April Fools Fun - Blogged by JME

A couple friends and a few of my family members got together on April Fool's and went to see the second annual Celebrity Wheelchair Benefit Basketball Game with the Wheelin' Jazz team. N8 and I did this last year and had such a great time. The Wheelin' Jazz play in the Championship Division of the NWBA (National Wheelchair Basketball Association). For the April Fool's event, the team plays against local celebrities. Everyone is in a wheelchair during the game. It is fun to see guys that play college ball get into a wheelchair and play. It is quite an adjustment for them. It is amazing to see how talented the Wheelin' Jazz team is. The game gets pretty intense. It's just for fun so sometimes you see someone tip someone else over, take someone's wheel off their chair, or the Jazz Bear might just get out of his wheelchair, climb up on the basketball hoop and help his team by catching the ball and dunking it into the hoop.



The game started off with the National Anthem, sung by Gabe Adams. Gabriel was born in 1998 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was born without limbs. In 2006 he was adopted by the Adams family. Gabe has faced many challenges in his short life. At age two he had surgery for a cleft palate and went through extensive speech therapy to learn how to speak clearly. He has hearing problems and struggles with short term memory loss. Gabe has learned to walk, hop, climb stairs, dance, write, draw, sing, and swim all without the use of specialized equipment.


My mom was able to be involved after the first quarter. She competed in racing down the court in a wheelchair dribbling a basketball. Then they had to race to see who could get the basketball in the hoop the fastest. She didn't do too bad! There were just a few airballs but the guys that play college ball weren't any better.




This was a special game for my family and I. My cousin plays on the Wheelin' Jazz team. He is number 5!!! He became a paraplegic at age 15 from a car accident. He was introduced to wheelchair basketball shortly after his injury and has played ever since. He is very talented and it was so fun watching him. It was also fun to see my cousins at the game that I hadn't seen in so long. N8's best friend and his wife were also there and we had a really good time.