MARTINO: Disabilities don’t have to keep you indoors

March 30, 2008 04:17 pm

— It can happen to anyone — an auto accident, a work-related mishap, one wrong step in a tree stand. In less time than it takes to read this sentence, you could become someone with a disability, your life dramatically changed forever. Unfortunately, I have friends and family who have suffered these consequences and hardly a day goes by I don’t think about one of them.
Don’t think for a second it couldn’t happen to you. Perhaps you’ll never hunt or fish again. For some, thinking about this makes them shudder and quickly turn this page. But the truth is that an estimated 45 million Americans, many of them sportsmen, have some form of disability.
Each year about 11,000 people, most of them under 25, survive a spinal cord injury, only to be forced to use a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. As our population lives longer, the number of people with various disabilities also increases. And all it takes is one bad step, one split-second of bad luck, for you to be included in this number as well.
Butch Martin, formerly of Kokomo, is one of these people. He grew up playing sports, racing dirt bikes, hunting and fishing. Then, in a blink of an eye, an industrial accident left him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
Tom Logan, another friend from South Bend, was never afraid of heights. As a steelworker, he was used to working in tall places, sometimes standing on beams barely four inches wide.
Like Martin, Logan was an avid bow hunter, and had collected over 20 deer, most of them taken from his tree stand. Then on one rainy October afternoon in 1995, his luck changed.
“It was one of those stupid things we hunters sometimes do,” he explained. “I had built a permanent tree stand out of treated lumber, which tends to get slick when wet.”
When Logan reached his elevated perch, he decided to kick a pile of wet leaves off the platform, before attaching his safety harness. That’s when his feet went out from under him. He fell 14 feet to the ground dislocating his spine.
For the next several years, both Martin and Logan lived with pain — but not the pain sustained from a broken back. It was the pain of asking family and friends for help for things they normally did for themselves. It was the pain of being left outside because doorways weren’t wide enough — the pain of readjusting their entire lives.
Despite such difficulties, both men refused to stop deer hunting. In fact, the anticipation of getting back outdoors is what helped them through their difficult periods of readjustment. In less than a year after their accidents, both men were back in the woods.
“There is no doubt being handicapped makes hunting a whole lot harder,” Logan explained. “But it’s a lot better than not hunting at all.”
For Martin, Logan and thousands of hunters and anglers like them, the last thing they want is pity. What they do want (and deserve) is equal access to the outdoors.
This is the same goal for many advocacy groups. Thankfully Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources diligently incorporates barrier free access in many design plans for campgrounds, lodges, wildlife viewing platforms, duck blinds, hiking trails and boat ramps. And that’s the way it should be. The outdoors are there for everyone to use, not just the able bodied.
Manufactures of hunting and fishing equipment are even building products specifically geared toward people with disabilities. Hunters with limited use of their arms have the Sip-and Puff shooting system where a shotgun or rifle can be attached to the wheelchair through a metal frame. To fire the gun, all the hunter has to do is sip or puff through the flexible plastic tube attached to an electronically controlled trigger actuator.
Other products made by Royal Bee and Ken’s Power Caster use an electronic motor for casting and retrieving and comes with either a belt mounted, chin or sip and puff controls.
Another advancement has been the Iron Horse wheelchair. This rugged, folding style chair comes with independent four-wheel suspension and sealed bearings. It has been used in some of the world’s most remote regions.
Active hunters, anglers, campers and others know first hand the true value of outdoor recreation. Few things boost the body, mind and spirit as a day spent outside enjoying our natural resources. A day in the woods or on a lake always beats a day in the office or mowing the lawn.
If you have a disability, it’s usually less expensive to go hunting or fishing than it is to remain in a hospital bed or nursing home. It’s so much healthier too. Unlike people with diseases or physical problems that get worse with age, many people with disabilities grow stronger, both physically and emotionally, the more they exercise with the recreational options they pursue.
As far as able bodied sportsmen are concerned, it’s not sensitivity towards those with disabilities that is an issue. We are all sensitive. What we can do is promote barrier free accessibility and do our part in helping those who have experienced a stroke of bad luck. After all, a man stands tallest when he stoops to help those less fortunate!
Antique Outboard Motor Club
Antique outboard motor enthusiasts from around the Midwest and Canada will gather for a motor show and swap meet Saturday, April 19, beginning at 10 a.m. The event will take place at the Kokomo Reservoir public boat ramp located on Howard County Road 400 E.
Serious outboard motor collectors will showcase their displays with many of these nostalgic motors being operated on the Kokomo Reservoir. Area residents are invited to bring their antique motors (pre-1950) or classic motors (more than 30 years old) for evaluation by antique motor experts.
The event is sponsored by the Michiana Outboard Boating Chapter of the national Antique Outboard Motor Club. For additional information, contact Terry Aeschliman at (765) 434-5131 or Dean Chapman (765) at (765) 860-1813.
John Martino is the Tribune’s outdoors columnist. He can be reached through the sports department at (765) 454-8574.

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