Wounded Warriors Project: Part One

Every year, once, twice, or sometimes even more, I have the blessing of working with Wounded Warriors. In December there’s the big shebang out in Breckenridge, Colorado that brings hundreds of vets from many different nations, and even more volunteers together to ski. I’ve gone to this gathering in Colorado once, to this Ski Spectacular. I must say, the camaraderie I’ve seen amongst these guys and the strength they’ve got within them is phenomenal.

What they do overseas makes them heroes. What they do when they come back really makes them stand out more to me. The truth of the matter is that most of the soldiers I know are wounded vets, and they’ve got some of the best attitudes I’ve ever seen. To loose so much of themselves, literally, while fighting for out country, I am proud to be a part of helping them to be able to find a new passion and ability with the new challenges they have.

Chris Williams, our Vet Aaron, and I on the first
day at Bretton Woods.

The New England Adaptive Sports Coalition (God, that’s a mouthful guys) has hosted this for longer than I’ve been mono skiing, and every year I’ve been with NEDS I’ve been a part of it. Ability Plus at Waterville, Bretton Woods, and New England Disabled Sports at Loon make up the coalition and co-host all parts of this three day event.

We weren’t just teaching guys to ski this week, most of them already knew how to ski and get down the mountain. We were teaching independence, capability, and confidence, and I think everyone skied away with more. Everyone fell. Everyone had a good time. There was a sense of simplicity that we were all just skiers exploring the mountain together. At one point, Chris’ and my lesson left us in the dust, loading the chairlift independently, and skiing down to the racecourse. While he might not have realized it, he passed a milestone. 

The whole group: Veterans, families, volunteers, and sponsors

There was close to a hundred volunteers during this Wounded Warriors Program this past week. Volunteers from mountains across the east, Veterans from across the country,  army, navy, marines, all coming together to give each other hand, a “HOOAH” I was proud to be a part of. 

All Photos are copyright of Ken Watson at MediaTell.com

Vocational Rehab

Today, I met with the New Hampshire Vocational Rehab, VR for short. Ultimately, their goal will be to help me find a job when I am finished with college and my degree, but on a more short term basis they are able to offer support, assistance finding tutoring, accommodations, and help me to realize some networking potentials that I have within my reaches.

The meeting was really positive. From the get go, the counselor actually remembered me from a high school I attended for a brief semester almost four years ago. Here in North Country, NH, it really is a small world, where everybody knows just about everybody. I am hopeful I will be accepted to the VR program as what they call a 'customer' and be able to have a little bit more assistance with my education.

I'll be honest on here, the assistance I need in education, adaptations and in life comes in two forms mainly, support mentally/ emotionally, and support financially. Let's face it, college is expensive, but so is every single piece of adaptive equipment I need to be able to live on a day to day basis, as well as be an active athlete. I've typically got the first part handled, but financially life is challenging.

Here's to hoping VR approves me as a customer!

Airplanes, airports, and wheelchairs

As a college student, I fly just about every three months when a break comes around. And, due to certain airlines, I despise it. Let me break this apart so it doesn't turn into a tangent.

Spare wheelchairs, adaptive skis, wheels, outriggers, the equipment weighs a lot. Airlines should let adaptive equipment fly for free. When one airline tried to charge me $150 dollars for the overage fee of my outriggers and skis I was ready to take out my ski boots and jacket and wear them through security to remove enough weight. Adaptive equipment weighs (and costs) an arm and a leg, its the nature of the beast, but you should not need to pay to fly it.

I am not a person of means that can afford a first class or premium seat. On certain airlines, this means an isle chair, which for me is awful. Aisle chairs involve being strapped in and mean you no longer have control of your motions as you are wheeled through the rows of the plane. Unfortunately, from my experiences, the workers who are responsible for the aisle chair and the person in it, speak little english, and treat the person as an invalid, barely communicating with them as them strap them to this foreign uncomfortable chair. It is an uncomfortable experience.

Another thing that bothers me, is waiting until the entire plane empties before they can bring the aisle chair back on board to deplane me. This is especially troubling when you're in a rush to make a lay over.

Now comes the part where I would like to point out that I am not being given anything to say this or endorse this company. But honestly, Southwest, has provided the most positive flying experiences for me. Pre-boarding those in wheelchairs, at least for me, eliminated the need for an aisle chair, making me much more comfortable. And I would like to vouch that though they have sometimes lost my luggage temporarily, they have never damaged my luggage or any of my adaptive equipment.

Geology Major

I declared my geology major a few weeks ago, gaining myself the coveted code to the geo computer lab and 24 hour access to the science building. Those, are the minor things that are nice to have, free printing, a nice computer lab that isn't packed.

However, let me tell you, a geology major was not necessarily destined for someone who's in a wheelchair.  I don't mind falling over or getting piggy backed, but in reality those aren't going to be effective means of working in the future, and thus, making geology more accessible has now become the task at hand. With this, I keep the Academic Resource Center at my school on their toes, and I am so grateful that they don't mind all the challenges I put in front of them and that they are capable of thinking outside of the box.

When you google the internet for off-road wheelchair, what will most likely come up is this electric wheelchair that has army tank like wheels and essentially will cost you as much as a new car. Personally, this is not something I would want to rely on, and it isn't something my school would want to pay for. So, back to the drawing board.

One thing we rely heavily on is technology. Currently in the field, we use a two way computer connection on Mac Computers through iChat to set up a video feed from a TA in the field, to me as close to the feature that I can get. The problems that this creates, are some we are trying to solve soon as they will pose issues in the spring semester. Battery life is not as long as we need to rely on. For a three or four day field trip, a computer won't last, so we need to either find a mobile charger or bring multiple spare batteries. There's the glare issues on the screen. Often I'm sitting in direct sunlight, and no matter how much I dim the screen, I still find myself twisting in odd positions to try and get a good visual of the screen.

Recently we've started exploring front wheel options, intended to make a manual chair slightly more of an all terrain vehicle. At worst, hopefully it will keep me from catapulting forwards out of my chair. Best case scenario, this could be the solution we were looking for.

While there are a lot of complication with me being a Geology major, I have no doubts we'll eventually solve the problems and dial in a system that works for me. Am I the only person in a wheelchair who's ever wanted to be a geology major? I love the outdoors, and the idea of sitting inside all day isn't for me, when we've got such a great world outside. Mother nature may not choose to make herself wheelchair accessible, but together we'll get around that.

Volcanic Eruptions!

 Today I exploded a volcano. That's right, there was an explosion. My volcanoes class simulated an explosive eruption. Before you question that, yes, it is a real class and it is so much fun! Let me reiterate the fact that this is why I am a geology major (more to come on that at a later date, but I did officially declare). 

Liquid nitrogen provided the actual explosion. As budding volcanologists, we measured the amount of 'magma' pre and post eruption, measured the spread of volcanic pumice and debris by putting things into out volcano, for example, packing peanuts, pumice and tennis balls. This is essentially what it looked like right before we dropped the bottle of liquid nitrogen into it: 

If your observations are anything like mine, you would notice that packing peanuts, tennis balls and pumice, which you most likely cannot see, float on water.

The eruption was an eruption. Fast and loud, it entirely caught me off guard as it threw packing peanuts spiraling all over the field where we were experimenting. For your entertainment:

You can kind of tell I jumped a bit when the boom occurred. 

and enjoyment number two:

Being the west coaster that I am now, I live near a subduction zone, which happens to generate volcanoes, meaning this entire coast is filled with great volcanoes to study. Take for example, the late, great Mt. St. Helens. I asked if I could paper mache the trash can to look like a volcano, but the teacher denied me and class swiftly reminded me this was college. To that I say:

It's okay, I'm a geo major!