By DAN ZIMMERMAN
NORTH READING — Ask any athlete to describe the hardships of their competitive venture and many would likely find complaint with the rigors of training, drills, and other measures necessary to reach peak performance. And after they respond, ask these able-bodied individuals how they would manage these tasks from the confines of a wheelchair.
North Reading’s Jen Ford knows all too well the difficulties of such a burden. Her son Gavin, 14, endures Spina Bifida, which is a birth defect that impacts the formation of the spinal cord making it nearly impossible to walk, much less participate in athletic pursuits. One might envision, under the circumstances, that young Gavin tolerates a sedentary existence. Not quite.
“Gavin is non-ambulatory and is forced to use a manual wheelchair,” shared his mother. “But it was Gavin who introduced us to adaptive sports. He plays sled hockey, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair lacrosse, and several other sports. He is the driving reason that I do what I do.”
What Ford does, when she’s not engaged in her duties as Director of Youth Services for the Town of North Reading, is launch and nurture organizations that fill a therapeutic void in the lives of many disabled people.
“I am the co-founder and president of Include Compete Empower (ICE) Adaptive Sports which is a 501(c)3 organization,” said Ford, who is just a few years shy of calling herself a lifelong North Reading resident. “We offer equitable athletic experiences to people with physical disabilities.”
Ford’s inaugural program was sled hockey, which features a custom-designed chassis mounted on dual blades that athletes propel along the ice surface with two sticks instead of the standard one.
“Boston ICE Storm was formed in September, 2018,” recalled Ford, whose family includes Tom, husband of 28-years, children Brenna, Lexi, Kylie, JT, and Gavin, as well as a grandchild, Rayne. “We traveled and competed in the 2019 Disabled Hockey National Festival in Tampa, Florida.”
That spring, Ford hoped to add volleyball and lacrosse to the area’s adaptive sport menu but was “derailed,” as she described it by the COVID-19 pandemic. The hiatus did little to dampen her enthusiasm, however, and Ford returned this summer armed with all-important sponsorships and donors.
“ICE Adaptive Sports is 100 percent funded by donations,” said Ford, a 1989 North Reading graduate who studied at Fitchburg and Salem State, and Suffolk University. “Fortunately, thanks to donations and partnerships with Warrior, TSR, Adaptive Sports New England (https://adaptivesportsne.org/) and North Reading Parks and Recreation, we were able to offer wheelchair lacrosse for the first time in Massachusetts. We are committed to offering all free programming. We will never allow finances to be a barrier for participation.”
The lacrosse program, which was staged at the street hockey rink at Ipswich River Park, ran on six Sunday mornings this summer and according to Ford, will resume in April, 2022. It is co-ed and athletes of all ages are welcome. Participants come from such far-flung places as Plymouth, Northbridge, and Manchester, New Hampshire. Ford believes the adaptive version of lacrosse got its start 10 years ago in San Diego. Currently, there are a dozen programs nationwide. She has heard talk that NorthEast Passage (NEP) in New Hampshire is discussing a start-up. In the meantime, there are new venues cropping up regularly.
“We hope to host a few local tournaments next year as well as travel to New York during the summer to compete against a few new teams there,” she said.
In standard lacrosse, players arrive at a field with a helmet and a stick, ready to play, unlike the program Ford oversees. Her logistics list is complicated and quite lengthy, indeed. Just to get the program off the ground, she needed to acquire specialized equipment, practice facilities, custom sports wheelchairs, storage space, and of course, athletes.
Ford was infinitely thankful to the folks from Warrior, who donated twenty sets of lacrosse heads and shafts, chest protectors, elbow pads, along with goalie gloves. Arrangements were made with Adaptive Sports New England, a firm that supplied ten sport wheelchairs, which Ford transported to-and-from Quincy in a rented UHaul. North Reading Parks and Recreation also contributed, supplying the IRP hard-surface rink at a discounted rate. The same folks also granted permission to store the chairs in the snack shack which Ford admitted was a game-changer.
“There certainly wasn’t space in my dining room, although we’re storing other equipment there until we locate a trailer,” she explained.
The nature of this program makes it stand out from mainstream athletics. While many of the participants are battling birth defects, the roster also includes cancer survivors, as well as victims of spinal cord injuries from shootings and tragic accidents. According to Ford, it is not uncommon for able-bodied siblings to sit themselves in wheelchairs and join in the fun.
Ford, who enjoys kayaking, music, dancing, swimming, and of course, spending time with her “amazing” family, allocates most of her free time launching and running non-profits.
“I hate to say it but I don’t really have time for hobbies unless it’s giving back,” she replied when asked about leisure pursuits. “Then I’m all over it.”
Ford would likely agree that if it’s not a labor of love, then it’s not worth the labor.
“What I need people to understand is that adaptive sports is SO much bigger than sport,” she said. “It’s about community and a sense of belonging. Most adaptive athletes live in a society that has no clue to their realities. Even those who love them dearly and have front row seats to the daily obstacles and blatant inequities still really don’t get it. Living in a world not built for them, surrounded by barriers, is the norm.
“Except for adaptive sports. Those small windows of time are spent with peers that get it…get them. It’s a total paradigm shift. For brief moments, their needs are normal. It’s very humbling to be part of something that sends such a powerful message – I see you and you matter.”
