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Physical Therapy program hosts basketball tourney

by Chris West
Public Relations
It resembles any other basketball tournament; tip-offs, free throws, foul-shots, bodies colliding and steals, save one aspect: the games are played from wheelchairs.

With October being National Physical Therapy (PT) Month, the 2001, 2002 and 2003 classes of the PT program sponsored “Wheels and Steals”—a basketball tournament for physically challenged athletes in North Charleston. The tournament attracted four Division III wheelchair basketball teams from Charlotte and Lumberton, N.C., Greenville, and North Charleston’s own Rolling Hurricanes.

Charlotte’s Hornets III and North Charleston’s Rolling Hurricanes regroup during a timeout.

Proceeds from the tournament will benefit Achieving Wheelchair Equality (AWE). AWE is a local, non-profit organization that is dedicated to advocacy, independence education, peer-support and sports programs for the physically challenged.

The roots of AWE are grounded in the MUSC PT program and began in 1988, as the brainchild of Jill Monger (Carter), clinical instructor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, and Brad Bowman. The program began as a support group aimed at those who had some degree of paralysis or spinal cord injury.

“I saw that lots of patients, many with spinal cord injuries, were just laying in beds,” Monger said. “I thought it was ridiculous and we were forced to ask ‘where was their rehab going when they left the hospital?’ So Brad and I started the group and he personally took on the challenge of making it happen. He was very involved personally.”

The Palmetto Spinners, of Greenville, get ready for a foul shot against Lumberton’s Rollin’ Cobras in game two of the tournament.

The group's focus quickly turned to sports and gaining some semblance of their lives before their injuries. “The support they needed was simply something to do,” Monger said. 

They began to raise money and travel and the organization received its charter in 1991. “AWE is now nationally known throughout the wheelchair community,” Monger said. “This is due to the increased prevalence of nationally competing, physically challenged athletes.”

While she still sits on the AWE board of directors, Carter passed the torch on to focus on other aspects of awareness. “Education and motivation are now my main focus. I want to teach and motivate other health care professionals to work with patients in helping them do something that will give them quality and purpose in their lives ahead.” 

Where AWE has grown from its support group beginning, the sports program has also branched to cover a surprisingly wide variety of sports in keeping with the interests of its members. Wheelchair basketball remains their largest program, but AWE now has participants dedicated to track and field events, tennis, billiards, rugby, water sports and road races and marathons with the use of racing wheelchairs and arm bikes.

“It may take a bit of adjustment, and we may do it slower, but we can do anything that able-bodied people can do,” said Gilbert Smith, president of AWE and former Hurricanes player.  “We just want to try it all.”

AWE also lends its services to businesses that want to make sure their facilities are wheelchair accessible as per the Americans with Disabilities Act. “We will get a call to come evaluate a site or business and check the simpler things that many take for granted; such as door widths, threshold heights, entrance accessibility, seating and bathroom facilities. Any physical barriers are considered and solutions are drawn up for the proprietor,” Smith said. “Where AWE may do this 10 times a year, I do it everywhere I go.”

Heather Davis and Adrick Harrison, third-year physical therapy students, co-chaired the event, which involved all three PT classes and a host of local contributors and sponsors.  “So far, the planning and coordinating have come together perfectly, Harrison said. “Everyone has been hands-on and has taken an active role in the ownership of this tournament.”

“We saw this as a way for our class to take a leadership role in National Physical Therapy Month,” Davis said. “And we wanted to provide an outlet for AWE, direction for the first and second year students and promotion of MUSC, its students and PT as a whole.”

“Where it is about raising funds for AWE, another main focus is in raising awareness,” Harrison said. “We want the enthusiasm and awareness to stretch far beyond this one-day event. Hopefully this will be in keeping with the excellence of the previous classes and leave some lasting footprints for the classes to come.” 

Davis and Harrison admit that the involvement of the Hurricanes and AWE on their education has had a lasting impact by meeting and speaking with classes about their personal experiences and lending their expertise to their educational experience.

Tink Wallace, Hurricanes coach and player and a host of other AWE members, visited some of the PT and OT classes. “I just went in and spoke about my personal experiences, wheelchair skills and transferring procedures, disabled sports participation information and comments on disability reaction. They in turn came out to practices and helped out the team. It's a very positive relationship,” Wallace said.

Local merchants and businesses gave contributions for a silent auction and funds for sponsorship of the tournament. The New York Knicks offered autographed merchandise. Ness, Motley, Loadholt, Richardson and Poole and Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics were also major sponsors. The City of North Charleston also contributed by supplying the facility, referees and trophies for the tournament.

“The majority of businesses that were approached were glad to contribute,” Harrison said.

Davis and Harrison commented that the tournament has come together well and we can only hope that in the years to come, the classes do it bigger and better because AWE can only benefit, through funds, awareness and eventually the increased quality of care while decreasing the disparity in health care.

Proceeds from the tournament netted more than $5,000 for AWE.

For more information regarding AWE donations, volunteering or local wheelchair basketball, contact Gilbert Smith at 763-2538 or by e-mail at Gsmith7150@aol.com.