Editorial

Advoc ate for disabled and Stand Among Friends founder Shawn Friedkin dies at 56

By: Dale King

Shawn Adam Friedkin, 56, a nationally known advocate for people with disabilities and a founding member of the Boca Raton Advisory Board for People with Disabilities, died March 3 after a seven-year battle against cancer.

Mr. Friedkin was himself paralyzed in a 1992 traffic accident and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Rather than settle into a cycle of limited mobility, his fighting spirit compelled him to start his own non-profit organization called Stand Among Friends (SAF), whose mission, in Mr. Friedkin’s own words, was to help people with disabilities “live a life without limits.”

What began simply as a desire to buid awareness of the opportunities available for those with spinal cord and neurological injuries led to the creation of The Disability Center, which provides career and vocational guidance to adults with disabilities of any kind.

Both Stand Among Friends and the Disability Center are located on the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, and have served more than 7,000 people with disabilities, helping hundreds of adults with disabilities find meaningful employment.

In 2015, Mr. Friedkin was honored by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation for his years of work based in Boca Raton on behalf of people who are paralyzed. Actor Christopher Reeve was himself paralyzed in a horse-riding accident which confined him in a wheelchair equipped with breathing assistance equipment.

Shawn was recognized by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation with its Visionary Leadership Award. He also received the LEAH Pillar of the Community Award, the Tiffany & Co. Outstanding Service Award, the Men with Caring Heats Award from the Florence Fuller Child Development Centers in Boca Raton and West Boca as well as the FAU President’s Distinguished Service Medallion.

In addition to being a founding member of the Boca Raton Advisory Board for People with Disabilities, he served as its chairman from 2007 to 2010. Mr. Friedkin was also a founding member of END (End Neurological Disorders) and was the initiator of the well-known and well-attended annual Boca Beach Bash and the annual SAF “emb(race)” for athletes with and without disabilities.

Born in Miami Beach and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, he was a son of Lora “Skeets” (Garfunkel) Friedkin and Monte Friedkin, both of whom have been involved in the Boca Raton political scene.

Their son earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and marketing at Syracuse University where he met his future wife, Lisa. They were together for 38 years and have two daughters,

Bennett and Sydney (Friedkin) Park.

In addition to his parents, wife and children, he is survived by sisters Mindi Fasnacht and Dawn Friedkin; his mother-in-law, June Cohen and brother-in-law Matthew Cohen; four nieces, three nephews and many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Shawn’s memory to Stand Among Friends at http://standamongfriends.org/donate.

In addition to being a founding member of the Boca Raton Advisory Board for People with Disabilities, he served as its chairman from 2007 to 2010.