_____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.”