Transporting the veterans to the games in Orlando is a challenge, due to the small size of commercial planes. Rich Hand, the treasurer of the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 50 out of Rockland, is hoping a different group of athletes, the New England Patriots, might be able to help with.
BROCKTON – For Lawrence Berry, a quadriplegic Army veteran and inpatient resident of the Brockton Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, the thought of competing in a national sporting event never crossed his mind.
That is, until he met his therapist at the Belmont Street medical facility. Now, this summer, he’ll fly to Orlando to compete in his fifth National Veterans Wheelchair Games. The games, which are being held from July 30 to Aug. 4 this year, bring together disabled veterans from across the country for five days of Olympic-style competition.
“I can’t wait. Before I came here, the idea of getting on an airplane and going and competing in sports never entered my mind. But after I met my recreational therapist, she planted the seed and it blossomed,” he said of the event. “After the first time, I can’t picture not going. It’s the camaraderie, and being able to visit another city. You meet people year after year, and you want to see those same people.”
Jenny McLaughlin, an adaptive sports therapist with the Brockton campus, takes a large group of veterans from the facility’s Inpatient Spinal Cord Injury unit, as well as some outpatients, to the games each year, where they compete in a range of sports, including air rifle shooting, track and field, billiards, wheelchair racing, bowling, boccia, weightlifting, slalom and archery, among others.
This year, she said, about 13 of the facility’s veterans will participate in the games.
Berry, whose injury came after a series of surfing accidents left him with a broken neck, will compete for the fifth time this year. He said he’s particularly good at the indoor slalom and is working toward a medal in the air rifle event.
Berry said practicing for the sports he competes in year-round gives him a goal to work toward, too.
Navy veteran Daniel Shaul, a former Nebraska resident who was seriously injured when his vehicle struck a horse more than three decades ago, has been living at the Brockton VA for the past four years and has participated in the games during each.
Shaul said he has won gold medals in billiards two years in a row, and he’s angling for a third this summer. “It was one of my passions before my injury,” he said. He’s also medaled in bowling.
Shaul also lauded the camaraderie the games foster, and said he works to help the facility’s other residents become proficient enough at various sports to compete themselves in between games. “They want to do things, but they’re not sure how to do it,” he said. “So, we help each other out.”
Getting to the games and keeping up with their pace is difficult, he noted, but he still looks forward to them every year.
“It’s a real hectic schedule. You have to really want to do it,” he said of the games. “It’s a matter of having to participate and practice.”
Part of the challenge is finding adequate air transportation for so many disabled veterans, their wheelchairs and equipment. The difficulties associated with navigating the world in a wheelchair is part of the reason Shaul decided to take up residency at the Spinal Cord Injury unit in the first place.
It’s a problem Rich Hand, the treasurer of the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 50 out of Rockland, is hoping a different group of athletes might be able to help with. Hand said the group has already contributed about $3,000 to the veterans to help pay for a commercial flight to Orlando, but the flights are cramped and uncomfortable for the veteran athletes, he noted.
“A lot more would like to go but it’s hard because of the discomfort with the commercial flights,” he said.
Last year, the organization was able to convince the New York Yankees to lend their plane to the Brockton VA to shuttle the group around.
“That was really cool,” Shaul said. “They were in town for a few games, and there a planes that get assigned to athletic teams because they’re large. They let us use the plane they flew in on, and it was just us.”
This year, he’s hoping the hometown New England Patriots will do them same. He’s sent them a letter asking for their help.
“We’re trying to bring comfort to these men and women who are going to participate in the Wheelchair Games,” he said.