Dakoda's Wheelchair Athletics
Donation protected
Dakoda's own words:
It still feels like it was yesterday from when my car accident happened, yet it was an event that drastically changed my life. After multiple years of severe pain and struggle with attempting to save my left foot it finally hit me that I had had enough. Surgery after surgery yielded no results, the bones in my foot were dying and there was nothing doctors could do to stop it. After long and hard thought I made the decision to have my leg amputated, a decision to this day I still feel has been one of the hardest, most frightening, and best decisions I have made and ever will make in my life. Along the way to this point there have been many additional struggles, as would be expected. The most significant of which and still one that is ongoing has been my decision to attend post secondary school. Early on after my accident I knew I would need to learn new skills as I would never be able to go back to the forms of employment I once had. I enrolled in schooling at Camosun College one year after my accident and graduated 2 years later. I then went on to enroll at Simon Fraser University where I am still attending classes and nearing the end of my bachelor degree with the ultimate hope of becoming a Crime Analyst for a major police detachment. Through most of my time at school I have asked for very little help financially from anyone but when I have needed assistance, there has always been someone there to help me and the money I had been making while on disability had helped to pay for most of my schooling. It has only been within the last few years though that I had been cut off from my disability with ICBC, a battle I am still fighting them on. I have since needed to resort to student loans to pay for school and to provide income for living expenses, yet there isn’t much room after for spending on personal affairs.
While school has been a significant part of my life for the better part of a half decade I have once again been able to partake in one of my most cherished of events, sports. Throughout high school and even after graduation I have always been engaged in some form of sport. I have been involved in various team and individual sports including: rugby, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, and golf. My accident though, changed that aspect of my life and I thought that it was lost to me. It was only after I had lost my leg and was attending rehabilitation at GF Strong in Vancouver, where I was approached by a former multiple gold medalist in Paralympic basketball, Richard Peter about the prospect of wheelchair sports. He informed me of recreational fun games at GF Strong and if interested I should come out and see if I like them. My very first session of this I had a tremendous amount of fun and was hooked. It wasn’t long after that I became involved in more serious wheelchair sporting events. I participated in wheelchair basketball, played in various tennis tournaments within a wheelchair, and became involved in wheelchair athletics. It was within wheelchair athletics that I found a calling. Participating in both wheelchair racing and seated throws (shot put, javelin, discus). Not even 6 months into the sport I was chosen by BC Wheelchair Sports to represent British Columbia at the Western Canada Summer Games in Wood Buffalo. I competed in three race, the 200m, 400m, and 1500m sprint. Within those races, I place 3rd and taking home two bronze medals in the 400 and 1500m sprint and 4th in the 200m sprint losing the bronze by 0.1 seconds. My times within the races was good enough to get an invite to a talent ID camp where I could train with Canada’s National wheelchair racing coach. Nearing the end of my first full year as an athletics athlete I qualified for the Olympic Rio selection trials and National Competition in Edmonton BC. While I knew, I didn’t stand much of a chance with the racers of my disability class it provided me with valuable experience and goals as to what I need to do become one of the athletes that were selected to represent Team Canada at the Paralympic Games in Rio. These competitions however, were a way for me to test out my skill within the throws competitions. While I choose not to compete in shot put, I did compete in the javelin and discus competition. I placed 2nd taking home a silver medal in javelin and first place and taking home the gold medal in the discus competition. With the discus competition, I was fortunate enough to share the podium with two of my fellow teammates. My personal best for the discus throws competition is 24 meters and the Canadian record is 27 meters. A distance that both myself and my coach feel I can beat this year at competition. All of this brings me to why this go fund me page has been set up. The Canada Summer Games are only a couple months away and this is the competition where I feel that I will be breaking that record and then possibly finding a spot on the National Team to compete for Team Canada. To do that though I have been selected to attend a specialized training camp for wheelchair athletics in Orlando Florida From March 23rd to April 3rd. In house funding by BC Wheelchair Sports has been able to provide grants and funding for most of the cost of flights and rooms but more money is needed and it is too great a sum for those that have helped me in the past to provide. Any donation is greatly accepted and appreciated to help make my current goals a reality and whether you can help fund me or not is still given with many thanks to your considerations.
It still feels like it was yesterday from when my car accident happened, yet it was an event that drastically changed my life. After multiple years of severe pain and struggle with attempting to save my left foot it finally hit me that I had had enough. Surgery after surgery yielded no results, the bones in my foot were dying and there was nothing doctors could do to stop it. After long and hard thought I made the decision to have my leg amputated, a decision to this day I still feel has been one of the hardest, most frightening, and best decisions I have made and ever will make in my life. Along the way to this point there have been many additional struggles, as would be expected. The most significant of which and still one that is ongoing has been my decision to attend post secondary school. Early on after my accident I knew I would need to learn new skills as I would never be able to go back to the forms of employment I once had. I enrolled in schooling at Camosun College one year after my accident and graduated 2 years later. I then went on to enroll at Simon Fraser University where I am still attending classes and nearing the end of my bachelor degree with the ultimate hope of becoming a Crime Analyst for a major police detachment. Through most of my time at school I have asked for very little help financially from anyone but when I have needed assistance, there has always been someone there to help me and the money I had been making while on disability had helped to pay for most of my schooling. It has only been within the last few years though that I had been cut off from my disability with ICBC, a battle I am still fighting them on. I have since needed to resort to student loans to pay for school and to provide income for living expenses, yet there isn’t much room after for spending on personal affairs.
While school has been a significant part of my life for the better part of a half decade I have once again been able to partake in one of my most cherished of events, sports. Throughout high school and even after graduation I have always been engaged in some form of sport. I have been involved in various team and individual sports including: rugby, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, and golf. My accident though, changed that aspect of my life and I thought that it was lost to me. It was only after I had lost my leg and was attending rehabilitation at GF Strong in Vancouver, where I was approached by a former multiple gold medalist in Paralympic basketball, Richard Peter about the prospect of wheelchair sports. He informed me of recreational fun games at GF Strong and if interested I should come out and see if I like them. My very first session of this I had a tremendous amount of fun and was hooked. It wasn’t long after that I became involved in more serious wheelchair sporting events. I participated in wheelchair basketball, played in various tennis tournaments within a wheelchair, and became involved in wheelchair athletics. It was within wheelchair athletics that I found a calling. Participating in both wheelchair racing and seated throws (shot put, javelin, discus). Not even 6 months into the sport I was chosen by BC Wheelchair Sports to represent British Columbia at the Western Canada Summer Games in Wood Buffalo. I competed in three race, the 200m, 400m, and 1500m sprint. Within those races, I place 3rd and taking home two bronze medals in the 400 and 1500m sprint and 4th in the 200m sprint losing the bronze by 0.1 seconds. My times within the races was good enough to get an invite to a talent ID camp where I could train with Canada’s National wheelchair racing coach. Nearing the end of my first full year as an athletics athlete I qualified for the Olympic Rio selection trials and National Competition in Edmonton BC. While I knew, I didn’t stand much of a chance with the racers of my disability class it provided me with valuable experience and goals as to what I need to do become one of the athletes that were selected to represent Team Canada at the Paralympic Games in Rio. These competitions however, were a way for me to test out my skill within the throws competitions. While I choose not to compete in shot put, I did compete in the javelin and discus competition. I placed 2nd taking home a silver medal in javelin and first place and taking home the gold medal in the discus competition. With the discus competition, I was fortunate enough to share the podium with two of my fellow teammates. My personal best for the discus throws competition is 24 meters and the Canadian record is 27 meters. A distance that both myself and my coach feel I can beat this year at competition. All of this brings me to why this go fund me page has been set up. The Canada Summer Games are only a couple months away and this is the competition where I feel that I will be breaking that record and then possibly finding a spot on the National Team to compete for Team Canada. To do that though I have been selected to attend a specialized training camp for wheelchair athletics in Orlando Florida From March 23rd to April 3rd. In house funding by BC Wheelchair Sports has been able to provide grants and funding for most of the cost of flights and rooms but more money is needed and it is too great a sum for those that have helped me in the past to provide. Any donation is greatly accepted and appreciated to help make my current goals a reality and whether you can help fund me or not is still given with many thanks to your considerations.
Give $50 to help get this fundraiser to its goal
Organizer
Dianna Darling
Organizer
Grand Forks, BC
