September 2004 - Victoria Carpenter

September was a great chance to catch my breath and take a wee holiday after all of August’s full on activities.

The first weekend was another chance to get the boys in Waikato together for some more wheelchair hockey practice and boy, were they enthusiastic! It was a Father’s Day special at Southwell School on Saturday the 4th September. “Sport and Dads go together,” one father proudly announced to me, “It’s nice to have a rest,” his wife said!

This was the third meeting of the Waikato Wheelchair Sports team, and it was very well attended with 10 boys and their families turning up. The day started off with some good warm ups and drills, practicing ball skills and racing up and down the court! Then we had relays, this was a really good way to practice not only moving the ball around the markers but also passing skills to the teammate at the other end.

After all the practice we had some good games. To finish the day off we blew up a balloon and had a couple of rounds of wheelchair soccer. This was great as it meant the boys in manual chairs could have a go. It was all going really well until as a very enthusiastic driver of a manual chair I burst the balloon! Oh well, next time we’ll make sure we try to keep the game going a little longer!

It was really good to see all the Dads there and to have such a good time. It was extra special too that it was Father’s Day the next day. It’s so important to these boys to have a “masculine” bonding session with their Dad and other boys. Interestingly they all live such independent lives that their team skills are not strong. Next time we are going to have some training about working in teams and the benefits and synergies that arise from good teamwork.

The kids were so great I decided to start a newsletter which I will circulate every month keeping the parents up to date and supply articles and photos for the boys. It will help to maintain enthusiasm. I think that all the regions would benefit from this activity so I am working on an initiative to organize teams in all our branches.

The next Thursday saw me driving down to Hamilton yet again, this time to accept a grant from Trust Waikato, which will help us fund our Physiotherapy services in the area.

Following hard on the heels of the Auckland Medical Students support of us through their revue, talented bunch that they are, they decided to hold an art auction. A great deal of the art was donated by the students themselves and was brilliant. The work sold by silent auction and needless to say quality costs - they raised heaps for us!

We had the exciting launch of our new website this month and it looks really great. Our new CEO started, and we held our annual kids camp in Matamata.
But, the best thing that happened for me personally this month was that Zac, one of my ‘talents’ from the documentary got a scholarship to study at AUT next year. I heard about the scheme a couple of months ago and really agitated for him to apply. He wasn’t keen at first, he had plans to go to Waikato instead, but he applied and he got it!!

Zac has Charcot Marie Tooth, a Neuromuscular condition which causes deterioration of peripheral nerves that control sensory information and muscle function of the foot/lower leg and hand/forearm muscles. Zac had an operation earlier this year to redress the impact the condition has on his feet, which enabled him to stand again. The best thing now is that he can have the operation on his other leg done soon, and the money he saves on fees will really help.

Making a difference to even one person is a pretty powerful thing, thanks Vodafone.

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