Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2000)
_____1- TldE ClAckAMAs P rint t)tis, I jumped at the- chance to participate. I , All my activities would be done from the tbroom. I eating what I want may be harder than it seems. First of all, I can’t reach the bagels. I reach up and my fin- - gers barely scrape the bottom tray, where all the plump, mouth watering morsels are located. I look around and realize that no one is really noticing that I can’t reach my bagel. I stretch and reach and adjust myself, but to no avail. So, I move to the pizza counter. Can’t reach the pizza. Coffee? Nope. Soup? Too far back and too risky. Salad? Can’t reach the tomatoes. Finally, Russ (the manager) comes over to assist me. He explains that the problems in the cafeteria are a problem to most wheel chair-bound students and hopefully with enough com plaints something can be done about it. Apparently, on a busy day a person in a wheelchair can’t maneuver through the cafeteria at all - especially when people block people from moving by putting their chairs in the aisle-way. So today, I’ve come to the con clusion that Clackamas isn’t a very friendly place when it comes to hungry people in wheel chairs. 1:00 p.m. - Today is Valentines’ Day. My boyfriend, Jer emy, made me tie a huge (and 1 do mean huge) heart balloon >over I, two with a dove attached to it on the back of my chair. So now, not 'me a only do people stare at me because I’m in a wheelchair, but ry‘ ‘I now they can see me coming a mile away with this gigantic -The balloon floating behind me. I find this more embarrassing than crashing into the wall at e less It see the Barlow Ramp of Death. Sigh. his so all pts go - DAY FIVE: 1:20 p.m. - A friend of mine says that he noticed himself Kgive dicing treating me differently since I had become wheelchair bound. I my “I’m more patient, more eager to help you...it’s like your dis I and ability makes you more intriguing.” Some of my other friends said that they found themselves annoyed by having to wait [some for me to get situated when we went places together. I have become kind of fond of my wheelchair. It’s a granny lab con- chair (not a cool sporty one that 1 have become quite jealous of), but it has served me well these past five days. I’m not sure |y see what it will be like to make that transition back to walking to augh- my classes. I won’t have to sit in the back of the class any L- I’m more. I can reach my food at the cafeteria. And I won’t have to until I get home to use the bathroom. at wait However, there will be something missing when I leave the Lake here if chair behind. Maybe it’ll be the determination I learned when [econ- I encountered à hard situation or the sensitivity I gathered pnist I toward people who will spend the rest of their lives in a chair. |There; Someone mentioned to me that anyone can end up in a chair at rating. anytime during his or her life. Tomorrow, I will be able to leave the chair at home, but maybe, someday, I won’t have that ’option. I just need to keep in mind that this was not just a eria to story, but a moment of realization at how unprepared I would bizza, be if God took the use of my legs away. Those of us who can walk, take advantage of this simple activity. You never realize what you have had until it’s gone. that I I ( a PHOTOS. CONTRIBUTED BY TERYL HOFFMAN-FIGGINS Teryl Hoffmann-Figgins, pictured at the Northfork of the Clackamas River, loves skiing (water & snow), 4-wheeling, rafting and other activities although she has been restricted to a wheelchair since 1988. Never giving up in the face of challenges SHELBI WESCOTT Feature Editor son can. “And people don’t realize that anyone can end up in a wheelchair at anytime. No one is immune.” The accident Teryl Hofftnann-Figgins, a stu dent at Clackamas, loves to go raft Life at Clackamas. “Being in a wheelchair is like be ing, skiing (both snow and water), and 4-wheeling. She plays rugby, ing in a different culture. And what would you do if you wanted to learn basketball and tennis. about another culture? Ask them She is also in a wheelchair. In July of 1988, while on her hon questions,” Teryl commented. She noticed that eymoon, Teryl people will as and her new hus sume they band were in a I was devastated... shouldn’t help a four-wheeling ac disabled person cident that left her I felt was in need if they with only partial a want help, but all use of her legs. it takes is asking Despite her new them a question. challenges, Teryl Teryl Hoffman-Figgins “I waited in the pushed forward Student cafeteria at the to receive her li bagel case one cense to become time, to see how a Physical Thera long it would take pist Assistant. In1994, while transferring a patient for someone to ask if 1 needed help,” to her bed, the woman slipped and Teryl recounts. “People would gave Teryl whiplash, causing severe come in and reach over me to their bagel, others would squeeze in front spinal cord damage. The accident left Teryl paralyzed. of me. Some were annoyed that I “I woke up in the hospital,” Teryl was taking up room. recalled, “unable to move. I was It was ridiculous. “I tell people that devastated... I felt like I was trapped in a useless body. My whole iden it’s like this: would tity was wrapped up in the things I you help a woman pushing a baby did, not who I was on the inside.” Admitted into rehabilitation, Tery l stroller? A man car regained partial use of her arms and rying a load of books she learned how to maneuver in a in his arms? You bet wheelchair. She slowly started be you would. Why is a person in a wheel come more active. “My siblings weren’t going to let chair different?” Teryl has over me slow down, so I didn’t have a choice. You learn to do things dif come many chal ferently, being in a wheelchair isn’t lenges at Clackamas an excuse,” Teryl said. “Over time during her time as a I’ve learned that it wasn’t me who student. When she first started attend changed, it was my perspective.” In 1999 Teryl was honored as the ing, there weren’t Oregon Disability Sports Coach of any power doors, the Year. She coaches children in the there wasn’t an el WOW (Winners on Wheels) pro evator in Randall gram and teaches them that they can Hall and there wasn’t accomplish anything they set their wheelchair access into the cafeteria. hearts and minds to. While Clackamas “If they know that they can do something, then they will,” Teryl has made huge said. “They’ve, heard their whole strides in becoming lives ‘Oh, you can’t do that, you’re more accessible to in a wheelchair,’ and people don’t the disabled, it still understand that people in chairs can has a lot of room to do almost anything a walking per grow. like I trapped in use less body “The community center is horrible to maneuver around in and the maps to the buildings are set at airtight for people who are walking around, not someone in a chair,” Teryl said. While Clackamas meets the code for handicap access, “the code was written by someone on two feet.” Tery l hopes to see extracurricular activities geared toward the disabled and making PE courses available for people in chairs (Teryl wanted to take the skiing class, but there wasn’t any way to make it work.) A final thought “Limits are what others put on you. Challenges are what you put on yourself. And boundaries are what you use to tell the difference,” Teryl remarked. Teryl has never let her disability slow her down. “Being in a wheelchair has re minded me to appreciate the little things in life. I have begun to realize that it’s not what I do in life that matters, it is who I am on the inside that truly defines the real me.”
