DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Quad City Veteran Outreach Center held the debut of its wheelchair basketball program on Thursday, March 21, featuring a team of veterans and first responders.
The "Rolling Warriors" practiced in the gym of Buchanan Elementary School, a building the outreach center bought in December after the school closed in May.
Lola VanDeWalle founded the outreach center in 2016. The first meetings had 37 veterans; now, the organization serves more than 3,200.
"We're very excited about the new program, the move here to the old Buchanan school," VanDeWalle said. "This allowed us to start the adaptive sports program, which will include basketball, softball, pickleball."
Helping the program is Bob Juarez, a veteran and former Davenport firefighter. He's the president of the QCA Adaptive Sports Organization, and brought some of his players to show off wheelchair basketball.
"We're very excited to work with the veterans here locally, and get them involved with adaptive sports and other sports that we want to also show them like wheelchair tennis, maybe wheelchair pickleball," Juarez said. "Any sport that you can think of in a wheelchair."
Adaptive sports don't just get veterans and first responders active — they can be a source of community, too.
"It means a lot as far as getting together socializing with one another and just meeting new friends," Juarez said.
VanDeWalle said the practices are open to any disabled veterans, whether they want to play competitively or just for fun.
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