first of its kind in Niagara.
Shaver executive director Jane Rufrano said until now, people with Parkinson’s had to drive to Toronto for rehab — if they even receive therapy. She said she knows of one local woman who faces a year-long waiting list for rehab.
Regional Chair Gary Burroughs said timely access to important health care is vital. The new Shaver program, while initially only accepting six patients in six-week programs, with five sessions per year, will be an important resource for the hundreds of Niagara residents living with Parkinson’s, he said.
“This is what’s going to make a difference in all our communities,” said Burroughs.
Ludzik said he finally decided to go public with his diagnosis in the hope of making a difference in the lives of others with Parkinson’s.
“I believe I have Parkinson’s for a reason,” he said. “It’s to help find a cure and help people who have this debilitating disease.
“You’ve got a guy who’s going to fight like a son of a gun.”
Dykstra’s 2013 Hockey Night in St. Catharines event will take place at the Jack Gatecliff Arena on Saturday, Aug. 10. Ludzik’s annual celebrity roast will take place the night before at the Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls.
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