By Jody Kingsbury
After success in Athens, paralympians and supporters are bouncing back for the start of the Ottawa-Carleton Wheelchair Sports Association’s (OCWSA) in-school wheelchair program.
The annual Centretown-based Royal Tip Off program is part of the OCWSA’s goal to promote wheelchair basketball and community awareness.
Wheelchair basketball is open to both athletes with physical disabilities and able-bodied participants. The program gives youth the chance to actively use a wheelchair in school and tryout wheelchair basketball for a week.
Members of the OCWSA say the week-long program gives students the chance to experience first hand what it is like to live with a disability.
“The message is that everyone has a contribution to make and is an equal part of society. Wheelchairs are just something some people use to get around in,” says paralympics medalist, Chantal Benoit.
Benoit recently returned from Athens where the national women’s wheelchair basketball team defeated Germany on Sept. 27 for the bronze medal. Already, she is back in Ottawa attending OCWSA meetings and preparing to speak in schools as part of the Royal Tip Off program.
“We are trying to eliminate the myths and misunderstandings about people living with disabilities,” says Dana Chenette, program manager.
In 1994, the OCWSA began lending wheelchairs to local elementary and high schools for use in gym class and has since affected between 30,000 – 40,000 students, according to Chenette. Over 20 local schools take part in the program each year. Many others are forced to remain on a waiting list, he says.
Each week Chenette accompanies four or five wheelchair athletes to the schools. There they talk to students about the abilities and skills of people living with disabilities, and demonstrate techniques for playing the sport.
“Students who are shy at first usually have plenty of questions after actually playing themselves,” says Chenette.
“It is an excellent opportunity for students to gain perspective,” says Tania Affelstine, athletic director at Lisgar Collegiate.
“It shows them just how different and difficult it is to get around in a wheelchair. The appreciation and understanding stays with them for a lifetime,” she adds.
Students and teachers are encouraged to be creative. Many choose to compete in paralympics-style competition while others try to incorporate the wheelchairs into dance routines.
In the past, some able-bodied kids used the wheelchair as if it were a bicycle.
“We are teaching kids that people with disabilities are just the same as them, they have the same dreams, feelings and abilities,” says OCWSA president Marnie Peters.
“It is all worth it,” she said, “six months later when you are at the mall, or somewhere, a kid runs up to you saying, ‘Hey I know you.’ It means that kids are listening, that the message has an impact.”