Local organization celebrates adaptive sports for annual OrangeAbility
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The Barnes Center basketball courts were flooded with the sounds of wheels squeaking on court and bouncing basketballs on Sunday morning. After four years of being online due to COVID-19, OrangeAbility finally made its return to campus.
“It’s so great because this brings awareness to disability culture, and that is the whole purpose of the intercultural collective,” said Carrie Ingersoll-wood, director of the Disability and Cultural Center at Syracuse University. “Our mission is to get students to participate in events where we are centering disability as diversity and something to be proud of.“
OrangeAbility is an annual event in which people with and without disabilities can learn and experience adaptive sports. This year, the organization MoveAlong, Inc., a group whose mission is to promote inclusive sports in the Syracuse area, partnered with fraternity Phi Kappa Psi and sorority Gamma Phi Beta to promote adaptive sports and inclusivity.
MoveAlong began in 1979 in Syracuse as a club for wheelchair basketball. The group expanded around the 2000s to include other sports. Eddie Zaremba, an organizer for the event, said MoveAlong continues to be the only adaptive sports group in the greater Syracuse area.
The Barnes Center gym was packed with people playing adaptive sports, from wheelchair basketball to power wheelchair soccer. In addition to its basketball program, MoveAlong partnered with a sled hockey program in the early 2000s, and then got into cycling, adaptive paddling and racquet sports.
Peyton Sefick, a community advocate for adaptive sports and inclusive fitness, sped around the court with his strike force wheelchair, specifically designed for power wheelchair soccer. The wheelchair was adorned with a protective barrier, which extended around the legs to the special controls on the armrest.
“Adaptive sports don’t get nearly as much coverage as able-bodied sports, so being able to just have some exposure is always helpful,” Sefick said.
Phi Kappa Psi’s chapter advisor, Seth Gitner — who is an associate professor in Magazine News and Digital Journalism and part of the Visual Communications Department at SU — is a quadriplegic due to a spinal cord injury and walks with a cane. He brought the idea of a philanthropic collaboration with MoveAlong to his fraternity.
Gitner was first introduced to MoveAlong at an ice rink with his daughter. He saw a group of people playing handicap ice hockey and asked to play. Before he knew it, he was taking lessons and joining the team, which was sponsored by MoveAlong. Eventually, Gitner got more and more involved until he found himself on the board.
“This is really an event for everyone, not just (Greek life) on campus,” Gitner said. “Anybody can come up and play with us.”
Maxwell Coleman, the president of Phi Kappa Psi, said the fraternity is excited for the future of its partnership with MoveAlong. He said Gitner does a lot for their house and for people with disabilities. For organizations and philanthropies like MoveAlong, it’s always great to have as many people involved as they can, said Phi Kappa Psi member Jack Bernstein.
MoveAlong also has a high school program — the organization takes the equipment to schools and has the students try out the chairs and other equipment to see how adaptive sports work. Students can also play with some of the members of the organization.
“Our point is to make sure that those students learn that we’re people too,” said Mike Smithson, president of MoveAlong. “We’re no different. It’s just a chair.”
Due to the partnership with Syracuse Greek life, there was a much larger turnout than previous years, Smithson said, which furthered MoveAlong’s goals.
“We’re going to have a chance to spread that point that we’ve been making to that many more people,” Smithson said. “If we don’t make one dollar, I don’t care. This turnout is just blowing my mind. I’m so excited.”
