By Julie Creek

November 11th, 2007

Pulished in the Journalgazette

In 1988, Bob Burnsworth slipped on a patch of ice and fell off the roof he was repairing. The accident changed his life irrevocably, leaving him partly paralyzed and often dependent on a wheelchair.

“I was trying to get used to the disabled world,” he recalled, “and I got involved with wheelchair basketball at Turnstone (Center for Disabled Children and Adults), playing with the Fort Wayne Bandits.”

His experience with the Bandits, Turnstone’s adult wheelchair basketball team, inspired Burnsworth to switch gears. He began volunteering at Turnstone, “hanging out with the kids” while earning a degree in recreational therapy. Noticing that there were no wheelchair sports programs for children and teens, he organized a wheelchair soccer team as part of his college internship

 

Read on...