Paralyzed Veterans Needs Your Vote to Win $250,000 Grant From Pepsi Refresh Project

/PRNewswire/ -- Beginning September 1, Paralyzed Veterans of America will begin competing for a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project. Grant funds will be used to support Paralyzed Veterans of America's adaptive sports and recreation programs. Each month, Pepsi selects groups working to "refresh the world" to compete for grants to fund their programs, and then invites the public to vote online for the winners.

Paralyzed Veterans of America will use the grant funds to sponsor 50 newly injured or wounded veterans to participate in adaptive sports and recreation programs, including the National Veterans Wheelchair Games--the largest annual wheelchair sports event in the world; support 33 adaptive sports tournaments around the country, in such activities as bass fishing, trapshooting, bowling and billiards; and support five adaptive sports instructional clinics to train paralyzed veterans in adaptive sports.

"Sports and recreation are an integral part of rehabilitation for our injured and disabled veterans," said Andy Krieger, director of sports and recreation at Paralyzed Veterans of America. "Competition, camaraderie and achieving new goals from a wheelchair have immeasurable long-term health and fitness benefits."

Voters may vote once a day through September 30. To cast your vote for Paralyzed Veterans of America, go to http://www.refresheverything.com/paralyzedveterans. Voters may also cast their vote via mobile text message* by texting 102657 to 73774. (*Please note that standard text messaging rates may apply.)

Sixty-four years ago Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation--but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the "Greatest Generation" made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created an organization dedicated to veterans service, medical research and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans of America and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org).

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Paralyzed Veterans of America Awareness Week

/PRNewswire/ -- The week of April 11-17, 2010, marks the founding of Paralyzed Veterans of America 64 years ago. All Americans are being encouraged to take time out of their busy schedules to honor and help empower America's paralyzed veterans.

With events and activities across the country and the theme Empowering Lives, Paralyzed Veterans of America Awareness Week highlights the unique challenges facing veterans with spinal cord injury/dysfunction. It spotlights the work of Paralyzed Veterans to empower seriously wounded heroes and their families with everything they need to thrive.

This special week will also see the launch of Mission: ABLE, a new campaign that will enlist all Americans -- companies, citizens and communities -- to help our paralyzed heroes fully live the lives they deserve and to receive what they need most: care, benefits and jobs. Please visit www.mission-able.com for more details.

"Please take a minute during Awareness Week to think about the enormous challenges paralyzed veterans and their families face every day and then do something good to help empower their lives," said Gene A. Crayton, national president of Paralyzed Veterans. "From a community saying thanks to a paralyzed veteran who has just returned home from Iraq to an employer deciding to hire more veterans with disabilities, you can do something special to celebrate the 64th birthday of Paralyzed Veterans of America."

Paralyzed Veterans and its 34 chapters:

-- Fight for quality VA health care and ample military benefits.
-- Promote and provide wheelchair sports and recreational activities.
-- Lead the charge to make America more accessible.
-- Empower paralyzed veterans with the tools they need to secure good
careers, at a time when the unemployment rate for veterans with severe
disabilities is 85 percent.
-- Invest in research to find new treatments and a cure for paralysis.
-- Provide our services to all veterans and their families free of
charge. We simply couldn't do it without your generous support.


Sixty-four years ago, Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the "Greatest Generation" made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created Paralyzed Veterans, dedicated to veterans service, medical research and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org)

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Paralyzed Veterans Get 'Ready to Roll' at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games

/PRNewswire / -- More than 600 veterans with disabilities have signed-up to compete in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, taking place July 13-18, 2009, in Spokane, WA. Now in its 29th year, the event has grown to become the largest annual wheelchair sports event in the world. This year's competitors come from 42 states, Puerto Rico and Great Britain.

"The National Veterans Wheelchair Games are sports and rehabilitation at their best for our brave heroes," said Randy L. Pleva, Sr., national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America. "From quad rugby to handcycling, power soccer to wheelchair slalom, the Games are an exciting combination of competition, camaraderie and courage."

The Wheelchair Games, co-presented each year by Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), are open to all U.S. military veterans who use wheelchairs for sports competition due to spinal cord injuries, certain neurological conditions, amputations, traumatic brain injuries or other mobility impairments and who receive care at VA medical facilities or military treatment centers. The Northwest Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans and the Spokane VA Medical Center are hosting the 2009 Games.

Sports are an important aspect of the therapy programs used to treat many disabilities. For many injured veterans, the National Veterans Wheelchair Games provide their first exposure to wheelchair athletics. At the Games, veterans will compete in 17 different sports: air guns, archery, basketball, bowling, field, handcycling, nine ball, a motorized wheelchair relay, power soccer, quad rugby, softball, swimming, table tennis, track, trapshooting, weightlifting and wheelchair slalom. For the third year, stand-up events will be held in archery and table tennis for athletes who have amputations and choose to compete using prosthetic devices instead of their wheelchairs. A golf clinic will also be held as an exhibition sport this year.

The 29th National Veterans Wheelchair Games begin July 13 with a wheelchair basketball demonstration outside the Spokane Convention Center, as well as the 2009 Disabled Sports, Recreation and Fitness Expo. Kids Day at the Games takes place July 17 at Spokane Falls Community College, where local children with disabilities will meet the athletes and learn about wheelchair sports. Track and field events, softball and archery will also take place at the college.

This year's opening ceremonies will be held at Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, while closing ceremonies are at the Spokane Convention Center, where many of the week's competitive events will take place. A special block party for the athletes and their guests will be held on July 15 at C.I. Shenanigans on the Spokane river front.

Other events will be held at Lilac Lanes, North Bowl, Esmeralda Golf Course, Whitworth University, the Spokane Gun Club and other area venues. Admission is free to the public, and the community is encouraged to attend.

The National Veterans Wheelchair Games is made possible in part through the generous support of the following lead sponsors: National Host: Invacare Corporation; Local Host: Veterans Canteen Service; Sustaining Host: UPS Foundation; National: The Budin Family, The DeGasperis Family Foundation, Health Net Federal Services, Inc., HP, Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems, Inc., Spokane Transit Authority, Sprint, The ROHO Group, TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Xerox Foundation.

The theme for this year's event is "Rollin' on the River," and the veterans attending the Games in Spokane are ready to do just that. For more information about the National Veterans Wheelchair Games, or to follow event results as they happen, visit the Games Web site at: http://www.wheelchairgames.va.gov/.

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