Remember TiLite Wheelchairs, the awesome Kennewick, Washington-based company we profiled last month (”designed by engineers who use wheelchairs”)?
Well…we were thrilled to come across this November 4th message on TiLite’s official Twitter page:
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One in fifty Americans is now living with some form of paralysis.
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A 47-year-old wheelchair-bound mother who had a stroke 18 months ago has been forced to do her banking on the street after staff at her local NatWest branch refused to lift her up two steps “for health and safety reasons.”
Is this the 21st century??
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. — “Circle six, parry four, parry, riposte,” Mickey Zeljkovic chanted, running Bianca Hollywood, 13, through her fencing moves.
Bianca has spina bifida and a pronounced S curve to her spine. But when she wears her mask and lamé, the underjacket that conducts electricity during fencing bouts, she can compete with fencers who can walk, as well as those who cannot.
“It’s a lot of fun, but it takes a lot of time to learn some of the moves,” she said after her session at the New Jersey Fencing Alliance.
The fencing club, in this suburban Essex County township, is developing what are believed to be the only wheelchair fencing classes for young people in the Northeast. Mr. Zeljkovic, who has coached Tariq al Qallaf, an adult world-champion wheelchair fencer, trains a handful of young people in the program, which began in May.
At the club’s headquarters, essentially a 17,500-square-foot room that holds 200 able-bodied competitors some weekends, the wheelchairs are secured to brackets that keep them from moving. Each bracket costs up to $8,000 and positions the duelers an appropriate distance from each other (determined by the fencer with the shorter reach).
The wheelchair-adapted sport traces its roots to veterans returning from World War II, and is only recently attracting followers among young people, with training programs in Atlanta, San Antonio and San Diego, among others. There are now only 27 wheelchair athletes in the United States Fencing Association, so the staff at the club believes there is ample opportunity for young people who start now to reach national-level competitions and even the Paralympic Games.
George Janto, president of the fencing club, hopes to have at least a dozen young fencers in training this year, and is looking for more participants, whose training and competition costs would be covered by the club and its fund-raising efforts. His first six fencers have conditions like spina bifida and cerebral palsy, as well as spinal cord injuries, and were … Continue reading this story on nytimes.com
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“Three accessible playgrounds are being built as a part of a legacy of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The province [of British Columbia], Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Rick Hansen Foundation are each contributing to the $1.2 million project. The playgrounds will be built at Kits Beach in Vancouver, the Middle Arm Waterfront Greenway in Richmond and the Celebration Plaza in Whistler. Those in Whistler and Richmond will be built in time for the Games. Vancouver will get its park by next summer.”
Every single city should have at least one accessible playground in its jurisdiction.
Does YOURS????
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On IrkedMagazine.com, we’ve highlighted the extraordinary work of AXIS Dance Company multiple times over the past few years (hopefully driving a steady trickle of curious readers to their website).
But now, finally, AXIS has hit the mother lode…
“Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. Mo Bros, supported by their Mo Sistas, start Movember (November 1st) clean shaven and then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache. During Movember, each Mo Bro effectively becomes a walking billboard for men’s health and, via their Mo, raises essential funds and awareness.”
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By now, most of you already know the indomitable, the unsinkable, the mind-bogglingly entrepreneurial Mr. Philip Patston.
Here’s an October 20th video clip of Philip onstage at The Thirsty Dog, in Auckland, New Zealand reciting poetry (with Tony Lewis on blues harp):
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Check out Philip’s awesome work @ philippatston.com
Then…
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Quoting dallasnews.com:
Visiting David Gary’s garden would make a special trip to East Texas worthwhile. Beyond beautiful, the garden is a living manual for anyone longing to cultivate beauty but hesitant to begin because of age or physical disability.
“Gardening in spite of challenges? Anyone can do it,” Gary says with confidence; he lives the experience himself. “You can garden even in a wheelchair. And age isn’t a reason to quit gardening, either.”Now almost 63, Gary was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in 1975 at age 28, and he was told he’d be in a wheelchair before he turned 40. He managed to go almost 20 years past that prediction.
“I’m a hammerhead,” he says with a laugh. “I wanted to prove them wrong.” Although he gets around now in a motorized scooter he calls “my Harley,” normal strength in his calves and ankles allows him to continue driving himself from Tyler to the Dallas Arboretum, where he began volunteering in 2003, two years before moving from Dallas.
In fact, it was the Arboretum that first inspired Gary to garden.
David Gary’s gardening tips…after the jump!
