Nancy Bartley of Hixson stands with her husband, Byron, and her Great Dane service dog, Riley, after enjoying a couple of water-ski runs Saturday at Possum Creek. / Staff photo by Ron Bush
The Sports, Arts and Recreation of Chattanooga organization is ending its longstanding and popular Third Saturday in July tradition, but only the date. The annual watersports day for the disabled at the First Lutheran Church Camp at Possum Creek isn't going anywhere except on the calendar.
The 28th edition will be on Aug. 10, 2019.
What may be the last time in July was, as usual, a great time for the 210 or so who attended as participants and volunteers. And it was a memorable first time for Nancy Bartley of Hixson, Hixson High graduate Cecil Williams, Army veteran Johnnie Jayroe and others.
"I had more than a good time. I had a great time," said Williams, 34, who was injured in a car accident in May 2003 and has cerebellar ataxia, which causes coordination issues that eventually cost him his old job. He still drives and takes care of himself, and he works part time, but he was approved for disability benefits in 2010.
Recently he's made a commitment to be more active. He got involved in SPARC's adaptive cycling program a few months ago, and through that he learned about the watersports day.
"I skied, I tubed, I rode a pontoon boat," he said just after lunch. "And I'm going to ski again and do some kayaking.
"This year I wanted to do more things, more activities," he said, adding with a smile, "I call it 'The Adventures of Cecil.'"
Through the help of the Siskin rehabilitative professionals and her husband, Byron, and her own positive perspective, Bartley continues to fight back from three strokes over nearly a two-decade period beginning in 1992. She was at SPARC day with Byron and her Great Dane service dog, Riley, and was thrilled to do one run in a sit ski with outriggers and then another without them.
She also kayaked in the morning.
"This is so fun," she said.
Already with SPARC, which she learned about through Siskin, she has done wheelchair basketball and "tried climbing."
The Bartleys moved to the Chattanooga area from "land-locked" New Mexico four years ago, after Byron retired. One of their daughters attended UTC, and their visits to see her became the bar by which other retirement destinations futilely were measured. That daughter remained in town after graduation, and Nancy's sister and another daughter have moved here, too.
"It's wonderful with all the outdoors activities," Nancy said, "and then we found out about SPARC and all the adaptive stuff."
Jayroe also moved to this area four years ago. Injured by an improvised explosive device in Iraq in 2008, he lost both his legs to amputations in late 2016 and early 2017 but was challenging other wheelchair patients to races before he left the hospital, he said.
"From day one I was joking around," he recalled. "I decided it was not going to get me down."
Growing up in Texas, he was active in "anything country," he said - including horseback riding, camping, fishing, hiking and four-wheeling - but never had the chance to try water skiing until Saturday.
He learned about SPARC through a Hixson bike shop, where he asked about a hand cycle, but his first two planned adaptive cycling days with the group were rained out. He did join other SPARC volunteers in helping at the Ironman race, and Saturday he was all in.
Like Nancy Bartley he skied with outriggers and then without them, and he was looking forward to making another stride in the afternoon.
"From what they're telling me, I'm taking to water skiing like a fish," Jayroe said.
Other disabled military veterans present Saturday included a couple of colonels, Army doctor Frank Moses - who suffered severe injuries in a bicycle accident in his daily commute to Walter Reed Hospital - and Shawn "Norm" Pederson, a former Air Force Thunderbirds lead pilot who almost died from a ruptured aneurysm in his brain. Pederson took a boat ride but was unable to ski, one day after a blood-flow adjustment to his shunt, but he did go on a snow-ski trip with SPARC last winter.
Army veteran Beth Anne Lynch also was present but did not ski due to a back condition, while Navy veteran Dean Tisdale and Army reservist Johnathan Grimes, a first-timer in 2014, were back in SPARC action.
While the first-timers were having a blissful introduction in what turned out to be fine weather, a long-timer such as Brian Penny could look around and happily assess, "There's always something or someone new every year, and that's a good thing. And every year we do this, we learn something new."
SPARC is a chapter of Disabled Sports USA, which provides some funding for the watersports day headed by Jerry and Debbie Hightower. Other sponsors include the Veterans Administration, Osborne Foundation, Belk Stores, Pepsi, Al Kaye and the Patricia Neal Innovative Recreation Cooperative, Joe and Kelli Thompson, Cleveland Boat Center, Steve Hamby and P&S Ready Mix, Steve Potts and Ci-Ci's Pizza, Aldi, Susie Baker and First Lutheran Church.
As usual, Hamilton County Emergency Medical Services, Hamilton County S.T.A.R.S. and Sale Creek Volunteer Fire Department personnel were on hand.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.