CHCS Perspectives Winter 2014

Lessons Learned from National Veterans Wheelchair Games By Anna Gelbrich, Class of 2016 Last June, the Veterans Administration (VA) held the 33 rd National Veterans Wheel- chair Games in Tampa—an event that was advertised to our class by Melissa Lazinski, D.P.T., PT, OCS, assistant professor, who encouraged students to consider volunteer- ing. This sounded like a fantastic opportunity to meet some of our courageous U.S. veterans, both men and women, all in one place, during an upbeat and elite-level sports competition. The VAWheelchair Games, which is the world’s largest event for wheelchair sports, had over 550 veterans participating. In fact, some events are designed exclusively for power wheelchairs, such as power soccer, while other events, like quad rugby, are designed for manually propelled wheelchairs. The first event I volunteered to help with was the air-rifle competition, which is open to both power and manual wheelchair users. Competitors were given 20 minutes of practice shooting, then 30 minutes of competitive shooting for the first half. This was followed by a short break, and then by the last 25 minutes for the second half. I was charged with distributing loaner rifles to individual competitors, which seemed easy enough, even with this being my first time volunteering for this event. I spent a great deal of time learning about the sport, and I enjoyed observing the competitors. One young veteran, who was in his late 20s, used a power wheelchair for mobility. It was a great honor to stand next to him as he gave it his best effort. Overall, the concept of target shooting looks easy: You simply point the barrel, look through the eyepiece, aim, and squeeze the trigger. However, like many skills in life, rifle shooting is more dif- ficult than it appears. There is a great deal of muscle control involved in aiming a rifle, and holding a rifle upright with one arm for 30 continuous minutes is quite an effort. This particular participant had a significant tremor in his right hand, which caused some shakiness on one side of his body, and he struggled to focus on the target. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been for a veteran—someone who had received ample training in firearm use—and how he must have felt trying to hold the rifle steady and maintain focus during involuntary muscle twitching. His courage and persistence were humbling to witness. I also served as scorekeeper for two power soccer events. I was amazed at all the effort that went into preparing the participants’ power wheelchairs for this competition. Each chair required a rail guard around the competitor’s foot support. This guard not only protected the feet, but also served as a surface to hit and propel the soccer ball. Installing these rail guards was painstakingly time consuming, taking up to one hour of assembly per participant. Tools were limited, and many times the volunteers and event staff were faced with wheelchair types that did not have a place to affix the rail guard to. As a result, several participants ended up competing with zip ties holding the rail guards to their chairs. PERSPECTIVES • WINTER 2014 – Page 52 Meeting fellow volunteers and hearing about their expe- riences was equally enlightening and uplifting. One woman had been volunteering at the games for over 10 years, be- ginning with the 2002 games in her native town in Ohio. She excitedly told me stories of how she made good friends with the British team, and she has been enthusias- tically supporting and attending the games ever since. I am glad our NSU D.P.T. faculty members encourage us to volunteer at community events like the VAWheelchair Games. Participating in the Wheelchair Games reinforces the idea that all humans have untapped potential and ben- efit from opportunities to engage actively in the community. As for me, even though I didn’t always know what I was doing, I had fun while encouraging others. I left with a deep-seated, satisfied feeling I was doing something right—even if I didn’t know how to hold a rifle. “His courage and persistence were humbling to witness.”