{"id":2715,"date":"2026-07-17T09:34:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2715"},"modified":"2026-07-17T09:34:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:34:53","slug":"hawaii-residents-return-from-national-veterans-wheelchair-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2715","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii residents return from National Veterans Wheelchair Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Three Hawaii residents returned Wednesday from the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in Detroit, Michigan.<\/p>\n

Read more First Alert Forecast: Trade winds continue into the weekend and keeping an eye on hurricane swells next week<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s really the camaraderie and like seeing people that are like-minded, and it\u2019s family reunions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Valdez, a 37-year-old retired Army veteran, competed in various sports including archery, pickleball, basketball, and table tennis.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

She picked up six gold medals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be overwhelming, I think, because you see your progress that you\u2019ve made throughout the years and how much you\u2019ve grown and where you\u2019ve excelled in,\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was crazy because they were just excelling in everything and being so willing to try new things, and they weren\u2019t sad about their circumstance, or woe-is-me kind of thing,\u201d Valdez said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that possibility ever comes up, I\u2019ll be ready to do it, and other veterans will be ready to do it, and we can serve our nation on a different scale,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cI think a lot of veterans miss that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valdez has competed in the games for 11 years.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

She trains year-round and gets together with her team about two to three times a month.<\/p>\n

Valdez is looking forward to going camping with her family and hopes to attend next year\u2019s games in Orlando, Florida.\t<\/p>\n

Read more Scientists say North Shore corals are now dying due to mud from the Kona low storms<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Sandy Valdez, Garrett Kuwada, and Kieran Woll competed in the five-day event against about 500 former service members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHawaii residents return from National Veterans Wheelchair Games - Hawaii Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2715\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hawaii residents return from National Veterans Wheelchair Games - Hawaii Moving Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, Sandy Valdez, Garrett Kuwada, and Kieran Woll competed in the five-day event against about 500 former service members.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2715\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hawaii Moving Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-17T09:34:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/?p=2715#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/?p=2715\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/590d72f16cb0f571fd45812a3c7ea1d0\"},\"headline\":\"Hawaii residents return from National Veterans Wheelchair Games\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-17T09:34:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/?p=2715\"},\"wordCount\":377,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/?p=2715#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/dd24eeedc04b36b1fbc0e7e0893144a8.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/?p=2715#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/?p=2715\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\\\/?p=2715\",\"name\":\"Hawaii residents return from National Veterans Wheelchair Games - 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