Hills and uneven terrain are no longer the obstacles they once were for some paralyzed veterans around the country. For veterans whose movements were restricted by their old wheelchairs in Oklahoma City and Adrian, Missouri, the arrival of new, all-terrain rides announced an early Christmas.
Nine of the mobile, high-tech wheelchairs were given to the Mid-America Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America in Oklahoma City following a $200,000 donation from ITC, a company that specializes in electric transmissions, reported KFOR News. Every dollar raised by ITC employees was matched by Gary Walker, an area manager with ITC , the source explained.
The result of that generosity is a greatly expanded landscape for paralyzed veterans in their life after service. In a normal wheelchair, seemingly simple tasks like mounting a sidewalk or moving across gravel parking lots is made incredibly difficult. The new all-terrain chairs have changed that.
Bill Kokendoffer, president of the local Paralyzed Veterans of America chapter, remarked on how much the chairs alter a veteran's mentality.
"Going across the yard. When you've sat in a chair for 40 years saying 'I wish I could go there,' and it's only 50 feet away or 100 feet away, you might as well be in the next town over," he told the news source.
In Adrian, Missouri, members of the Vietnam Veterans of America 913 chapter made the special Christmas delivery of an all-terrain chair to Nate Beard, a Navy veteran who was paralyzed following a swimming accident. According to Ozarks First, the chair will give Beard back the freedom he so cherished before his accident.
"I just wanted to spend time with my daughter outdoors," Beard said to the source.
Hunting and fishing trips, an old favorite of Beard's, are also now back in play for the first time in a long time.
"I wish I could tell you," he said. "If the smile on my face doesn't say it, nothing will."