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Students with disabilities get opportunity to play sports

Appeal-Democrat - 10/22/2021

Oct. 22—Local students with physical, sensory, or hearing disabilities will participate in the 20th annual Adapted Physical Education (APE) Sports Day, an event designed for individuals with physical disabilities to participate in sports, today at California State University, Chico.

After last year's event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the APE Sports Day returns today at the Arthur Acker gymnasium at Chico State. Around 21 different schools from surrounding counties will participate in the event and bring their students. Six students from Bear River Middle School in Wheatland and one student from Browns Valley Elementary School in Browns Valley will attend the event.

"So we cater this event specifically for people who have physical disabilities, not necessarily intellectual disabilities, and in our smaller communities, there's not a lot of opportunity for them," said Marci Pope, instructor in kinesiology at Chico State. "There's not a lot of chance for them to try out sports that would be like Paralympic sports that are modified specifically for people with physical disabilities or sensory disabilities, so we've created a day that has sports that are specific for them."

Four staff members from Bear River Middle School will accompany the students to the event at Chico. The event is completely free for students and the Wheatland School District will transport the students to Chico. Students ranging from ages 10-13 will be taking their first field trip since the start of the pandemic, said Nadia Salle, a moderate/severe teacher at Bear River Middle School.

"They are super excited to get out of the classroom and do something different," said Salle.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, Salle's students have not been able to partake in community based instruction the class normally does every year. These were vital activities that helped them build social skills where they would expose students to stores, libraries, parks, the post office and teach them foundational life skills, said Salle.

"So many different schools attend the event and students get to see some of their friends they've made over the years," said Salle. "Chico State gives them all the opportunity to participate in activities they would never be able to do in a typical setting. Everything is adapted for the special needs students."

APE Sports Day is an event hosted by the department of kinesiology at Chico State in collaboration with the Northern California Adapted Physical Education Consortium, a group of physical education adaptive teachers from the counties of Shasta, Colusa, Glenn, Yolo and Sacramento who support each other throughout their jobs.

Around 40 Chico State student volunteers within the kinesiology department will help run 20 stations and modify the activities for each individual.

"Students learned the skills and that's the idea with service learning, is that we are now going to be able to provide service through the learning they completed in their coursework," said Pope.

The event festivities will kick off with a band and drill performance from students from the Corning Union High School District in Tehama County, said Pope. Around 35 students from the Corning Union High School District will also be volunteering and assisting participating individuals move from station to station during the event.

APE Sports Day, an event that normally has an attendance of 125 athletes, will have around 35 participating athletes this year. Some of the sport activities presented to student athletes will be wall climbing, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, and other skill development games.

"By pulling everybody in one place, we can provide the numbers," said Pope. "So they can actually experience a sport that was meant for somebody with their type of disability, potentially introducing them to something that they may like to do for the rest of their life, or possibly even go on to the Paralympics."

APE Sports Day is an event looked forward to all year by an 11-year-old student from Browns Valley Elementary School. Maera McDonald participated in the event in 2019 and was amazed with everything she learned that helped bring her a sense of empowerment, said Katie McDonald, her mother. Her mother will be personally taking McDonald out of school to participate in the event.

One of Maera McDonald's favorite activities during APE Sports Day is goalball, a team sport played blindfolded where three members in each team compete and try to throw a ball, that has bells embedded in it, into the opponents' goal. Katie McDonald said her daughter has tried to recreate that same game at home with her sister, as they both blindfold each other to play.

In the Paralympic games, goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a vision impairment. Other activities she participated in that she had never done before were wheelchair basketball and a three wheel bike where she pedaled with her hands.

"All the stuff they do there gave her a stepping stone to keep going and to keep trying," said Katie McDonald. "Some of these things she didn't know were options, so now she's like I'm going to conquer the world."

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