Newspaper Page Text
Hometown
Hero
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Healing
with Rhyi ffl
Eddie Tuduri of Carpinteria, Calif.,
coaxes his new friends to sit in a circle facing congas and
bongos. He hands a tambourine to a slender woman in
a wheelchair, and a shaker to a boy with mental retarda
tion. Then he pulls out laminated flash cards and holds
tliem up one at a time. Beneath the black quarter note
symbols are numbers: 5-6-7-S.
“OK, repeat after me." says Tuduri. tapping a conga,
first with his right hand, then with his left. “5-6-7-S.”
A young man with Down syndrome gives it a try,
then falters. He tries again, and this time he gets it.
Surprised at his own dexterity', lie turns and flashes a
broad smile as everyone cheers. By the end of the music
therapy session, even the shyest participant is tapping,
pounding and swaying to the beat. More importantly,
they’re learning life skills such as counting, sparial aware
ness and speech.
t Mmgrn*,
An enthusiastic participant follows Tuduri’s beat.
No one knows die healing power of rhythm bet
ter than Tuduri, 60, who during his 40-year rock ’n'
roll career worked as a drummer for The Beach Boys,
Dwight Yoakam and dozens of other performers. In
1997, Tuduri was bodysurfing near his Carpinteria (pop.
14,037) home when a wave slammed him to the bottom
of die ocean, breaking his neck and leaving him tempo
rarily paralyzed.
Sensation gradually returned to his body during his
stay at The Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara,
Calif That's when Tuduri asked a friend to bring him
some drumsticks and began tapping a simple rhythm
by NANCY
HENDERSON
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Former Beach Boys drummer Eddie
Tuduri uses colored squares on drum
heads to teach disabled students at
the Ojai (Calif.) Enrichment Center.
on the side of the bed. Two other patients and a hospital
aide joined in.
"I thought we were gonna get in trouble,” Tuduri
recalls with a grin.
When he struck up a beat in his occupational
rehabilitation class, therapists noticed that patients
showed improvement in memory, coordination and
other skills. During one session, an 8-year-old boy,
paralyzed on one side by an aneurysm, walked on his
own for the first time. “That’s when we knew we had
something,” Tuduri says.
After that, Libby Whaley’, the institute’s director of
therapeutic recreation and volunteer services, helped
Tuduri launch The Rhythmic Arts Project (TRAP) as
a nonprofit program. “A lot of people have ideas and
dreams, but not everyone can actually be as per
sistent and work so hard to make it happen," she
says. “It’s as if he had a second calling. Every
thing he does is from the heart. It's because he
really believes." •
Rick Herrera, a Santa Barbara resident who
underwent physical therapy at the
institute because of deteriorated
discs in his spine, was skeptical
of beating a drum at first. A
“When I got out there I
thought, ‘Wow this is
run."' lie says. "It helped fIH
take a lot of bad things H
off my mind. Physically, it
helped because it got me to I
get up and motivated me. And '
I felt accepted."
Hearing Tuduri’s inspiring
story helped, too. “If this guy can do it, I can do it,"
Herrera says. “That’s what’s so magical about him. He
gives you hope, and that’s a rare thing nowadays.”
TRAP now operates in seven states at more than
35 locations, including community centers for people
with developmental disabilities. Passionate and driv
en, Tuduri leads workshops and trains new facilitators,
despite the fact that he technically is a quadriplegic
who walks with a cane, tires easily and has only partial
use of his hands. The payoff, he says, is worth it.
“Music moves us in a positive direction—physically,
spiritually, mentally," he says. “It addresses the will to
live. It saved my life.”
Hundreds of TRAP participants with developmental
disabilities have opened their hearts to Tuduri. Dion
Cornejo, 25, who has Down syndrome, has played
Ijbdrums since 1998 in a YMCA-based TRAP
Wm. program in Pasadena, Calif.
W Tuduri’s unique percussion
m therapy was born from his
own near-death experience.
Page 8
“When he sees Eddie he just lights up,”
says his mother, Debbie Cornejo. “It’s really
helped him with listening skills, focusing
skills and developing friendships." Before
her son started drumming, “Dion was
very passive, really quiet. Now he’s
not afraid. It has just really helped
him blossom into a very confident
young man. " 3^
Nancy Henderson is a writer in
Clxittawiga, Term.
Call (805) 745-8280 or
click on this story at
americanprofile.com to
learn more.
•www.americanprofile.com
Photos by Rob Clement