As posted at: www.indy.com

December 26, 2008 by Gretchen Becker | Star staff

Morgan, an Avon resident, was born with spina bifida, and the birth defect causes the backbone and spinal canal not to close before birth. She has no feeling below her waist, making her a paraplegic.

She gets around her house by “furniture surfing,” using the backs of couches and chairs to get around. But a year ago, she broke her ankle, which hasn’t healed properly, so she’s been confined to a wheelchair and had been using a rickety temporary ramp outside her house.

Brownsburg’s St. Malachy Knights of Columbus built a permanent wooden ramp in front of her house Dec. 13, complete with a red bow for the holidays.

“We couldn’t provide a Lexus, but we could give her a ramp,” said Jack Kline, referring to television commercials where cars are donned with red bows for gifts.

“These people, they want no thanks,” Morgan said. “It’s all about Jesus and helping others. I can’t thank them enough, and I don’t even know who to begin to thank. They made a big, big difference in my life.”

Morgan, 57, is one of the oldest living people with her severity of myelomeningocele spina bifida. Most people don’t live past age 30.

Most people never even attempt to walk.

“I was never told ‘You’ll never walk,’ ” Morgan said. “I pulled myself up naturally.”

She credits her ability to walk to her family who made her walk to school despite her disability.

“I didn’t know there was anything wrong with me,” Morgan said. “They never told me. The more I walked, the stronger it made my legs. To me it was normal.”

But she needs a wheelchair outside the home, and because of the broken ankle that has had trouble healing, she’s limited to only the wheelchair right now.

Morgan has had four surgeries on her ankle, and she couldn’t afford to purchase a permanent ramp.

Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana, where Morgan receives treatments, helped contact the K of C volunteers, Kline said. Funding for the project came from local racing teams, and Lowe’s gave materials for cost.

Because her ankle wasn’t healing, doctors fused broken bones and created what Morgan calls her “Frankenstein foot.” If this promotes healing, she hopes to get out of her wheelchair, at least inside her home.

“I hope to surf again in my house,” she said.

Saturday, Jan 10, 2009 8:00a to 4:30p

Referee Training Clinic:Anyone wishing to become a certified referee for the USPSA and/or for local games through power soccer of Indy must attend a power soccer referee clinic. Chris Mulholand, USPSA upervisor of Officials and Trainer will be teaching this informative class. The day begins with continental breakfast and classroom training, lunch and then hands on game-training. Please wera appropriate clothing ans court shoes. All participants must register with Power Soccer of Indy. Please email Bedwards@ecommunity.com to reserve your spot or for more infomation. The class will be held at St. Elizabeth Seton Church, Carmel, Indiana.

FORT WAYNE – The tradition began in 1940 when Santa’s sleigh and reindeer first lit up the Wolf & Dessauer department store downtown.  Over the last five decades as downtown Fort Wayne has evolved, many changes have occurred for this display, including this years update of its light bulbs for economical and longevity purposes.  Today, National City Bank proudly displays the lighted fantasy that awes children and adults alike every year, on the north side of its building.  The lighted display has approximately 24,717 light bulbs which have been replaced with LED lights and the old bulbs have been donated to Easter Seals Arc for our 55^th anniversary fundraiser.

The bulbs will be cleaned, prepared, and packaged as ornaments by individuals with developmental disabilities at the workshop located on the Easter Seals Arc campus.  “This is a wonderful opportunity for our clients to receive training and learn a new skill,” says Jud Chasey, Work Training Manager.  “After the bulbs are cleaned, a ring will be attached by soldering it to the bulb, decals added, and then packaged to sell.”

“We believe this is a great opportunity to share a part of the historic Santa display with the community as a keep-sake, and provide assistance to a local charity, as well as training for their clients,” says Mike Eikenberry, President of National City Bank in Fort Wayne.

The bulbs will be available for sale in the fall of 2009 at Anne’s Hallmark stores & Easter Seals Arc where holiday cards and prints are currently on sale at a reduced price.  Price for the bulbs has not been determined at this time.  Production is slated to begin in March 2009.  For more information, contact Darlene Amstutz at 260.456.4534 ext 264.

NORTHWEST INDIANA SPINAL CORD INJURY GROUP

NWISCIG@GMAIL.COM.

January Meeting

We will be meeting again on Saturday, January 3rd at…

Gelsosomo’s Pizzeria

1pm-?

2605 Laporte Avenue

Valparaiso, IN 46383

map | driving directions

This month we will be eating free pizza supplied by the Northwest Indiana Spinal Cord Injury Group and discussing some goals that we might have for the upcoming year.

The December meeting was great, thanks to everyone who made it out. We’ll see you next week.

Sleds give those with disabilities opportunity to get out on ice, too

As posted at: www. journalgazette.net

as written by: Ben Smith

Bob Chase sees them at every Komets game, dreaming their dreams behind the glass. Wheelchair parked hub-to-hub with wheelchair. Wondering what it must be like to glide so effortlessly across the ice, to carry a puck on the tape of a stick, to go top-shelf with it into the net.

“I’m sure they’d be dying to try to see what the heck this is all about,” Chase says.

Now they can.

Now comes sled hockey, a version of the game foreign to this hockey city until last year, when a man named Randy Kwapis wondered where in blazes it was. He’d moved to town in 2006 from the Detroit area, where his 18-year-old son, Matthew, played in a local adult league and also on a youth team in Grand Rapids, Mich. Basically it was have sled, will travel for the Kwapises.

At least until they got to Fort Wayne.

“There was no sled hockey here,” Kwapis recalls. “So I instigated getting something going.”

And now he can see what his instigation has wrought, and it’s not two minutes in the penalty box. On a snow-flying Monday night, he stands behind the boards at one end of McMillen Ice Arena, and to his left are 15 brand-new hockey sleds, each adorned with a red bow and the name of the corporate sponsor who paid for it. And on the ice, before long, will be a whole bunch of players on those sleds, wearing Komets jerseys and Carroll High School jerseys and Buffalo Sabres jerseys, maneuvering around with two short sticks that have a hockey blade on one end and metal teeth on the other for digging into the ice and propelling themselves.

“What’s neat about sled hockey is there are no boundaries,” says Perry Ehresman of Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation. “It’s for disabled individuals, it’s for able-bodied individuals, anybody can do it. We’re still building it, still getting the information out to the community, but the interest has grown.”

Kwapis, who enlisted the help of McMillen Ice Arena, Fort Wayne Youth Hockey, Turnstone and the League for the Blind and Disabled to get things rolling, won’t argue with that.

“We’re still a fledgling team here, but it’s come a long way in a year,” he says. “Last year we did our demo on Dec. 4, and that was the first time (sled hockey) had been introduced in Fort Wayne. Since then we’ve created a team – you can see the kids out on the ice – and have somewhat regular scheduled practices. In another year, we’ll have consistent ice time and all those other things.”

Fledgling though it is, it’s still the first sled hockey team in Indiana, which is part of why Chase was at McMillen on Monday. In February the local team, the ice arena and Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation will play host to the Bob Chase Frostbite Sled Hockey Tournament, the first of its kind in the city. Plus they’ll be doing a demonstration at Memorial Coliseum.

“I was aware of it because I get a lot of hockey stuff, but I didn’t really know what it was, and I didn’t think it would be coming here,” Chase says. “I was thrilled to be a part of it. It’s another dimension for people who probably would like to see what the experience of hockey is but because of their disabilities never could.

“Now they’re gonna have a chance. It’s great.”

 Lafeyette Spinners Wheelchair Basketball on Wednesday nights at Faith Community Center 5572 Mercy Way, Lafayette, IN 47905762/449-4600 

On Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 from 6-9pm Pine Ridge Racquet & Fitness Club (12124 Lima Rd. Fort Wayne, IN 46818) will host the first “Battle @ The Ridge”.

Local wheelchair tennis players James Ezell and Kevin Hughes will compete along with the Pro Staff.

There will also be prizes, giveaways, raffles, a Kids Zone and much more.

To be apart of all the fun tickets only $5/person with proceeds from the event being donated to Turnstone.

***The big raffle item is a New 42″ HDTV.

Varsity Flyers Current Record: 6-1

Varsity Flyers Next Tournament: Midwest Regional January 3 & 4, 2009 in Whitewater, WI

As posted at: www.spinalcord.org

Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana announced today that two of its ongoing lines of brain injury research have been awarded a total of $240,000 from the new Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Board. 

RHIs Jacob T. Kean, Ph.D., and his team of investigators will receive $120,000 for research into the involvement of acetylcholine, which is critical to the function of the brain and nervous system, in the rehabilitation phase of recovery following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Among the goals of the study is reduction of the severity of delirium a state of disorientation and confusion after TBI.

In addition, Keans study, titled An Exploration of the Hypocholinergic Hypothesis of Delirium Following Traumatic Brain Injury will also result in a first look at variables that may co-contribute to delirium risk and incidence, along with the effects of greater anticholinergic drug burden. Anticholinergic drugs reduce the effects of acetylcholine and include commonly prescribed medications such as stomach acid blockers.

Samantha Backhaus, Ph.D., is the principal investigator in a study aimed at identifying effective methods of assisting survivors of brain injury and their caregivers in the challenging adaptation required by brain injury, and also in identifying more clearly the reasons why group treatment is effective. She and her fellow researchers will also receive $120,000 for their important work, Brain Injury Coping Skills Group for Improving Self-Efficacy and Adjustment in Individuals with Brain Injury and Their Caregivers.

Our researchers are outstanding, and these awards are further evidence of that fact, said Dr. Jim Malec, research director for RHI. With the help of this funding, we will be able to make significant strides in better understanding brain injury and take steps to improve the lives of people living with disabilities.

The Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Board was created in 2007 by the Indiana General Assembly. One of the main purposes of its funding is to support research related to the treatment and cure of spinal cord and brain injuries, including acute management, medical complications, rehabilitative techniques and neural recovery. Grants from the Board are worth $120,000 each over the course of two years, and although collaborations are encouraged, the research must all be done in Indiana.

We are grateful to the Board for these grants, and share the excitement of so many colleagues across the state that this funding will advance Indianas leadership in understanding neurological injury and its rehabilitation, Malec added.

A community collaboration between Clarian Health and St. Vincent Health, Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana (www.rhin.com) opened its doors in January 1992 as one of the largest freestanding rehabilitation hospitals in the Midwest. It provides inpatient acute services, and outpatient and vocational rehabilitation services for adults with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, strokes, amputations, orthopedic conditions, neuromuscular diseases, burns and related disabilities. RHIs Sports Program, which is recognized as among the best in the country, serves hundreds of people with disabilities every year.

WHAT: Have Time off during the day?  Looking for a fun new way to get your exercise?  Try this great opportunity brought to you by RHI Sports and Indianapolis Community Tennis Association to receive hands-on tennis instruction and training!

WHO: All RHI adult athletes.  Players of different skill levels are welcome whether you are a beginner looking to learn or an advanced player looking to hone your skills.

WHEN: Every Tuesday starting November 18th, 10:00a.m. - 12:00p.m.

PLACE: Butler University Tennis Bubble, located due north of Hinkle Fieldhouse.

                         Hinkle Fieldhouse:

510 W. 49th StreetIndianapolis, IN 46208

Follow Boulevard Drive to the intersection of 52^nd St. and head west until you see the Butler Bubble.

RSVP: Please contact Pat Dean to inform us of your interest! You can email him at pat.dean@rhin.com or call 317-329-2281.  Hope to see you there!