New open gyms in Wauwatosa put people with and without disabilities on an even playing field

Alana Roskopf, 6, tries out wheelchair tennis at Whitman Middle School in Wauwatosa on July 10. She does not have a disability but said she enjoyed the sport and preferred playing with a wheelchair to playing without one.

Alana Roskopf, 6, tries out wheelchair tennis at Whitman Middle School in Wauwatosa on July 10. She does not have a disability but said she enjoyed the sport and preferred playing with a wheelchair to playing without one. Photo By Staff photo by Rory Linnane.

July 15, 2015

Like many parents, Rebecca Beckler of Muskego enjoys watching her son Travis play baskeball. But unlike most parents, it's difficult for her to practice with him. Travis, 11, has to play in a wheelchair because he has spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal column doesn't close all the way.

At a Discover Ability Adaptive Open Gym at Whitman Middle School in Wauwatosa Friday, Rebecca buckled herself into a sport wheelchair and got a taste for how her son moves around on a daily basis. Sponsored by the Ability Center, the new open gyms are now available every other Friday evening to the public for no cost (whether you have a disability or not) in Wauwatosa and Milwaukee.

Friday night in Wauwatosa, as Rebecca struggled to maneuver in her chair and at the same time reach out a racket to hit tennis balls, Travis cruised around the gym as the resident expert.

"He can finally be better at something," Rebecca said. "He's trying to teach me how to use the chair."

Only a few of the people at the open gym Friday had disabilities that made them rely on a wheelchair. Most were trying it out for a fun new challenge, or in order to play with their friends and family members who have disabilities. On the court, sometimes the only way to tell someone had a disability was their superior talent.

Sam Gracz, the program facilitator, said that's the point: to bring together people with and without disabilities for friendly competition on an even playing field where people with disabilities have an opportunity to excel.

"They kind of have the upper hand because they've been playing for so long, and then someone who is normally ambulatory gets on a chair and they're like a deer on ice," Gracz said. "Usually in ambulatory sports, they wouldn't have the upper hand, so it's kind of a good reverse and gets people to open up their eyes and see a different side of things and how some people have to live."

Damian Buchman, founder and executive director of the Ability Center, hopes such opportunities for people with different abilities to play together will soon be available on a daily basis. Buchman has raised about $1 million for his dream Ability Center, a recreational facility designed specifically to welcome people with disabilities, which he hopes to locate at the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center.

In the meantime, as Buchman works on bringing the Ability Center to fruition, he is using the Ability Center movement as a means to promote adaptive sports in the region in other ways, such as sponsoring the adaptive open gyms.

In coordination with local recreation departments, the open gyms are an initiative of the Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association, a new collaboration of seven regional adaptive sports organizations.

WASA will be one beneficiary, along with the Paralyzed Veterans of America, of a Brewers tailgating fundraiser Aug. 29 put on by the Ability Center. More information about this event is at facebook.com/tailgate4TAC.

If you go:

Adaptive sports open gyms are free (donations welcomed) and open to the public 6-9 p.m. on the second Fridays of each month at Whitman Middle School, 111000 W. Center St., and the fourth Fridays of each month at Hi-Mount Community School, 4921 W. Garfield Ave.

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