CCM: Para Athletes Featured at Dept. of Defense (DoD) Warrior Games Celebration this Saturday

Published on April 01, 2018

Event to be held at County College of Morris in Randolph on Saturday, April 14

Picatinny Arsenal will host an adaptive sports celebration with demonstrations by para athletes including military veterans and first responders at the County College of Morris Health and Physical Education building this Saturday, April 14, from 12 to 2:30 p.m.

(JPG, 3MB) The Army's sitting volleyball team at the 2017 DoD Warrior Games in Chicago.

The DoD Warrior Game Celebration, which is open to the public, will showcase wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, racing wheelchair and archery. Residents will have an opportunity to try the para athletic equipment and participate in game demonstrations.

The dual purpose of Saturday's event is to increase awareness and to experience the excitement of adaptive sports, and also to promote the 2018 DoD Warrior Games that will be held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs on June 2 to 9.

Adaptive sports are played by people with disabilities who use modified equipment to meet their needs. Adaptive sports enable veterans and civilians to recover physically and emotionally from debilitating injuries.

(JPG, 164KB) Brandon Holiday with service dog Dyson

Speaking at Saturday's Celebration will be Brandon Holiday, a seven time Team USA member and seven time National paracanoe kayak sprint champion. He will discuss the importance of using sports as a catalyst to heal.

Holiday, a decorated police officer who was born in Livingston and now resides in Philadephia, lost his left leg below the knee in 2006 from a blood-clotting condition called antiphospholipid syndrome.

We want to allow the public the opportunity to meet these incredible athletes, learn about career choices such as engineering, physical therapy and occupational therapy, and see the equipment used in the sports, said Richard W. Eastman, Jr., civilian aide to the secretary of the Army NJ, and Morris County Chamber of Commerce's military liaison.

Not all the athletes are veterans. Some of the para athletes are first responders and non-military, and we want to put a focus on adaptive sports with an educational emphasis, added event-organizer Eastman

(JPG, 707KB)One aspect of the celebratory day is to encourage students to find careers that assist the para community. The CCM Engineering Department recently announced that it is 50 percent complete in building its first prosthetic leg for donation. The department plans on building these prosthetics for children.

CCM School of Health Professionals and Natural Sciences also will have information on specific associate degrees that align with the event's mission. In addition, CCM has a Veteran Services and encourages those who served and eligible dependents to make full use of their V.A. educational benefits.

Parking for DoD Warrior Games Celebration will be in lot 7 and 8. CCM is located at 214 Center Grove Road, Randolph, NJ.