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ShareWheels Across Borders
They say everything in Texas has giant proportions and Rio Grande NSCIA, has one big reach. It is an international stretch.
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In the beginning, they came together around sports activities and that is still a major part of their connection. Over the years, the have built a cohesive relationship based on unity and mutual support. It wasn't always that way. Fred Amaya, President of Rio Grande NSCIA and Ron Prieto, Treasurer, spoke about their activities when the two attended the NSCIA sponsored Chapter Training in Denver last September. In addition to running Rio Grande NSCIA, Amaya teaches science at the Americas High School in El Paso. Fred was a member of the Paralympic swim team and competed in the 1998 games in Christ Church, New Zealand. He sustained a T5-6 complete spinal cord injury in a 1991 accident. Then a Marine Biology student at the University of Texas, he was on a field trip to Rocky Point, Mexico when the driver lost control of the van. Amaya flew out of the rear of the vehicle and landed on his back and neck in the middle of the freeway. He also had an incomplete cervical injury and spent three months in a Galveston rehabilitation facility with a halo. He was then transferred to Rio Vista Rehabilitation Hospital in El Paso, where he met Ron Prieto, then a social worker there and Sukie Armendariz, The three of them were among the founders of Rio Grande NSCIA in 1993, which is still based out of Rio Vista. Prieto is now a Case Manager/Social Worker at Highlands Rehabilitation Hospital. Suki Armendariz has stayed on at Rio Vista as the director for the group and the SCI/Family/Patient Educator. In the early years, Ron, Fred, and Sukie had been hearing about an SCI support group and basketball team in Juarez, Mexico. In 1993, NSCIA Rio Grande decided to check this group out and see if they could get members interested in their tennis team. The two groups met a few times. They played some basketball together. "At first it was us and them", states Amaya. "We noticed that they had very little in the way of resources and equipment. We had meetings and socials," he continues. Prieto explains that NSCIA Rio Grande soon saw that Amigos Sobre Ruedas had something their US counterparts lacked. "They were more organized but with far less resources. They were really bonded together," Ron stated. "They had one van and would go around and pick everyone up for their meetings. Our chapter decided they were a unified, cohesive group. We could join with them and become stronger. NSCIA Rio Grande provided some supplies and they taught us unity. We got the best part of that deal because then we bonded together," Ron concludes. In the early years they had several shared events: a tennis tournament clinic in El Paso and one in Juarez. The rehab center in El Paso sponsored a tennis tournament and a wheelchair division camp. On one occasion, Rio Grande NSCIA was signed up for the Bank of America race in El Paso but came up short on racers. "Amigos Sobre Ruedas saved the day for our chapter and sent 16 people. They bailed us out," explains Amaya. "More recently we celebrated Christmas by providing gifts for the children of both groups." Rio Grande NSCIA has about forty members and approximately twenty members comprise Amigos Sobre Ruedas. Now Amigos Sobre Ruedas has more resources, because they are affiliated with the new Fundacion Integra and have access to their private rehabilitation facility with sports, therapy equipment, meeting space and therapy pools. The Rio Grande group meets monthly and the Amigos group meets weekly, planning social and sports activities for 2005. Upcoming events include a ski trip in Ruidoso, New Mexico; wheelchair basketball competition with a non-disabled high school team, bowling, producing a videotape of exercises for wheelchair users and in service trainings on wheelchair maintenance. Rio Grande NSCIA and Amigos Sobre Ruedas have built strong connections over the past eleven years. They provide the example that unity across international borders makes everyone stronger.