Hawaii residents return from National Veterans Wheelchair Games

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Three Hawaii residents returned Wednesday from the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Detroit, Michigan.

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Last week, Sandy Valdez, Garrett Kuwada, and Kieran Woll competed in the five-day event against about 500 former service members.

“It’s really the camaraderie and like seeing people that are like-minded, and it’s family reunions,” she said.

Valdez, a 37-year-old retired Army veteran, competed in various sports including archery, pickleball, basketball, and table tennis.

She picked up six gold medals.

“It can be overwhelming, I think, because you see your progress that you’ve made throughout the years and how much you’ve grown and where you’ve excelled in,” Valdez said.

In 2009, Valdez was deployed to South Korea and worked as a medic in the emergency room. She suffered a spinal cord injury after contracting viral meningitis, an infection and swelling of the fluid and membranes around the brain and spinal cord.

Despite her injury, she attended her first games, and while nervous, she said seeing the other competitors participate with confidence put her in her place.

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“It was crazy because they were just excelling in everything and being so willing to try new things, and they weren’t sad about their circumstance, or woe-is-me kind of thing,” Valdez said.

She recalled that Paralympians and other veterans shared their stories about how they started and how they kept coming back every year for the games.

“If that possibility ever comes up, I’ll be ready to do it, and other veterans will be ready to do it, and we can serve our nation on a different scale,” said Valdez. “I think a lot of veterans miss that.”

Valdez has competed in the games for 11 years.

She trains year-round and gets together with her team about two to three times a month.

Valdez is looking forward to going camping with her family and hopes to attend next year’s games in Orlando, Florida.

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