Above: WCU rehabilitation therapy student Matt Gehring tests an adaptive ski system with help from recreational therapist Erin Kuehn ’07 during a workshop at Western Carolina.
Majors in WCU’s recreational therapy program are reaping the rewards of a partnership with university alumni. About 30 recreational therapy students spent a day during the spring 2009 semester in the A.K. Hinds University Center Grandroom learning about adapted sports, which allow individuals with disabilities to participate in traditional sports through modified equipment.
Two staff members with Carolinas Rehabilitation in Charlotte, Jennifer Moore ’98 and Erin Kuehn ’07, both graduates of WCU’s recreational therapy program, led the workshop.
Moore is coordinator of Carolinas Rehabilitation’s Adaptive Sports and Adventures Program, which provides youth and adults with physical disabilities the opportunity to participate in competitive and recreational sports including soccer, basketball, golf, tennis, bicycling, rugby, water and snow skiing, swimming and fishing. Kuehn is the program’s recreational therapist.
In addition to expanding student knowledge about adapted sports, the workshop brought professionals and students together and introduced students to ideas regarding career, internship and volunteer opportunities, said Peg Connolly, associate professor and director of the recreational therapy program. “The students said this is the type of hands-on education they love,” Connolly said. “It’s so great when professionals like Jennifer and Erin come in with experience and equipment and can offer a sophisticated program.”
From Moore’s perspective, the workshop was an opportunity to educate students about adapted sports. “It’s certainly a pleasure to do what I do,” Moore said. “There aren’t a lot of adaptive programs in Western North Carolina. This is kind of an introduction for them.”
The partnership between the alumnae and the recreational therapy program was fortuitous. When Connolly arrived at WCU in August 2005, she began contacting regional recreational therapy professionals in hopes of establishing connections for her students.
Connolly happened to contact Moore and learn she was a Western Carolina alumna, and a mutually beneficial relationship was born. “She’s had our interns every semester since 2006,” Connolly said. Kuehn, in fact, began at Carolinas Rehabilitation through an internship and was hired full time after graduation.
This was the workshop’s first year. It included presentations from Moore and Kuehn, and participants had the opportunity to test adapted sports equipment, including wheelchairs for tennis, rugby, soccer and basketball; hand cycles; a golf cart that allowed the golfer to swing while remaining seated; and seated snow skis.