Ottawa-Carleton Wheelchair Association members play a basketball game at Immaculata High School.
New funding is available for disabled children who are financially disadvantaged, Canada’s Paralympic organization recently announced.
The Canadian Paralympic Committee, whose headquarters are in Centretown, has introduced the Parasport Jumpstart Fund, a grant intended to get more children with disabilities involved in recreational sports. The funding is only available for organizations that offer programs to those between the ages of four and 18, and can be used towards registration fees, and transportation and equipment costs.
“We’re reaching out to a segment of the population we weren’t connecting with,” says François Robert, the CPC’s executive director of partnerships. “If, at the end of the day, more kids with disabilities can participate in sport and we can provide better access, then everyone wins.”
The funding would mean the world to Annie Goodchild, vice-president of the Ottawa-Carleton Wheelchair Sports Association.
Due to lack of money, Goodchild won’t be able to hold the Royal Tip-Off, a week-long wheelchair basketball program, for the first time in nine years.
The course is a fast-tracked initiation for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have thought to play the sport.
Since the Tip-Off’s inception in 1994, more than 10,000 people have used the OCWSA’s wheelchairs.
What the program requires is someone to maintain the chairs, transport them back and forth, then volunteer to teach the students for the day. That takes money – sometimes thousands of dollars – which the OCWSA doesn’t have. As a result, Goodchild has had to temporarily dissolve the Tip-Off, offering the program only when it’s financially possible.
Should the OCWSA get a grant, Goodchild wants to open a junior program where young athletes can gather to play and learn a little more about wheelchair basketball. It’s not a replacement for Tip-Off, but it’s still a way for youth to socialize and stay active.
“We’d like to get some good equipment for the gym which we’ve never been able to pay for because our budget is so tight,” says Goodchild.
Meghan Evoy, a 19-year-old paraplegic junior player, has been participating in wheelchair basketball for two and a half years after falling in love the sport.
“The funding would mean we could introduce more players to wheelchair basketball,” says Evoy. “It means our sport would grow.”
Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, the national charitable sporting program partnering with the CPC, is accepting applications from organizations nationwide until Oct. 29. Around $100,000 is up for distribution on a first-come, first-serve basis.
“We know the value the sport give these kids and we know the opportunities that will open for them,” says Goodchild. “We need somebody behind us, that’s all we’re really looking for.”