Hawaiian canoes helps Iraq soldiers with missing limbs

[welch]

Passed to me by a friend at American Friends Service Committee, Philadephia

http://www.mauinews.com/print_version.aspx?id=10226

The Maui News
Sunday, July 03, 2005


Paddling back into life

By VALERIE MONSON, Staff Writer

Half a world away from its home in the Hawaiian waters, the outrigger
canoe has been helping a group of unlikely paddlers embark on a new
journey: the men and women of the U.S. military who have returned from
the Middle East with a limb - or limbs - missing.

"I had to stop and cry for a while," said Clifford Nae'ole, the cultural
adviser at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua who was part of a ceremony last
month where he blessed three double-hulled canoes before the determined
soldiers took them on an inaugural spin around Chesapeake Bay.

"Something like this really humbles you."

The program is part of "The Wounded Warriors Project," a partnership
with Disabled Sports USA, which encourages the traumatized heroes of war
to rediscover their abilities, energy and self-worth through sports.
Oddly enough, the idea to include paddling among the activities was
sparked by a female outrigger enthusiast on the Mainland who, over the
years, has witnessed the healing powers of the double-hulled canoe.

"These soldiers just took to it," said Jan Whitaker of Rochester, N.Y.,
who operates outrigger clinics for people with all kinds of physical
challenges. "If you see photos of them out there in the canoes, all you
see is ability.
The disability just disappears."

Whitaker, a member of a crew that finished second in the Molokai-to-Oahu
race in 1986, does not consider the outrigger to be simply a tool that
strengthens broken bodies. She understands fully that the canoe is
nothing more than an empty shell without the Hawaiian values that propel
it.

"Outrigger canoeing is not just another sport,"
said Whitaker, sounding like she grew up in old Hawaii. "It totally
embraces the spirit of ohana, the spirit of aloha. Once you get in a
canoe, you are a member of a paddling family. You move as one."

It was in that spirit that Nae'ole arrived on Father's Day at the Kent
Island Yacht Club in Chester, Md., near Walter Reed Army Medical Center,
where many of the injured soldiers are undergoing rehabilitation.
Although Nae'ole was in a completely strange place, because of the
culture of the canoe, he said, he found himself at home.

"When you hear 'yacht club' you think 'Oh, it's going to be high
society,' " said Nae'ole. "But it was the complete opposite. Aloha is
alive and well in Kent Island. No one had Hawaiian blood, but from the
minute I walked in, everything felt like Hawaii."


Again, it was the living philosophy of the canoe.
Like Whitaker, the Kent Island Outrigger Canoe Club, which is based at
the yacht club, could fit in at Kahului Harbor. The club's Web site is
filled with Hawaiian sayings, and its vision says members focus on
"perpetuating the Hawaiian culture and spirit through outrigger
canoeing."

To bring this journey full circle for the young soldiers trying to
adjust to their new ways of life, the yacht club also happens to include
retired or current military brass and overlooks a beach along Chesapeake
Bay that's so accessible "you can literally roll a wheelchair up to the
edge," said Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA.

"It was just the perfect place," said Bauer. "We needed a home for the
program that was close to the hospital and, with so many military people
in the yacht club, they wanted to help these soldiers who are a part of
them."

Bauer knows the importance of such programs for wounded warriors facing
the realities of devastating injuries. In 1969, he lost a leg to an
exploding grenade in Vietnam. Thanks to Disabled Sports USA, then only
two years in existence, Bauer learned to ski and live again.

"Getting involved in sports gave me such a huge boost," he said. "When I
visit these young guys in the hospital, I say to them, 'It's going to be
tough, but there is a bright future for you, and let me tell you about
it.' "

One of those young men was Noah Nahinu, a 24-year-old Native Hawaiian
who grew up in Colorado but has family ties all around Hana, including
his aunt Amy Oliveira. Last October, Nahinu, an Army specialist
stationed in Iraq, was working a main gun on a Humvee when a roadside
bomb exploded and ripped off his arm above the elbow.

Talks with Bauer convinced Nahinu that he, too, could be an equal member
of a canoe club. A portion of a paddle attached to a top piece of a
crutch was fitted with a brace that made up for his arm and allowed him
to stroke. Modifications of canoe seats enable those without legs to
paddle, too.

"You don't feel left out, you feel you're doing as much as the person
next to you," said Nahinu in a phone interview Friday. "It felt so good.

When you're in the water, you feel so natural. I felt like the good old
me."

Whitaker didn't realize what a perfect fit the outrigger canoe was for
people with disabilities until a little girl wearing leg braces signed
up for one of her clinics and took to the sport like a fish to water.

"She knew nothing about paddling, but she was so full of joy in that
canoe," said Whitaker. "When you're on the water, you're free."

Once Whitaker had convinced local rehab agencies that double-hulled
canoes were much safer than standard river canoes, she began her classes
that attracted people with a wide range of
disabilities: cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, missing limbs,
multiple sclerosis, blindness, even severe paralysis.

In the canoe, they were each just another paddler.

"We haven't had to turn anybody away," said Whitaker. "It's the one
sport that you can really enjoy on a recreational basis with your family
and friends."

Last year, Whitaker encouraged Bauer and Disabled Sports USA to take a
team to a regatta in California. When she saw the enthusiasm in the
soldiers, she talked to a therapist at Walter Reed about starting a
similar program. From there, things quickly fell into place.

"Once people heard about this program, nobody could say no," said
Nae'ole. "Whether you agree with the war or not, everyone has to agree
that these kids need attention."

Nae'ole became a link in the chain because a friend, Teryl Chapel,
played a role in getting the Kent Island club involved. Chapel and
Nae'ole were part of a group that went to the Marquesas and Tahiti in
1995.

"He thought that paddling would build the confidence of these kids and
help them spiritually," said Nae'ole.

It was Chapel who asked Nae'ole to bless the new canoes that were
donated by the Wounded Warrior Project and the Non-Commissioned Officers
Association of America.

Nae'ole had no idea he would be so affected, especially by an event on
the Mainland.

"I've done protocol before, but this is the one that took the most
spiritually and physically out of me," he said. "Emotions ran from
sadness to joy, from humility to pride. They're just so young. One kid
looked like he was 13, he was so baby-faced. He'd lost an arm."

For Nae'ole, the hardest part was to see the wounded female veterans.

"To see these women back from combat, without legs," he said. "It
humbled me."

Nae'ole named one of the canoes "Niolo," in honor of Tammy Duckworth,
the McKinley High and University of Hawaii at Manoa graduate who lost
both her legs and suffered a severe injury to an arm when her Blackhawk
helicopter was shot down in Iraq last November. Niolo means "standing
tall with grace."

"It was about her mana," said Nae'ole.

Duckworth, still undergoing treatment at Walter Reed, was unable to
attend the ceremonies where Nae'ole explained the symbolism and
significance of the canoe and who would occupy it.

"Even though these were fiberglass, the spirit of the canoe comes from a
great living entity: the koa, which is also a warrior," said Nae'ole.
"You ask permission to cut the tree to make another living entity, the
canoe. It's a living, breathing entity just like you are. Every time you
put the paddles in the water, you feel the canoe breathe, you feel it
move.

"You feel that for yourself. You feel yourself breathe and move. You
provide life to that entity."

The other canoes were named "Koa Aloha" ("In appreciation of the
warriors") and "Me'e Amalika"
("American heroes"). All vessels were blessed with waters from the
Pacific, salt from Niihau and ti leaf from Maui.

Nae'ole also brought lei for the soldiers, flowers that had been sent
with him by the Kapalua Land Co. The Kapalua Ritz-Carlton Kids Camp made
get-well cards that Nae'ole gave to a mother whose son was about to have
both his legs amputated.

"She just came up to me and said how she wanted her son to move to a
place where he could get more confidence," said Nae'ole. "I had planned
to give the cards to these young guys (the paddlers), but they were
already moving to that place. Something told me I should give them all
to her."

The new paddlers had something in store for Nae'ole, too: an ukulele
that they had all autographed.

There was an immediate connection between Nae'ole and Nahinu, who has
made several visits to Maui.

"He said he hadn't told many people in his family about what had
happened to him," said Nae'ole.
"He's such a handsome warrior with a big smile. I told him I would call
his kupuna in Hana."

Nahinu already has plans. He said he hopes he's ready to leave rehab by
the fall and "make my way toward the beach" in California, where he had
been living before he joined the Army. He's also thinking about college
and a future in law enforcement.

"I'm perfectly fine," he told The Maui News. "The people at Walter Reed
and Disabled Sports instill the same thoughts in you: that this (losing
an
arm) doesn't stop you. It makes you stronger.

"There was a special (on television) about the troops coming back and
there was one guy who had lost three limbs and he was more positive than
the guys who came back whole. I was inspired by him."

Nahinu also thanked Nae'ole for giving up his Father's Day with his own
children to be with them.

So Nae'ole came home a changed man. He's already talking about
organizing a fundraiser on the island and possibly getting together
Hawaiian entertainers to play at a regatta in September.

"More kids will come back like this, and it's up to us to make them feel
whole again, to heal again," he said. "This story needs to be told. It
can't end here, especially with Hawaii's involvement."

And, true to his word, one of the first things Nae'ole did when he got
back to Maui was to phone Amy Oliveira in Hana and give her the news
about her brother's son.

"Unfortunately, aunty, combat took an arm, but he's fine," Nae'ole told
Oliveira. "His attitude is great. When I left him, he was paddling a
canoe."


Valerie Monson can be reached at vmonson@mauinews.com.

Copyright (c) 2005 The Maui News.

[Redskin in Canada]

Inspirational. What a great project. Thanks Welch.