In sports and in life, everybody loves a comeback story. Whether it’s an athlete returning to the field after a heartbreaking injury or a team overcoming a major deficit to win a game, something about these stories resonates with us as sports fans. Whether we are part of the comeback, watching from the sidelines, or simply hearing about it on social media, these stories give us permission to dream big. They remind us that when we face setbacks in life, we can come out the other side as stronger versions of ourselves while making an impact on others along the way.

Most people will read an inspiring story online or watch a powerful video, leave a like or comment, and move on, but New Jersey author M.B. Paradise decided to do something more. She channeled that inspiration into action through her book Beach Santa.

On the Banks of the Raritan

As a certified athletic trainer at both Monmouth and Princeton Universities, M.B. Paradise is no stranger to comebacks. She made it her mission to help athletes at their lowest return to the players they were before their injuries.

I was always cheering on these kids throughout their rehab and obviously rehabbing them, but seeing them return to the field, I was always moved by the drive, the dedication, the commitment to their sport, to their teammates, to themselves.

After almost ten years as an athletic trainer, Paradise transitioned to higher education, becoming an anatomy professor at her alma mater, Rutgers University.It was there, on the banks of the Raritan, that she realized she wanted to become a published author.

On October 16, 2010, Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand suffered an injury to his C3 and C4 vertebrae that left him paralyzed. Twelve years later, LeGrand would open a coffee shop in Woodbridge, New Jersey, called LeGrand Coffee House. When Paradise saw LeGrand leap into entrepreneurship, she felt inspired to do the same.

“It was like one of those moments where it was like, all right, enough of my excuses, enough of my frustration with myself. I’m going to do something. If Eric can dream big and do something this big, I’m going to follow through with one of my ideas.”

Beach Santa

In 2019, Paradise took a job with the Big Ten as a concussion spotter for Rutgers home games. As a spotter, she worked near the broadcasting booth where LeGrand would call Rutgers games. Over the years, the two became friends, and Paradise asked LeGrand if she could model a character in her book after him. He graciously agreed.

“I am so fired up about promoting disability inclusion in children’s literature. There’s only 3% of books that do that,” she told Greater Than The Game.

The book is a playful peek at an off-the-clock Santa who just wants to catch a fish…but the overall theme is one of kindness and generosity.  Keeping with the book’s theme, Paradise uses the book itself to give back.

Impact

Inspired by the story of Eric LeGrand and others in her life who have battled paralysis, every February, 25% of each book sold goes to Team LeGrand and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, a foundation dedicated to finding a cure for paralysis.

As Beach Santa continues to grow, Paradise hopes its impact will grow along with it. Fittingly, a journey inspired in part by a former Rutgers football player has also found its way back into college athletics. This year marked a major milestone for the book when the Big Ten Conference featured Beach Santa during its Reading Impact Week, a program where Big Ten athletes across the country read to children in schools.

For Paradise, however, reaching more readers also means creating more opportunities to give back. Living by the beach, she hopes to expand the book’s impact one day by raising money to make beaches more accessible.

“My personal goal is to get a beach wheelchair for every coastal community that needs one around the United States and beyond. I’m dreaming big here I know, and I’m a single small business, but there’s a bigger vision here.”

Throughout her journey, the bigger vision of helping others has given Paradise the confidence to become an entrepreneur in a field where she had no connections or experience. But Paradise says her biggest lesson came from changing her definition of failure and viewing it as a learning experience.

“Failure is a teacher. It’s just information.”

It is fitting that her favorite quote comes from President and historical author Teddy Roosevelt:

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”

Paradise’s journey reminds us that when we take a chance on a big idea, we may never fully know how many people it will impact. Eric LeGrand dreamed big when he launched his own business and, in doing so, inspired Paradise to pursue one of her own. Now, through Beach Santa, her decision to take that chance is helping others, too. Sometimes, when we dare to win glorious triumphs, we aren’t just chasing our own dreams. We may also be giving someone else the courage to dream big, take a chance, and pursue a triumph of their own.

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