Actress Bo Derek, a big supporter of disabled veterans causes, visited the National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic yesterday.
Bo Derek at the National Summer Sports Clinic
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National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic – Sailing With Challenged America
The National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic (NVSSC), taking place in San Diego September 18-21, promotes rehabilitation of body and spirit by teaching summer sporting activities to Veterans with significant physical or psychological impairments. Veterans had the opportunity to sail the San Diego Bay and enjoy a friendly race against one another.
For the 5th year, Challenged America will host the sailing event. Over 100 Challenged America volunteers will spend a week helping and coaching disabled veterans on the water and on the docks. Challenged America’s Martin 16 boats and equipment are designed and built specifically to allow individuals with all levels of disability drive and handle the boat by themselves under the supervision of a specially trained companion sailor.
The VA 5th National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic – September 16-21, 2012
We’re pleased to announce that Challenged America will once again support the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic for recently injured veterans. From the San Diego Marriott Marquis Hotel and Marina, September 16 – 21, 2012. Mark your calendars today to help out. More details later.
San Diego Entrepreneur Helps Fellow Veterans Through New Initiative at The Hadley School for the Blind
Urban Miyares, president of the San Diego-based Disabled Businesspersons Association, has been named outreach specialist for a new Blinded Veterans Initiative at The Hadley School for the Blind. Miyares is a blinded and multi-disabled veteran who brings more than 40 years experience as an entrepreneur to his new role.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are an estimated 158,300 legally blind veterans and 700,000 veterans with low vision. In addition, approximately 7,000 veterans become newly blind or visually impaired each year from non-combat related causes. Compounding the problem is that approximately 70 percent of working age Americans who are blind or visually impaired are unemployed or underemployed.
Why we sail
“In this picture, Doug just finished rigging the sail boat with a joystick system so that I could steer the boat and trim the sails independently. What a sense of freedom and independence! We are a great team. He calmly gives me instruction and I execute. It’s a great sport for me, since I cannot speak (and it’s not necessary)! The only time I was slightly nervous was when we returned, under full sail, within feet of the famous race boat Stars & Stripes and pulled up to the pier with a perfect “hockey stop!” Good times.”
- Ellen
“It is always a humbling, inspirational and tremendously fun experience to sail with Ellen. Using the Power Assist system that we set up on the Martin 16, she has total control, steering the boat and trimming the sails.”
- Doug
Editor’s Note: Ellen is a veteran who served as a nurse while on active duty, and now has ALS — aka Lou Gehrig’s disease. This was Ellen’s second time at the VA National Summer Sports Clinic for recently injured veterans, and sailing with Challenged America.
Day 2: Challenged America and the 2011 Veterans National Summer Sports Clinic Team Apollo vs Team Olympus
You only have to look at the smiles to understand why we volunteer
Day 1: Challenged America and the 2011 Veterans National Summer Sports Clinic Team Poseidon vs Team Mercury
The NVSSC is back in San Diego for the fourth time. Today, at the Challenged America sailing venue, Team Poseidon and Team Mercury took to the water sailing on Stars and Stripes USA11 and the Martin 16s of Challenged America
Recently injured veterans heal at Summer Sports Clinic
San Diego’s Challenged America therapeutic sailing program has a long history of healing veterans, both recently injured from combat and those acquiring a disability from other causes. And at this year’s 4th National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic, September 18 to 23, from San Diego’s Marriott Marquis Hotel & Marina, 130 recently injured veterans will experience the healing powers of the ocean as they sail with Challenged America in San Diego’s Big Bay.
The Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA's) newest national program, the Summer Sports Clinic (SSC) promotes rehabilitation of body and spirit by teaching summer sporting activities to veterans with significant physical or psychological impairments. The Clinic offers such sports as sailing, surfing, kayaking, track and field and cycling to these veterans who are newly injured from amputation, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), blindness, spinal cord injuries or disease, and other neurological disorders, all benefiting from the therapeutic environment offered at the Clinic.
"When we first proposed a Summer Sports Clinic to the VA in 1996, those involved with VA sports therapy excitedly endorsed it. But I knew we then needed to convince those in Washington, DC, that it was a valuable asset, and complimented the already successful Winter Sports Clinic held each year in Colorado," says Urban Miyares, blinded Vietnam veteran and co-founder of the Challenged America program. "It took years before Washington, DC, agreed. After all, Challenged America has been providing successful water-sports activities for therapeutic purposes to severely and catastrophically disabled veterans for more than 30 years , and today's VA Summer Sports Clinic is but an extension of an already successful San Diego-based charitable program matching the VA's goals."
The week-long event, based from the Marriott Marquis, will attract more than 400 people, to include 130 recently injured veterans, their families, personnel and officials from the VA,, political figures and others from local and federal agencies, celebrities, sponsors, and volunteers, most coming from around the nation. All with be participating in or watching the many sporting venues, such as sailing on San Diego's Big Bay in Challenged America's fleet of two-person, 16-foot (adaptive) sailboats, and aboard Sail USA-11's America's Cup yacht; kayaking on Mission Bay; surfing at La Jolla Shores; cycling and rock climbing (wall) on Coronado; and experience track and field at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista.
"It's going to be a busy week of introducing these veterans and their loved ones to sporting activities they should be able to participate in, when they return home. After all, sports is a tremendous rehabilitative activity that has proven to be key to heal one's body and mind. Challenged America was started in 1978 by disabled veterans as a self-directed therapeutic program. And today, most of Challenged America's participants and volunteers are veterans, many having combat-experience and disabilities. The VA's Summer Sports Clinic and Challenged America is a prime example of 'veterans helping and healing with fellow veterans'," says Miyares.
Founded in 1978 by San Diego disabled veterans, Challenged America is a year-round, therapeutic (adaptive) sailing program for disabled veterans, youth and adults with disabilities, based at Shelter Island, San Diego. Hundreds from around the nation and the world sail with the volunteer-driven, charitable, program.
For additional information, contact
Urban Miyares, Challenged America
2240 Shelter Island Drive, Suite 108
San Diego, CA 92106
phone 619-523-9318
email Port@ChallengedAmerica.org
or visit www.ChallengedAmerica.org.
TELLY AWARD
You can now add the prestigious “Telly Award” to the long list of honors and recognition bestowed upon the Challenged America program. With 11,000 entries from 50 states and five countries, the Port of San Diego entered their in-house produced video on Challenged America and the National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic and won! View this award-winning video.
"Telly Award: Presentation at Port of San Diego -- (left to right) Ken Guyer (Marriott Marina Manager), Urban Miyares (Challenged America), Barbara Moreno and staff of the Port of San Diego Communications Dept.
The Telly Awards honor the very best local, regional, and cable television commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions, and work created for the Web.
National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic Sept 23 to 28
Challenged America will host the sailing venue for the National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic for the fourth time.
Challenged America will welcome over 100 disabled and injured veterans for a week of sailing and competing on San Diego Bay
The disabled veterans will learn to sail and compete in a week of regattas on our Martin 16 boats, designed for the disabled, Harbor 20 boats on loan and will have the opportunity to sail on the America’s Cup boat Stars and Stripes (USA11)
Hosting an event like this is quite a challenge (no pun intended) and volunteers are needed to help us at the welcome booth, on the docks and as companion sailors
Several local businesses like Sail USA11 generously participate in the event supplying Stars and Stripes and a crew for the week long event, others loan their boats, volunteer their boat for families and caregivers and others, like Hipp Marine, supplying boats for race committee and safety.
To volunteer, please call our office at 619-523-9318 or RSVP on our Facebook volunteer group