September 6, 2016 My mentor Carlos Quiles and I had a conference call to discuss the logistics of how will it be possible to get the SMSA students in basketball chairs and waivers that will have to be signed. We also discuss merchandise that would be for sale as well as having concession stands where food and beverages will be sold.
September 13, 2016 Today, I met with Ms. Schmidt to discuss possible dates where the gym would be available to do my event. A date has yet to be set in stone. Coming away from this meeting we discuss possible Saturday morning. I have a couple concerns about doing the event on a Saturday. My concerns being are students as well as the spectator willing to give up a Saturday morning to come in and watch the game. I don’t believe having it on a Saturday will bring a decent size turn out. As well as my basketball team starts having basketball tournaments on the weekend. Today I also went to the office to set up an appointment to meet with Mr. Laverty about my capstone project but have still not been called down to have a meeting. In the evening, my wheelchair basketball team had their first practice of the season. I took a rough count of those on my team who would be interested in playing as well as we brainstormed how games will be run.
September 15, 2016 I spoke to Ms. Schmidt again today and we came up with a month that would work to have my event on a school day. We decided that the month that would work would best where there would be most gym availability is November. It would give me two months to advertise. After school I went to CT Spokebenders practice in New Britain to talk to them about my project and my ideas , to get a count on who will be available.
September 22, 2016 Today, I’m feeling very accomplished. I met with Mr. Laverty to discuss my event. We spoke about different advertising methods. As well as met with Ms. Schmidt and confirmed November 10th for the wheelchair basketball exhibition tournament. My biggest fear with this date is that this day is half a day due to parent teacher conferences (1-3pm). The exhibition tournament wouldn’t be starting till 5:30pm and anyone wanting to play would have to be there at 5pm practicing.
September 26, 2016 I’m feeling over whelmed today. I received an email from is Mrs. Boutilier. Questions such as: Who will be supervising? Who is the security? Volunteers? Just confirming the date a couple days before I hadn’t quiet thought all this through just yet. I was beginning to feel the pressure, my event was coming up fast and I needed to get on my A game.
September 30, 2016 I went to go speak to Mrs. Boutilier right before lunch time to answer the logistic questions she had sent to me in an email days prior. I answered all her questions in great detail. Coming out of the meeting she gave me a lot more things to think about and consider. We discussed possibly finding organization who would match the money I make so I would be giving a greater donation to the Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England. As well as having a 50/50 raffle.
October 2, 2016 I reached out to a couple of my friends asking who would be interested in volunteering to manage admission, concessions raffle tickets and people who would be interested in setup/ clean up. I’ve received a couple of response as to people interested.
October 10, 2016 Feeling a bit over whelmed as we leave the Research Paper meeting. As I started to do a bit of research on my topic, I’m beginning to feel insecure about my question. I wanted to work on rewording it to make a bit more sense.
October 12, 2016 Today I conquered one of my biggest fears which is public speaking where all the attention is on me. This is the beginning of getting me started to prepare to address everyone who comes to my event. During 3rd block I met with Mrs. Boutilier and discussed prices for concessions and discussing who would be the over seer of the money being collected. We also discussed possible MC for the event to announce players and so forth. I have asked Mr. Rivera. He has an event the day before so he said he’d get back to me with confirmation. In case that does not work I have thought of other possible options.
October 14, 2016 I email the coordinator who handed all adaptive sports programs at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain. She is who I need to go through to get the liability forms and basketball chairs for the event. In order to get the chair the HSC has to be put on flyers as a sponsor. On Saturday Oct. 22 after we have our basketball practice I will be meeting with her at 4pm. We will be creating the flyers together so I can give the HSC proper credit. As well as going over how many chair I will need and also be given the forms for anyone who’s getting into the chairs to sign.
October 19, 2016 Today I went to Quinnipiac University to job shadow my mentor Carlos. He works closely with the professor of a graduate physical therapy course. The group of students were pretty small. Prior to me going today the students had been taking notes on a specific skills and today was when they brought in quadriplegics and paraplegics like myself to do their practices on.
November 1, 2016 Only a few days away and feeling the pressure! A lot is getting thrown at me and I’m feeling stressed. A lot of final details need to be take care of such as going to Sam’s club to get refreshments and snacks/candies. I went to Mr. Trophy originally with the impression that I would pay for trophies and a plaque for the school. As I began to explain what they were for, the gentlemen told me to go to the showcase room and pick whatever I would like for design. As we went to fill out the order form he told me that he would like to give me the two trophies free of charge. I was very surprised and very grateful that the gentlemen wanted to support.
November 10, 2016 The day is finally here! Surprisingly I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. Earlier today I found out I would be on TV (WFSB). THAT MADE ME SO HAPPY! Finally, adaptive sports were getting the publicity it deserves. Left school around 11am, went straight to New Britain to pick up 6 sport wheelchair. My mom and stepdad delivered the wheelchairs to the main gym. I decorated the posters. Around 4, I get a call from my mentor that the referee cancelled last minute. So I called Ryan Martin and he said if needed he would do it or he would have a friend come in and make it happen. It’s 4 and I’m heading back to the school to set everything all up. We getting to the school and my volunteers and I are working in high gear to get concessions ready and helping the DJ set up. As my players showed up in the gym to practice I could see they were nervous. They were very impressed but just my teammates and I putting the wheels on the sports chairs. Now its 5:45pm and spectators are trickling in. I didn’t get as big of a turn out as I was expecting to have but those who did show up seemed to enjoy themselves. In the middle of all this John from WFSB interviewed, ME!!! Its 6 now and its time, the moment is here. Mrs. Zamorski making the opening remarks and hands me the microphone I am nervous because this is probably the fifth time I’ve had to speak publically to a crowd of this size. But as the first words flowed through my mouth I was calm. Why be nervous about something I know so much about, if I mess up improvise. The game has begun crowd is going wild, a lot of laughter on the SMSA side. But game faces on from the CT Spokebenders. I do believe during half time more organization should have been there. Game ended 40 – 25 with CT Spokebenders taking the victory.
November 14, 2016 After the weekend, now it’s Monday. I handed the money collected ($320) on Thursday to Mrs. Chan. But we I’m still currently working with Mrs. Nyugen to find an organization to match my money. We emailed her business friends but have gotten no word back. I have been receiving awesome feedback from spectators and players. I would like to get in another game before the end of the year. Doesn’t necessary have to apply to this particular project but something fun the students here could enjoy. I’ve had numerous conversations with Mr. McKay about having Ryan Martin coming in and speaking to his middle schools students when he has them next semester.
December 22, 2016 As we leave for winter break, I am feeling a bit stressed with assignments from other classes while maintaining to keep to date with logging and jotting down all that I am doing. My next focus gears towards working with Mr. McKay to work out a date for next semester that my coach Ryan Martin can come in to speak to his middle school class. Or potentially turning it to something bigger where he can speak to multiple students at the school. His speeches mostly focus on how he overcame being bullied for being an above the knee amputee and not looking like the “average person”. He then would go on to talk about strategies to deal with being bullied. His escape from all of the negativity was playing wheelchair basketball which took him all the way to play professional basketball in Spain and France. It would be benefit to have him come in because he’s made something of himself even when everyone believed he couldn’t. He saw passed it all. March 7, 2017 Today had a phone conference with Ryan to officially begin the process of picking a date so Ryan could come and speak to the middle school. We also discussed that once we have an official day we can fully go through and prepare our presentation. I think it’s important to target the middle school with this type of discussions because I believe the more they are expose to, the more they can grow. For me it’s all about providing exposure to different ways of life. Not everyone is the same…”Why be normal, when you were born to stay out?”
March 8, 2017 After my conversation with Ryan in the afternoon, I emailed Mr. McKay to see if a day works for him to meet and discuss my ideas and dates for the speaking. He got back to and is thinking about not only including his classes but involving the other middle school teachers. Tomorrow (March 9) during 3rd block we will be meeting.
March 9, 2017 During 3rd block Mr. McKay came and found me during his free block. We discussed possible dates being either the week before (4/2-4/6) April vacation or the week after (4/16-4/20). Mr. McKay did say he would get back to me on 2 dates so I can give Ryan the heads up and he will make one work. Ryan and I will be creating a presentation that will be about 45-60 minutes long, may have 2 sessions because it think it would be harder to convey our message and have it be meaningful if it was one big group. We will be targeting Mr. McKay’s 6th grade health class and Ms. Rad’s 8th grade health class. I met which Ryan later in the afternoon after school to make sure he was all set and on board so far. Next steps would be to start preparing our presentation. We definitely know we want to hit on various topic. We want to hit on what our disability is and how it is for us on a daily basis in society. Such as getting into places that have stairs, dealing with misconceptions and talk about things we’ve faced within ourselves (waking up every morning). I want to be able to inspire those students we meet with by at least one way. I want each student to walk out says “I want to be a better version of myself”. This portion of my capstone experience hits on another fear that I will be overcoming which is public speaking. I do it because I have to but it’s particularly not my favorite. I shy away from standing in front of group crowds because I’m afraid of being judge or looked at as less of a person because I don’t look like everyone else.
March 22, 2017 Earlier this morning Mr. McKay emailed me with dates being April 3, 5, 17, and 19. We have narrowed down to two days that would work for Ryan being April 5 or 19. Now I am waiting for approval from Middle School vice Principal Mrs. Bertero and confirming MCH availability.
March 27, 2017 Mr. Mckay met with me today and told me all the updates he had. He spoke to Mrs. Bertero, told she is on board. Ryan Martin and myself will be speaking to the middle-schools students. On April 19th session one will at 9:35-10:35 am (BLOCK 2) and session 2 at 11:20-12:20 pm (BLOCK 3).
April 19, 2017 Ryan Martin (Professional Basketball Player) came and spoke to 6th and 8th graders about overcoming adversity, recognizing there's outlets to different situations, and talk about how sports was our outlet. Today, I felt very nervous. Although it was middle school students I have a fear of speaking publicly. I've had several conversations with Ryan in the past week coming up to today. We had decided that for the first session I would follow his lead because he has done this several times. So that when the second session came around I would speak about my story. When we spoke to the 6th graders they seemed to be more engaged then we spoke to the 8th graders. I'm very thankful for the complete support I received from teachers and special thanks to Mrs. Zamorski's Sport Journalism class for recording our stories.
May 4, 2017 SMSA 6th Graded Adrian who is wheelchair bound attended his first HSC Cruisers adaptive Track & Field practice.