Blindness Can't Stop Skydivers

Blindness Can't Stop Skydivers

Blindness Can't
Stop Skydivers
by Mike Patty
From the Editor:
NFB adult training centers make a point of helping their students push their
limits. Once you have succeeded at white-water rafting, rock climbing, carpentry,
or single-handedly feeding forty people, you find it hard to picture yourself
as incompetent and helpless. So, when several students began talking last
winter to Colorado Center staff about their wish to go skydiving, it was hard
to think of reasons for not doing it. Julie Deden, Center Director, didn't
even try. In fact, she agreed to go along. After all, it's healthy now and
then for everyone to push back the limitations we place on ourselves.
So Colorado Center
students and staff began making arrangements to go skydiving for the first
time on April 15. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. A mid-spring
snow storm put an end to the outing, and it was rescheduled for Sunday, May
21. This time no snow appeared, so off the group went.
I asked Julie
Deden afterward whether she had enjoyed the experience. The best she could
say was that she was glad she had done it. She had not been prepared for the
noise during the free-fall portion of the jump. But if Julie Deden was less
than euphoric about the experience personally, others in the group made up
for it with their enthusiasm and delight. The press, as well, found the notion
of twenty-six blind people jumping out of an airplane worthy of some attention.
Moreover, they got the story right. This was not a nine-days' wonder with
no connection to good rehabilitation--this was part of an extraordinary program
that enables blind people to regain their self-confidence and return to their
lives as fully participating, contributing members of their families and communities.
On Tuesday, May
30, MSNBC conducted a five-minute interview with Julie Deden and Buna Dahal,
a member of the staff. It provided Julie and Buna an excellent opportunity
to describe their experience and explain its value in the context of an effective
rehabilitation program.
The following
is an article that appeared in the May 22, 2000, edition of the Rocky
Mountain Times. Here it is:
Twenty-six students
and staff members of the Colorado Center for the Blind jumped Sunday from
an airplane more than two miles above Longmont's Vance Brand Airport. They
did it for the same reasons sighted people skydive: to test their character
and for the plain thrill of it.
Julie Deden, the center's
executive director, said Sunday's jump at the Mile-Hi Skydiving Center was
the first for all twenty-six. "As far as I know, it's the first time
anywhere so many blind people have skydived on one day," Deden said.
All made tandem jumps
with Mile-Hi instructors.
The idea for a skydiving
outing came from David James, a recent graduate of the Colorado Center for
the Blind. "I used to ride Harleys before I lost my sight two years ago,"
James said. "I can't do that anymore, but I miss the adrenaline rush."
James said losing his
sight in his late forties nearly destroyed him. "There was a time when
I would get up every morning and had to look hard for reasons not to put a
bullet in my brain," James said. "But the people at the center knew
what I was going through. I wouldn't have made it except for them. My first
week at the center I had to hang sheet rock, cut a Christmas tree, and make
quiche."
Soon, James said, he
regained his sense of hope. "I learned how to do all the things required
of living," James said. "I figured, if others can do it, so can
I."
Eddie Culp, a blind instructor
at the center, was the first one out of the plane Sunday. "At first there
was a tremendous rush, then it felt like I was floating in a dream,"
Culp said. "It was over too soon."
Culp said it is important
for blind people to push their limits and learn to overcome self-doubt. "Most
of life is about believing in yourself," Culp said. "My philosophy
is don't let fear put out the fire."
Laura Connors, who lost
her sight sixteen months ago, said she had long fantasized about skydiving.
"It was always in
the back of my mind if I had the guts to do it," Connors said. "When
I had the opportunity, I didn't want to let it pass."
Connors said it got very scary at the door of the airplane over the drop zone.
"But I did what you do when you are scared: just take some deep breaths
and do it," Connors said.