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So much to share this week.
Read all about it!

Countdown to Valor Games SE

Tomorrow makes one month until VGSE 23. Are you excited? We are! This year will be our 11th annual games (May 21st marks 10 years since our first VGSE) and we are proud to be ‘building bridges’ to sport and independence for our veterans. Check out the countdown on our Instagram and Facebook stories, it will be continuously running starting at 10AM tomorrow morning. Each day we’ll post a different story with a different picture from previous VGSE Events. You can also like and share our story with others, or create your own countdown and join in on the fun! I think it’s a good time to say LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!!

PRIDE Last Practice

Friday, April 14th, was our last wheelchair basketball practice of the season. We invited friends and family to join the athletes in a friendly, yet surprisingly competitive scrimmage. After practice, we held an awards ceremony presented by coach Erica Wilson and a pizza party! Before anyone got awards or pizza, athletes had to set four goals a team goal, an individual sports goal, an academic goal, and a personal goal. The idea reminded me of Miles’ first season with Bridge II Sports. Setting goals was and is an imperative part of our mission. Giving youth the ability to set and achieve their own goals as they grow throughout our program, not only allows us to measure its effectiveness, but it allows them to recognize that when you set a goal and put a plan in place, you can achieve what you didn’t imagine possible. Our athletes wrote some awesome goals, “keep my 4.45 GPA or higher,” “get my clinical law degree,” “work on team communication,” and “be the best man I can be” just to name a few. About two weeks ago, while I was looking for the registration in the old truck, I found a gem that I couldn’t help but share. Miles’ goals from 2012, I’m proud to share and I’m even more proud to say that he achieved every one!

Air Rifle Scorers

As you know, Valor Games SE is our biggest event of the year. We need your help! Bridge II Sports is looking for someone experienced with air rifle scoring or willing to learn. We have an Orion system, the gist is putting paper targets through a reader and then recording scores. We will walk you through it. It would be a large help to get someone who could visit the office to familiarize themselves with the system before the big day (May, 23rd). If you’re interested please contact us at events@bridge2sports.org. This is not a position you can sign up for on our volunteer sign up form.

We need you to help us make Boccia sustainable. Want to learn the game of Boccia? Want to make a difference in the adaptive sports community? Want to make adaptive sports more sustainable? You can do all of those on May 22nd, at UNC Chapel Hill’s Rams Head Recreation Center. Join us as we put on a Boccia Referee Training to prepare for VGSE 23 competition day 1 (the next day) and our Boccia tournament we will host in October. By completing the training you’ll not only learn the rules to Boccia, but also the pathway to becoming a certified Boccia referee. As a host organization, it is their responsibility to secure qualified referees. In the world of adaptive sports, this entails paying for travel and lodging as well as the fee to referee. By hosting a referee training, we can identify people interested locally who can serve as certified refs and keeping the costs of hosting events sustainable. The training will be put on by certified Boccia referee Roberta Flanders and Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist Fiona Allen. Meet us there, better yet, beat us there!

Volunteer with VALOR

Valor Games Southeast will be here soon! Volunteers may be the most integral part of the operation. We need your help. Volunteers may help load up trucks, set up sports, register athletes, assist in transportation and various other tasks. To volunteer with VGSE 23, you can click here to sign up for your volunteer position. Keeping up with tradition we are hosting volunteer training, you can click here sign-up for your volunteer training. ALL volunteers must complete both sign-ups and attend the training to ‘volunteer with VALOR.’ So come join us for Valor Games Southeast 2023, see just how powerful sport can be and, help us reNEW, reUNITE, and reCREATE!

Scouts earn Disability Awareness

Wednesday, Bridge II Sports held a disability awareness event for Scout Troop 835 in Chapel Hill. About 40 scouts joined us, to talk about disability awareness, etiquette, and inclusion, in order to receive their Disability Awareness Merit Badge. Scouts were required to discuss the terms disability/invisible disability, accessibility/accommodation/adaption, and inclusion/person first language. Many of the scouts were well versed on the topic. They were also required to identify why disability etiquette is important and 5 professions that serve people with disabilities. After our discussion, the scouts had the opportunity to get in our sports chairs and try some relays. I’d say more than a few struggled at first , but they all enjoyed it and were appreciative of the experience. We want to give a special thanks to Troop 835 for having us, and we’re glad we could help them earn their badge!

Coming up @BIIS

Athletes MUST pre-register for ALL PROGRAMS
No 'walk-ups' will be permitted.
Click the time link to register.

FRIDAY APRIL 21
Archery
@ Bridge II Sports Range
10:00am - 12:00pm
This program is held in collaboration with the Durham VA
but is open to both veteran and non-veteran athletes with disabilities

SATURDAY APRIL 22
Tandem Rider Cycling

@ Oliver’s Collar American Tobacco Trail

9:00am - 12:00pm

Single Rider Cycling
@ Oliver’s Collar American Tobacco Trail
9:00am - 12:00pm

SATURDAY APRIL 22
Flamethrowers BOCCIA

@ Bond Park Senior Center

6:00pm - 7:30pm

FRIDAY APRIL 28
Archery
@ Bridge II Sports Range
10:00am - 12:00pm
This program is held in collaboration with the Durham VA
but is open to both veteran and non-veteran athletes with disabilities

Check out the full program calendar here

HEY THERE!

Nice to see you down here - welcome to the ‘Bottom of the Newsletter’ Club!

I tested my theory, and my hypothesis was wrong! I’ve received dozens of emails with stropsIIegdirb and would like to say I was impressed with your ability to spell it backwards . This week as promised a harder challenge and a slightly better reward. This weeks challenge is to earn your disability awareness badge! Now in favor of time, I’ll make it easier that the scouts requirement. Give me 5 professions that serve people with disabilities, the catch, no medical professions (OT, PT, RT, etc.). We found it important to make sure the scouts didn’t just think of medical professions so I extend the challenge to you.

email it to martinh@bridge2sports.org

…and I’ll send out a BIIS Sticker and Magnet to 3 randomly drawn participants and the person with the most unique answer!

Thanks for being here!