Athens - Adaptive Sports (3)

You know it’s been a good day when everyone naps for 3 hours.
Our day began as we trekked to the University of Georgia’s Agricultural Center. Here, we supervised 3^rd graders all over the Athens County school district. From cows to pigs and goats to chickens, we learned about the rural education along side the curious children. We said our goodbyes and traveled to the Athens Animal Control Center for cats and dogs. Each one of us grew close to the animals as we played with them. Sadly, we were unable to bring home any dogs or cats.
To finish our day of service, we played Beet Ball with Roger, John, Kim, Jamie, and TJ. Over the course of the game, some of the participants got their first hits! Claire, Caymen, Devan, Maddie and several others smacked the ball hard. As our day slowed down, we finished it up by eating at ‘Your Pie’ pizza place. We were able to ‘Express our inner Pizza’ with a wide variety of toppings and personal pans.

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”

Unfortunately, the early to bed can’t be said for our group down here in Athens, GA. Late night competition over street basketball and laughter from the movie ‘Bridesmaids’ creates for long days and short nights. In the end, we all look back at this experience and crave over the memories of no sleep, but share the times of joy and friendship. This last night in Athens seems unbelievable. Looking through the photos of this past week cushions the sadness in each one of us. As Phil Dunphy once said:

“Laugh until your belly hurts. Dance until your feet hurt.”

As we depart tomorrow night from Athens, we leave a piece of Mizzou here and remember the lives we have touched.

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Athens - Adaptive Sports (2)

The day started out with yet another test of our ability to “Be Gumby”, one of the seven primary principles we as a group try to demonstrate throughout the trip. We woke up not knowing exactly when, or even what kind of service we would be doing. But regardless of the circumstances we were all prepared to flexibly perform whatever service was needed of us to help the Athens community.

            It turned out to be helping a local foster child shelter.  Yard work and general upkeep under the gloomy sometimes rainy sky appeared to be difficult at times on the surface, but we were glad to help in any way that we could. After all, being gumby, being able to be flexible and adapt to the changing circumstances upon us is something we had to do.  When our work was finished it was nice and rewarding to see physical proof of the labor we had done, from the piles of leaves ready to be disposed of, to the lack of weeds surrounding the building as compared to before. While it was not exactly adaptive sports, it was still very important valuable service improving the community welcoming us with open arms.

            After the morning work, we were given a tour of the University of Georgia campus. We had been in the area for awhile, but to hear all of the traditions and staples of the campus from a charismatic knowledgeable tour guide gave us all a newfound appreciation and adoration of our new SEC rivals. During the tour, we stopped and were able to sit in on a physical therapy class monitored and directed by students, with the directors of the program (A.I.R.S.) actually being the ones participating. It was incredible to see the kind of effort that these directors themselves put in on a daily basis, pushing themselves to get better and improve, and to lead by example and practice what they preach.

            After the tour and the service of the day was over, we were able to go have an incredible dinner at a local restaurant and enjoy one of the local attractions of the area, a business called Escape the Space. This basically consisted of us all being trapped in a room with clues and riddles all around, needing to be solved in order to escape.  We were able to be one of the groups that did indeed complete the challenge and make it out, just in time as well. It was although frustrating, a very exciting experience that surely brought us all even closer together.

            It was a very long rewarding day, an incredible one with the combined enjoyment of the activities of the night, as well as genuinely enjoying the services and the other things that we were able to do for the day. Reflecting upon it all we are able to take solace in what we were able to contribute and accomplish, as well as look forward to the next one.

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Athens - Adaptive Sports (1)

We had an awesome first day serving with Athens Inclusive Recreation & Sports (AIRS). We started the morning by meeting Kim and Roger Keeney as well as John, who are three of the administrators of the organization. Roger shared with us the philosophy of AIRS, which is inclusivity. He believes that to be truly inclusive, it’s important to train the athlete individually in their own sport so that they can be successful. Kim also stressed that to be successful in these sports we need to be as competitive as possible. Thankfully for our group, that won’t be a problem. After meeting with AIRS, we used our free time to play a 6-on-6 basketball game at a local court. It was a matchup of epic proportions. On one team: Lindsey, Peter, Devan, Claire, Manoj and Garrett (the oldies). On the other: Megan, Maddie, Sarah, Morgan, Caymen and Adam (the babies). Within the first two minutes, sweat was pouring down our backs. A hunger was in our eyes. Smack talk, screams and grunts echoed across the court. Unfortunately for the Babies however, the game was over before it even began and the oldies won 11-2.

For as much smack as we talked, we had no idea what to expect when we went back to AIRS for the afternoon. When we walked into the gym, 11 wheelchairs greeted us and we met our Coach for the week. She started off practice by having us take two laps around the court, dribbling through and around chairs with one hand at a time and then we finished up with a suicide. The best part of practice was the scrimmage game. We found out very quickly that wheelchair basketball is HARD (in fact we’re sore as we right this, oops). We have a game this Friday at 6:30, so hopefully our strategy helps us when we take on the Rollin Thunder team…at this point they’re probably going to kick our butts!

We ended the day with an amazing meal of chicken, asparagus and rice cooked by Adam, Manoj and Peter then some Baskin Robbins ice cream. It was a great first day here in Athens and we can’t wait to serve more tomorrow!