Tara's Story
Tara Chisholm wants to get you active.
As the director and co-founder of Medicine Hat Adaptive Sport and Recreation, her goal is to get people of all types of physical ability moving and exercising in her hometown. It’s why she started the organization.
“I was living in Edmonton for a while, studying physical education at the University of Alberta and volunteering at a similar organization,” she says. “When I came back home to do research for my Master’s Degree, I met a whole bunch of awesome people living with disability, and they said they wanted to try sport but they had never been able to.”
At the time, there were a lot of barriers keeping people in Medicine Hat from getting active. “Some [people] didn’t know anyone who knew enough about the adaptive equipment or the sports to teach them safely,” Tara says. “Others mentioned that the adaptive equipment was too expensive for them to buy on their own.”
Adaptive equipment costs a lot more than your average pair of cleats. “A sport wheelchair is about $2,500,” she says, “a sled is about, when you include sticks and everything, just over $1,000. A handcycle can be anywhere from $1,500-$4,500. To get active is not as easy as just going to Canadian Tire, Sports Chek, and picking up a pair of skates. You can’t just go to the basketball hoops and pick up a wheelchair.”
So Tara and her fiancé, Paralympian sledge hockey player Derek Whitson, started working to find solutions. They contacted similar sports groups in other communities, wrote grant applications, and connected with other organizations in Medicine Hat serving people with disabilities. One partner eager to help was REDI.
“REDI understands and wants inclusion,” Tara says. “They want people with disabilities to be active, vibrant members of the community, and so it just seemed like a natural place to go to for support, knowing that we’re working towards the same thing.”
One of the ways REDI supports Medicine Hat Adaptive Sport and Recreation is through their What Are You Waiting For? Program at the REDI Bottle Depot. The program was designed to raise money for organizations like MHASR, while giving the depot’s customers an easy way to skip the line.
Josh Hudson, the manager of REDIventures, loves how the program benefits everyone. “Each month of the year we have a selected charity that receives all of the proceeds from the program for that month,” he explains. “People who don’t wish to wait, would rather save some time, or who want to benefit the charity of the month can drop off their refundable beverage containers, their bottles and cans, and we count those at the end of the month.” The program can collect some good-sized donations. “On a typical month, it generates about $1,500 for the recipient,”
Josh says. “It fluctuates of course, depending on everything, but we’ve had months that have been as high as $5,356.”
Tara is grateful for the support REDI provides. She sees firsthand how it allows people to access sport. “It’s really not affordable for a lot of adults living with disabilities,” she says, “even besides the equipment. The registration fees and paying for ice time or court time, jerseys - all of the different stuff that goes into sport - costs money. People appreciate the subsidies that we’ve been able to provide because of REDI’s support and don’t take it for granted.”
One person taking advantage of all of Tara’s hard work and organization is local sledge hockey player Mike Krakalovich. “I’ve been a huge hockey fan as long as I can remember,” he says. “Having been born with spina-bifida, I obviously couldn’t play stand-up hockey. To actually get the chance to play some form of the sport, and to be on a team like that is awesome. Words can’t even express how much it means to me.”
“Anyone’s welcome to come and participate,” Tara says. “We’ve had participants as young as 3, participants up into their late 80’s, people that live with disabilities and have people that don’t. Whether they have family or friends that live with disabilities or they’re a person from the community trying something different - it really doesn’t matter.”
REDI continues to develop their What Are You Waiting For? Program to make it easier for you to donate your beverage containers. Residential pick-up is now available with the option to give your recycling deposits to the Charity of the Month. So next time you see that pile of bottles and cans in the garage, think of them as an opportunity to give back to your community.
If you’re interested in giving adaptive sport a try, contact Tara here and she’ll let you know what MHASR is up to.