From July 21 to July 25, VA Boston Healthcare held its 15th Annual Summer Sports Clinic in Rhode Island. I was very pleased to be able to attend once again after missing the last few due to hospital inpatient status and medical issues. This year, almost half the participants were first timers! What a great thing to see, word-of-mouth is getting out there how beneficial that these programs can be. The famous saying from our Winter Sports Clinic still holds true, “Rehabilitation through Recreation”. There is no better place to witness how true this is until you see what happens at these Clinics!
The week began with the participants registering, getting fitted for the bike they’re going to ride at Cycling. We then head to the Button Hole Golf Course for lunch, grab the clubs and take some swings. The driving range gets quite busy as most people head there to try their luck hitting some balls. They have a few of the ParaGolfers, a motorized golf chair. Similar to a sit ski you get all strapped in to keep yourself safe, the chair can then be raised to get one in the standing position very similar to a standing table. Us wheelers can then stand and hit balls at the driving range. 
Advanced golfers can ride it around the course to play a round; however, this is an intro day so they stay at the driving range where everyone can try them out. I just grabbed a wedge and putter and headed over to the practice green with some fellow Wolves and practiced chipping and putting. There are those that play golf regularly and they can head right out and start playing the course. Everyone had fun and was cooked by the sun! Once again VA medical looked after us and had plenty of sunscreen so there were no lobsters getting on the bus back to the hotel.
“Rehabilitation through Recreation”. There is no better place to witness how true this is until you see what happens at these Clinics!
We jumped back on the bus for the ride back to Warwick, where everyone got cleaned up, dressed up and prepared to attend the Opening Ceremonies. There we have a decent dinner and the MC starts the week’s program. The Chaplain gave the invocation and then some of the VIPs attending speak, wish us luck and let us know how pleased they are the VA is able to offer the event. We are very lucky here in New England, we are one of very few VAs that offer such great Recreational Therapy programs. I believe we are the only VA that holds these week long Clinics. Each team is then presented their Guide On. After completion of every event the volunteers give the team a white small ribbon with the name of the event to attach to the top of the Team Guide On. The participants are broken up into 4 teams, the Foxes, the Hawks, the Bears and the Wolves. Each Team gets together for a Team meeting where you actually meet your team leaders in person after talking with one on the phone. The Captains then ask who is willing to be the one responsible for the Guide On. It needs to go everywhere the Team does and be available at each venue. You also meet your teammates, some of whom I had never met. Having attended so many Clinics I was already good friends with some of my fellow Wolves. We actually had four NEPVA members on our team! Way more than any other team, whether that was an advantage or disadvantage I guess you’d have to ask our Team Captains.
The real fun begins on Tuesday and Wednesday. Each day the buses make a trip to either Barrington or Newport and two teams go to each location. In Newport, we do sailing and surfing. My team sailed in the morning and surfed in the afternoon. We have lunch there at the Sail to Prevail venue near Fort Adam’s State Park in Newport Harbor. The other teams ride to Barrington where there they participated in cycling and kayaking. This year Del’s Lemonade once again came and provided free, frozen lemonade to help us keep cool. I have to acknowledge the amazing volunteers who make this all happen, without our partner organizations and the volunteers none of us would be able to do any of these activities. The VA also insures our safety as each team is assigned an RN and there is a doctor present at every venue. I was lucky and got Dr. Charles from the Providence VA as a passenger on my boat. He’s sailed with me before and enjoys my little bit of crazy. We had much more wind and bigger waves than our last trip together; yet, he decided to join me again. He was even learning to run the sails and what the ropes do to control them!
Our Winter Sports Clinic partner NEHSA, New England Healing Sports Association ran the kayaking on Brickyard Pond. Many of their volunteers also assisted with cycling on the East Bay Bike Path along with some from Northeast Passage, who brought plenty of bikes down. The Sail to Prevail program in Newport once again had a bunch of amazing volunteers and a good time was had by all. My Instructor Morgan is heading to Michigan State as a freshman, I hope she has a great year as a Spartan. There wasn’t much wind and sailing was not as fun; yet, you learn more about sailing in light wind since it’s so much easier in a good strong wind. Morgan did teach me a few tricks to help in light wind, she made sure to advise me that what she showed me was illegal in a race! The volunteers there are all very good at sailing and many have been sailing since they were quite young and most have raced. At least the wind wasn’t so little that they had to send the motorboat out to tow us in, this year it ran around with the photographer who took some great photos!
The same can be said for the wonderful people from AmpSurf. We ate lunch headeed down to Second Beach for surfing Tuesday. We had many volunteers help push us out to the beach, get us out into the water and onto the boards. Then assisting us with the surfing and although the waves weren’t great, you need quite a team to push out through the incoming waves. Most of us could not paddle out there on our own. It sure gives one respect for a real surfer that does it all independently! The waves were big enough for us all to catch some great rides. I really enjoyed myself, I wasn’t able to use the shorter board with handles I have used in the past.
The AmpSurf crew informed me there was another way I could surf without having to lie on the board. They had me sit up and had a volunteer ride the board sitting behind me to keep me stable. We did so well doing so that my Instructor Justin who was pushing us onto the wave as it came in was able to jump on and stand behind my helper, his daughter Emma. I was excited since I was the only one on my team that did the triple thing, and we did it many times! I was pretty pleased and rode until they wouldn’t let me go anymore! I had an amazing day and the water temperature was beautiful, no wetsuit required this year.
My team then went to Barrington on Wednesday where we hand cycled in the morning, had lunch and then pushed across a parking lot to get to the pond where the kayaking crew was ready to help us go paddling. I have to mention Kevin Carr, owner of Creating Ability, who was not there this year, but has attended many times in the past. We utilize many of the devices he’s invented which make adaptive kayaking so much more enjoyable for those of us with limited mobility. The transfer box he invented to help us wheelers get in and out of the kayak is a true lifesaver and gives one’s shoulders a break.
After two great days of fun, Thursday we went to Johnson and Wales College in Providence. There we had a sports day and there was multiple sports available for everyone to try at the Wildcat Field House! We had bowling, cornhole, ladder golf, pickle ball, basketball, boccia and curling.
I believe I had the most fun of all on that day. I miss going to the National Veterans Wheelchair Games which was a conflict as the weeks overlapped and I decided to stay in Rhode Island. One thing I’ve missed very much at the NVWGs is the Annual Kids Day where I’ve been lucky enough to be a Mentor to young disabled children from the local area where the games are held, this year it was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I had a youngster to Mentor here at Sports Day!
At the sports day, I was lucky enough that since CDCE Chief Matt Edwards brought his son Lincoln, I was able to have him as my partner in bowling, ladder golf and cornhole plus we played some boccia, which Lincoln got very good at. He is probably playing as I write this since his mom planned to buy a Boccia set and they’re on vacation now. I really enjoyed getting to know the young man and I understand he was standing up and surfing the day I was in Barrington.
Each Team was at a different venue Tuesday and Wednesday so I only was able to chat with my fellow Wolves those days. It was really great getting out and seeing my fellow veterans from every Team and getting to chat with them at the Sports Day. I haven’t been able to attend these activities in a few years so it was great to be back. I also enjoyed watching the first timers have a wonderful time. The self-confidence people gain during these activities allows them to go home and be comfortable trying all kinds of new things.
After returning from Johnson and Wales and getting cleaned up, it was time for the Closing Ceremonies Banquet. Master of Ceremonies, Matt Edwards did a great job as always, and as the teams turned in their Guide Ons to conclude our week, he then called up the volunteers from each venue to present an award for their event. This year my Team Captains were very proud since three of the five awards were presented to one of my fellow Wolves teammates. Another wonderful benefit of the closing ceremonies is many of the VA VIPs that sign off on the funding in order to run these recreation programs were present.
One great thing I saw was volunteer extraordinaire Michelle Bergeron got a bike company to bring down a bicycle, which could be used by some of us who were unable to use the bikes available. She was one of the volunteers that rode with me when my bike broke so she was able to explain what happened and how having one of those bikes would benefit myself and others with similar mobility impairments. With the people who sign off on the purchase of such equipment there to see it was really great timing, thank you so much Michelle.
Now for the award winners, so many people could have won these awards and it’s very difficult for the volunteers to choose only one, but they do their debating and discussions and come up with one person to receive an award for each venue. There was only one unanimous pick. That was the Kayaking award that went to Connecticut NEPVA member Thomas Ferland. There is a pretty good story that goes into the reason why but I’ll leave that for you to find out. All you have to do is talk to anyone who attended the clinic as they all know the story since it was told when the award was given. The Kayaking award was presented by Carly Bascom NEHSA ED but Thomas also called up Jen Stark from the White River Junction VA and a NEHSA volunteer as well. I think he just wanted his picture to have him surrounded by ladies! Jen also presented the Cycling award to Corinne McGrath-Preston from VT.
Hadley and South made the trip up from Newport to represent Sail to Prevail and present the Sailing award to Sarah LaPlante from RI. Each of those award winners were fellow Wolves, my Team Captains were quite happy. The next award was for Surfing and Randi Woodrow was there to represent AmpSurf and presented the Surfing award to Vesper Aisling of New Hampshire.
She told us the story about how Vesper was scared to go in the water originally but ended up standing up and surfing the entire time, pretty good for a Rookie! This year they added a new award, the Rookie of the Year Award and that was won by Team Foxes Joe Kozaczka. The final award presented was the Best Volunteer won by Air Force Veteran, Dany Cote from the White River Junction VA. I’m sure that was a very difficult one to pick as well since every one of the volunteers who helps make these activities available to us all is an award winner in my book.
Finally the highlight of the night, the amazing Slideshow put together by Emily Ostroff who works nonstop all week collecting the pictures from all the photographers. I won’t even get into all she does, it’s amazing. You can see for yourself. Check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUdZiq8-l0w
There is also some really great drone footage of Surfing taken by Justin Speegle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6khIiWYycU
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