From The Boston Globe. In the picture, veteran Paul Kenney of Hollis, N.H., joins other veterans for weekly bowling games.BROCKTON, Mass. -- Craig Cascella grasps a bowling ball, takes aim at the three remaining pins, and leans far left with some serious body English.
The pins fall for a spare, Cascella pumps his fist, and the former Marine heads back to the scorer's table at Westgate Lanes with an ear-to-ear grin. For Cascella, who bowled from a wheelchair, it's another small accomplishment for a veteran of the presidential honor guard."It's almost like I know what I'm doing," Cascella says with a chuckle.
Cascella's bowling prowess pales in comparison with the success he has forged since a motorcycle accident left him a paraplegic in 1992. Now, as president of the New England chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America, he brings a military man's discipline, commitment, and enthusiasm to the cause of fellow veterans consigned to a wheelchair, often for the rest of their lives.
"Many times I hear, 'Gee, if that happened to me, I'd kill myself,' " Cascella said. "If you told me this would have happened to me when I was 23, when it did, perhaps I would have said the same thing. But you never know how you deal with adversity until it's dealt to you."
Now, Cascella, 40, helps steer other paralyzed veterans into activities such as the bowling league, wheelchair basketball, and skiing clinics.
The chapter, with about 1,000 members throughout New England, includes veterans whose service dates back to World War II and up through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of the disabled veterans who gather at the Westgate Lanes, such as Coast Guard veteran Walter Farrington of Merrimack, N.H., have traveled the breadth of the country for tournaments.
"I'm still learning," said Farrington, who fell through a roof during a contracting job in 1983, after he left the Coast Guard, and is paralyzed from just below his chest.
The chapter also sponsors a basketball team that practices at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center here. Most of the team has been playing for more than a decade. Sinking baskets from near the three-point arc, flipping balls backhand off the backboard and into the hoop, and pivoting sharply in their wheelchairs to chase down balls, the team shows plenty of polish.
One of the basketball players, Vietnam veteran George Norton, 65, of Fairhaven, said the basketball team has changed his outlook to a forward-looking, optimistic one.
"The organization is unreal," said Norton, who is an honorary member of the veterans group. Although he is not paralyzed, he lost part of his leg in combat in 1966 and uses a wheelchair to compete in sports. "I realized I want to be part of this as long as I can be."
For disabled veterans, the camaraderie they find in sports brings incalculable benefits that go beyond the physical rehabilitation.
"Athletics do a lot for a person's mental health, but maybe more so for us," said Paul Kenney, 55, an Army veteran. "You tend to think you're on your own, but in a group like this you gain access to the experiences of people going through the same thing."Often, information is exchanged about physical and medical issues, including infections, personal hygiene, and medications, that prove more valuable than anything gleaned from a doctor's office.
"We learn a lot from each other," Kenney said. "It's made a tremendous difference in my life."
Donations are the sole source of funding for the chapter, which has only three full-time employees who work from an office on Route 1 in Walpole. The chapter was rocked two years ago when a professional fund-raiser allegedly submitted fraudulent bills to the staff and also used the chapter's name without authorization in its solicitations.
Debra Freed, vice president of the chapter, said the group lost more than $100,000 in the alleged scam. Four men linked to the case have been indicted on charges filed by state Attorney General Martha Coakley's office. Also a civil lawsuit has been filed in Suffolk Superior Court by the attorney general's charities division.
With its donations, the group helps fund a wide range of programs outside its sports portfolio. Its work includes a commitment to give $100,000 to the Yale University Neuroscience and Regeneration Research Center and peer counseling for paralyzed veterans who are struggling to adjust to their new lives.
Depression often is a problem, particularly among the young. For Freed, 51, an Air Force veteran who was left a paraplegic after suffering two bad falls while stationed in Japan, the injury and three years of unemployment left her disconsolate.
But while visiting the veterans medical center in West Roxbury in late 2003, Freed noticed a poster for the national athletic games for disabled veterans. To compete, the participants were required to belong to the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
"I ended up becoming a member in '04," Freed said. "In some respects, they really did save my life."
Freed competed in five events at the games: archery, air gun, javelin, shot put, and discus. The experience was eye-opening and exhilarating.
Without the organization, Freed said, "I honestly don't know where I'd be."
Cascella, of Narragansett, R.I., echoed that assessment. Even though the rehabilitation he underwent in West Roxbury was "extremely difficult," Cascella said, "to be honest, that really wasn't the hardest aspect."
The aftermath was worse. "There you are, 23, traveling the world as a Marine, and suddenly you have to learn how to do things in a new way: simple things like bathing, learning how to dress, learning how to drive a car."
Through all the challenges, Cascella said, "it comes back to who you are as a person and how you deal with adversity. It's a choice we all make."
Today, Cascella said, "I'm very happy."
