Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spokane will host wheelchair games


Athlete Roy Bemis is greeted during Thursday's announcement at the VA Medical Center.
 (Brian Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

The Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center has been chosen to host in 2009 what organizers say is the world’s largest annual wheelchair sports competition.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games is expected to attract nearly 600 wheelchair athletes and their friends and families to Spokane that summer, with an estimated economic impact that could reach $3 million.

The emotional impact will be equally valuable, said Spokane veterans who participated in last year’s games in Anchorage, Alaska.

“It’s getting to be a cliche that it’s a life-altering experience, but obviously I’ve had a few and it’s right up there,” said Roy “Bud” Bemis, 58, a wheelchair user who earned gold and silver medals in last year’s event.

“You can’t go to the games without coming home with more inspiration than you can carry on your back,” Bemis added at a ceremony Thursday.

Bemis, a Vietnam veteran, will be Spokane’s representative to the 27th edition of the games, scheduled for June 19 to 23 in Milwaukee.

Started in 1981, the event aims to provide competition and rehabilitation for veterans who use wheelchairs because of spinal cord injuries, amputations or other problems, said Diane Hartmann, the program’s national director.

“It focuses on the ability of these individuals more than their disabilities,” said Hartmann. “It fulfills their dreams. It allows them to have a full circle of recovery.”

Participants range in age from 18 to 80 and compete in more than a dozen events, from bowling and table tennis to swimming, handcycling and wheelchair slalom.

“The purpose of the games is to let people know that whatever their injury, there’s things they can do besides sit around and watch TV,” said Russell Braun, 68, an Air Force Vietnam veteran who has used a wheelchair since a 1992 car accident.

He took home a gold medal in bowling and a silver medal in the wheelchair slalom in his class at the Anchorage event last year.

Braun and Bemis were joined by dozens of fellow veterans and administrators of the region’s veterans hospital who gathered Thursday to eat ice cream and celebrate Spokane’s selection as the site for the 29th annual competition.

The hospital’s 700 employees voted unanimously to host the games, said Sharon Helman, interim director of the Spokane VA hospital.

“The best year they will ever see the games will be in 2009,” she promised.

Competition to host the games can be brisk, Hartmann said. Successful bidders are committing themselves to providing the services of 400 to 500 employees and between 800 and 1,100 volunteers, she said.

In Anchorage, where there’s no veterans hospital, 2,000 community organizers came together to host last year’s games over the Fourth of July, said Nance Larsen, vice president of communications and marketing at the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“We had 600 athletes in the Fourth of July parade,” she said. “It was wild to be on that course and see 600 wheelchair veterans.”

Larsen estimated that athletes and visitors brought nearly $1 million to the city’s economy during the event.

In Milwaukee, that figure could be nearly tripled next month, said Dave Fantle, a spokesman for Visit Milwaukee, the city’s visitors group.

“The opportunities for businesses for this are great,” said Fantle, noting that about 4,500 local hotel room nights are expected to be booked during the games.

For veterans like Bemis, though, the best part will be competing in his own community.

“I used to be handicapped until I went to those games,” he said.