Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
There’s never a dull moment when the JAHVAH Sports Team is around, and this past Saturday was no exception! Event coordinators Janene Griffin, Jennifer Day, and Jamie Kaplan from James A. Haley V.A. Medical Center set up a waterski/Kayak event for the JAHVAH team and other adaptive sports athletes. Jamie is an avid paddler, and regularly holds adaptive kayaking clinics and float trips with the Tampa River Runners club in various locations around the bay area, while Janene and Jenn do a masterful job of event planning and coordination, making sure to cover all the details. Hats off to these three fine people, who do a fantastic job day in and day out making a difference in the lives of these veterans. All three of them are very good at what they do, and each event seems to be better than the last!
To start the day, Janene welcomed the volunteers, many of whom are employees of JAHVAH, and gave an overview of the planned activities before everyone jumped into action. I was impressed by the enthusiasm of the volunteers, who not only work full time to rehabilitate these warriors back from life changing injuries during the week, they also volunteer their time at events like this to make sure the guys have a great time on the weekend. It takes a special person to help others as much as this group does, and their reward is seeing the smiling faces of every person in attendance. The entire group was in good spirits, and of course, eager to hit the water!
Jamie and other volunteer paddlers brought many kayaks of different types to the event, and did a great job at accommodating everyone’s needs. The volunteers educated the group about proper strokes and techniques, assisted in loading/unloading participants, and led them on a float trip around the lake. If you would like more information about paddling in the Tampa Bay area, visit their website at: http://www.teamriverrunner.org/
The Tampa River Runners is paddle-sport club in Tampa, Fl., a local chapter of Team River Runner based in Washington D.C. . There are many local chapters of TRR at V.A. hospitals around the country, who use kayaking as rehabilitative therapy for combat wounded vets. They begin their training programs in hospital pools before moving on to more challenging venues in open water.
Who would have thought that a paraplegic, “quad”, or amputee could waterski?
Anne O’Brine-Satterfield did. Anne knows firsthand how challenging it can be to enjoy watersports when confined to a wheelchair, and has created the UCANSKI2 program to bring the excitement of waterskiing to everyone, regardless of their limitations. For the past 20 years, Anne has led the way in adaptive waterski/wakeboard programs and events, and also developed many innovative skis, sit-skis, and other products for challenged athletes with partner manufacturer, Liquid Access. Anne is both World and National champion adaptive skier and still at the top of her game, inspiring, coaching, and supporting challenged athletes on a daily basis.
Anne welcomed the group and gave a brief history of UCANSKI2, and a detailed explanation of the day’s activities. Armed with her walkie talkie, she was the dock master for the event, whose job is to coordinate the staging area and to keep the drivers and side-skiers informed of the participant’s injuries and skill level. Her vast experience running events like this was quite obvious with how everything flowed seamlessly throughout the day.
The Liquid Access team of volunteers were very professional and did a great job of keeping the fun flowing all day long! Safety is top priority in adaptive watersports, so they use an able-bodied skier on each side of the athlete to help with water-starts and to help stabilize the skier when needed. In the event of a crash, the side-skiers were right there to assist in the situation. The team of side-skiers worked tirelessly run after run, to help the athletes get up and riding behind the boat, and help them get proficient at turns and crossing the wake. Some of the seasoned sit skiers are even able to jump the wake and perform tricks. Some of the able-bodied veterans rode the stand up waterskis and did very well, while others took to the sit down skis right away. Every single participant got multiple runs behind the boat, then headed over to Jamie at the kayak station to do some paddling around the lake. Having several activities going on at once made for non-stop fun for everyone, including the volunteers, who rotated duties at each station. Local Wakeboarding coach, Brian Rourke was also on hand, bringing his expertise in driving and coaching adaptive athletes. Brian is a regular on Lake Seminole, and coaches several adaptive athletes on a weekly basis, helping them to progress their skills and get more training time on the water. He is also bringing a few of the vets onto his training team to work with over the summer.
The event went well over the scheduled 3:30 stopping time since it was such a perfect day and everyone was having such a good time. The event was well photographed by Johnny Diamond, who had his “bazooka” lens to zoom in on the action, and everything needed to send the participants home with a high quality photos of their runs. He sent each person home with a packet of great action shots, which is a really nice touch on a perfectly organized event. Thanks for the great shots Johnny!
It was truly an honor to be at this event to help out and I’m eagerly awaiting the next one. Each event seems to get better than the last, and getting to know these warriors and their families is an amazing experience!
Without the dedication and hard work by all the attendees, this event wouldn’t be possible. A HUGE thanks goes out to all the volunteers who were there to lend a hand and make a great day even better! Please visit the websites of the sponsoring organizations and support their efforts, and be sure to let us know if you would like to volunteer, sponsor, or host an event.
Stay tuned to the ASF website for upcoming events, we hope to see you there!
