Portsmouth wheelchair sports program aims to foster understanding
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By GRETYL MACALASTER |
More importantly, they learned sports can be accessible to all athletes, not just those with the use of both arms and legs.
During competitive games of wheelchair basketball sponsored by Northeast Passage, students experienced what it's like to be in a wheelchair, if only for a short time.
For Lauren Weaver, 12, the experience was especially meaningful, as her uncle was recently paralyzed after an accident.
"I think it was really fun because I got to see from the point of view of people in wheelchairs," she said. "I think it gives people a new respect for them."
Northeast Passage, based at University of New Hampshire, is a therapeutic recreation program.
In the past six months, they've also implemented a Similarity Awareness curriculum for local schools.
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Chris Kazmerak and Lauren Larson play in a game of basketball as
Northeast Passage staff and volunteers teach students at Portsmouth
Middle School to play basketball in wheelchairs in an effort to teach
them insight on life with disabilities Wednesday. |
Activities were developed by Northeast
Passage staff for each age group to facilitate understanding and improve the
social environment within school for children with disabling conditions.
The goal of the program is to give students, teachers and administrators
tools to discuss and explore the similarities people share regardless of
ability.
"You can still do everything everybody else can do, just in a different way.
I think it is important for us to understand this," said Haley Petroski, 12.
Chandler Bullard, outreach specialist with Northeast Passage, led the
program and taught the students basic rules after sharing a little bit about
himself. He said he lost the use of his legs after suffering a spinal cord
injury from a car accident at age 15.
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Brad
Jones and Damien D'Amour, right, play in a game of basketball as
Northeast Passage staff and volunteers teach students at Portsmouth
Middle School to play basketball in wheelchairs in an effort to teach
them insight on life with disabilities Wednesday. |
He started working with Northeast
Passage about six months ago.
"It was a perfect fit, because we have the same goals for making disability
not the forefront but something you work with," Bullard said. "Northeast
Passage is more involved with the person than the disability."
He said bringing recreational activity into the schools provides students
with firsthand experience at an age when they need to be active, and it
helps break down walls that separate able-bodied people from those with
disabling conditions.
"Put 'em in a chair and we are all the same. We are all trying to put the
little ball into the little hole," Bullard said.