Write a commentMore than 350 community members and 200 wheelchair basketball fanatics participated in the fifth annual Shoot for the Stars event, held April 27. The event is Move Along, Inc.'s largest fundraiser and this year it raised approximately $20,000 for the organization.
Founded in 2009 by Greg Callen, who is wheelchair bound himself, Move Along's mission is to provide accessible outlets for individuals with disabilities to achieve personal gratification, growth and integrity through participation and competition. Events such as the recent Shoot for the Stars serve to raise the necessary funds to not only support the organization's programs, such as sled hockey, aquatics/kayaking, hand cycling and wheelchair basketball, but also for repairs to and the purchase of new equipment.
"One wheelchair for an individual to be able to play basketball costs approximately $2,000," said volunteer and event organizer, Julie Livesey.
The Shoot for the Stars event has been raising awareness and funds for the organization for the past five years with the help of passionate and dedicated volunteers like Livesey.
Alyssa Proud, event co-chair with Livesey, said the event consists of individuals from all ages, both able and disabled, competing in different age divisions on the basketball court, in wheelchairs, of course.
"All three of my boys played in the three different age divisions," she said. "They had a blast!"
Proud said this year saw close to 60 teams participating in the tournament, a record number.
"My paperwork was packed up and I'm still going through boxes to find everything," she said with a laugh. "But Julie and I don't do it all ourselves; we have a fantastic committee of volunteers."
Proud said her family personally knows three of the children who are in wheelchairs.
"I organize the event for not only Greg, but for them as well," she said. "To see their faces so happy to be playing basketball with their peers is an amazing thing."
Not only is it good for those who are in wheelchairs, Proud said it is a great life lesson for her three sons as well.
"All three of my boys know what this event is about ... inclusion!" she said. "We want to help raise funds for kids and adults so that they can participate in sports. My sons also know that when I sign them up for a sport, it is nowhere near the expense it costs for disabled people to play sports."
Shoot for the Stars also serves to raise awareness in young and old alike of the challenges their peers face in order to be included in a sport.
"It's hard to use your hands to move the wheelchair and then stop to catch the ball and shoot it," 6-year-old Braedan Proud said. "But I had fun and I am definitely playing next year!"
Volunteer and board member, Karen Kaye, laughingly agreed with the hard part.
"I've done it and it is really intense," she said. "You have to use muscles you don't normally use and if you fall out of the chair, they don't stop the game."
Kaye said she has been with the Move Along Inc. almost since its inception and said she met Callen when she brought her daughter, Brittany, who has spina bifida, to a spina bifida clinic group meeting he was helping out at.
"My daughter was 5 at the time and Greg told me he was starting Move Along," she said. "Before that, I had never been able to find anything sports-related for my daughter. I wanted her to learn the skills she could so she could blend in with other kids."
Kaye said what impresses her most is Callen's attitude.
"I remember participating in a walk for March of Dimes and Greg saw the big hill on Lake Street," she recalled.
Kaye said he turned to her and said one day he was going to do that hill; it might take him a little longer and a little more effort, but he was going to do it.
"He told me, one day I am going to do what I want to do,'" Kaye recalled. "He was someone I wanted my daughter to be around. I was impressed with his motivation and his nothing-was-going-to hold-him-back attitude."
She pointed out that while the social and competitive aspect of Move Along is invaluable to helping the disabled fit in, for someone like her daughter, who is not particularly sports-minded, it is the peer support and adult socialization that helps her.
"The thing that she really enjoys most about Move Along are the adults involved," Kaye explained.
"She loves the kids, but she really loves how the adults, both disabled and able-bodied, don't treat her any different. They boost her up when she needs it. They push her more than pamper her. And I hink it is good for both the adults and the kids – it is uplifting to watch people grow through their disabilities into a confident young adult who in turn inspire and mentor."
Kaye said she was part of the original group who formed the Shoot for the Stars event and is impressed with how much it has grown and evolved over the past five years.
"We have changed it over the years to fit our needs," she said. "It started off more as an exhibition game the first year, and the second year we invited the Harlem Wizards to do a half time show along with some of the SU Orange Basketball Team. Then Move Along began competing against the community, with local heroes from Oswego fire or police department."
Kaye said it really took on a new life during the third year when people attending wanted to try the unique chairs themselves during half-time.
"We let people try the wheelchairs and the response was so great, we came up with a three-on-three tournament and began getting sponsors for teams," she pointed out. "Now it is a huge tournament with different age groups and we had to move it from Leighton school to the high school because of how it has grown."
Sponsors for the this year's event included Beacon Hotel, Lake Ontario Event and Conference Center (Broadwell's), MorningStar, I Heart Oswego, Monroe Wheelchair, Hibernians Club, Pathfinder Bank, Best Buy, Rudy's, Frito Lay, ARISE and Top Stitch.
"This event could not be possible without the dedicated and loyal volunteer base of Oswego community," Livesey said. "They truly support and honor Move Along and Greg."
To learn more about Move Along Inc, go to movealonginc.org.
