DELPHOS — After four years of Up to the Challenge Softball, the local organization will test the waters of expansion this year with a swimming event Wednesday at the Delphos Municipal Swimming Pool.
Amy Hale and Sherry Fetzer both have children with special needs and began the annual softball tournament with the hope of expanding to other types of events. Fetzer said there are many children and adults for whom water-based activities are more suitable than softball.
“Some individuals are more comfortable in the water than on the softball field because of their disability. The ability to float makes it easier for some. We have one person coming who is paraplegic and in a wheelchair. There’s a wheelchair ramp at the pool, so we’ll wheel her into the water and she’ll have three buddies with her who will lift her out of the wheelchair and stay with her. She loves it; she loves the feeling of weightlessness,” she said.
Fetzer indicates Special Olympics places more emphasis on physical abilities. She says its competitors must be able to carry out tasks without assistance and this excludes many who would benefit from the accomplishment involved. This creates a need the local mothers are glad to meet.
“What Amy and I have put together is designed around the participants. Most of it is swimming but not all of it. We have some who like the water but don’t like to get their faces wet, for example. So we’ll have a “pick up” and they’ll pick up pennies and nickels. We’re trying to accommodate everyone’s ability, not their disability. We’re focused on the positive, not the negative,” she said.
Each of the pool’s seven lifeguards will watch over the event, as will many adult volunteers. There will be various events inside the pool, at the shallow end and the deep end. Some participants can swim for longer time periods than others. Therefore, relays of different lengths will be included.
“We are categorizing swimmers based on their comfortability in the water. We will have events at the deep end and at the shallow end. Not everyone in the deep end will need a buddy but will have access to one and everyone in the shallow end will have an adult buddy. There will be so many adults watching over everybody, the ratio is 1-to-1,” she said.
WDOH radio personality Jeff Witler will offer commentary over the public address system and Fetzer says community support has been “awesome.” The Dienstberger Foundation has assisted with funding and City Council approved the pool’s closure for the event. If not for the assistance of these entities and others, many who live with special challenges each day may not have a similar opportunity.
“We have a couple of blind folks coming; we have several who are autistic. We have a child with cerebral palsy and one with multiple sclerosis. The bottom line is everyone wants to fit in and this helps people who are sometimes overlooked by society to fit in and feel good about themselves,” she said.
The pair of mothers expect to learn from this inaugural aquatic event and are open to constructive criticism. After a few annual “laps,” Fetzer hopes to begin a bowling event or hit the track. Aside from expansion, she says Delphos has something unique because of the community support.
“To our knowledge, we know of no other program just like this one. It’s unique,” she added.