The Dale Yasukawa Scholarship Fund, maintained by OPAF and The First Clinics received a $500 donation from Ability Prosthetics and Orthotics of Gettysburg, Pa. and their president, Jeff Brandt, CPO and chief operating officer.
The Dale Yasukawa Scholarship is awarded annually to a Northwestern student pursuing orthotics and/or prosthetics as their career choice. The intent of the scholarship is to encourage those students to attend either their local or regional Academy chapter meeting or a national meeting to promote education and involvement in the field.
Dale Yasukawa, CP, had been both a Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) colleague and a mentor to Brandt. Yasukawa died on Nov. 22, 2001 at the age of 43. He served as director of prosthetics at the RIC in the department of prosthetic-orthotic clinical services. Yasukawa was involved in the Midwest Chapter of the American Academy of Orthotists & Prosthetists for more than 7 years, completing his service as immediate past president in 2001.
“I was a scholarship recipient while at Northwestern and knew and worked alongside Dale at RIC-Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago,” Brandt said in a press release. “So when this scholarship in his name was started, I made the commitment to him and to the students that I would always fund it. It gives me great pleasure to give back.”
