Reflections on a Team River Runner Experience

We have all sort of experiences working with TRR, and who knows how many we inspire in the veteran hero's that we serve. There is not a trip that we leave where we are not in awe or admiration. The amount of gratitude these guys show is amazing. It's one of those battles where we say thank you, they say thank you, and it all goes to who says it last! I am amazed that these guys have the kind of appreciation for us, that we have for them. I mean, my goal is to get more people to see what it is we love; paddling. And I feel I do it for these guys because who is more deserving? These guys laid their lives on the line for us, as Americans. They went face first into the enemy, and stood up for the rights and freedoms that we share. They sacrifice time... time for themselves, time with their families, and some, face the ultimate time... time to join their God. This is what I do to say "Thank You!" It can never be enough. Think about that next time you see a man, or woman, in uniform. Give them the respect they deserve. Look them in the eye, shake their hand, and show them you appreciate them. The reward to you will be just as great to them.
And to all the veterans and active duty folks that are reading this... from the bottom of my heart... Thank You.

We're Busy!

Team River Runner: Lexington is busy! We have been getting vet's out in the water this winter since December, and have been having some great turnouts. We are getting between 8-14 vets in boats each week. Sessions are every other Sunday, from 4-6 at the Pavilion in Georgetown, Kentucky. The next one being January 24th. Come out and give us a hand, paddler or not... it will make a bad day good, we guarantee!
On top of that, we have numerous other happenings coming out. We will be taking 8 of our veteran paddlers down to Key Largo in March on a leadership trip. We hope that 4 days of paddling and snorkeling will finish setting the hook on these guys and they will become our new volunteer and recruitment base.
We will have a table at the National Paddling Film Festival in February at the Buffalo Trace Distillery, as well as one at the Adventure Summit in Dayton, Ohio. It is in March.
Then, river sessions start up in April. We look forward to a lot of local trips as well as some out of state paddling opportunities. Come join us...you will not regret it. Why do we do it? Here is why. "How do we change the world? One Act of Random Kindness at a time." God, in "Evan Almighty".
Check out our Facebook Page Here!

TRR: Lex in the Herald Leader

Healing on the water
KAYAK PROGRAM HELPS IRAQ WAR VETS FORGET THEIR WOUNDS

By Mary Meehan - mmeehan1@herald-leader.com

ALONG ELKHORN CREEK IN SCOTT COUNTY — Josh Williams had just re-signed with the Air Force when he and four buddies went out on routine patrol.
This war has been going on long enough that you know what comes next: A bomb went off on an Iraq roadside, Williams was thrown 45 feet and knocked out. When he came to, what was left of one friend's leg lay across his body.
"All four of my buddies died," said Williams, in a tone that says he's told this story many times before. "Four of my closest friends. Every one of their moms gave me a dog tag."

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That was six years ago.
He strives to keep those dog tags close, tucked safely in his room.
He can't shake the memory, even though he tries.
It's every minute in his head, a shadow behind every thought.
Over time, it made his world small, then smaller. He eventually ended up in the Veterans Affairs Hospital on Leestown Road in Lexington.
And soon enough, Williams found some relief paddling down a Kentucky stream.
On the water, "you are not in your head. Stress is somewhere else, because you are right there in the moment. You can't be thinking about your problems," said Linda Tribble, who helped create the program that brought Williams and others to the water.
Learning to paddle
The Central Kentucky program is not an original idea, although it has some unique features. In 2004, some Washington, D.C., kayakers decided to help vets from Iraq and Afghanistan re-enter the world by learning how to paddle in the pool at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. They would then venture from the pool out onto calm streams; then the most adventurous would go onto white water and eventually even the ocean. It's called Project River Runner.
Tribble, a full-time compliance office at the Lexington VA and part-time paddler, saw an article about the Washington program and thought, "There's no reason we can't do it here."
The goal behind the idea was simple.
"We have a society of veterans who were young and active when they left. We want to get them back to that lifestyle," she said.
She found the right people to talk to in the VA, contacted some fellow paddlers who would volunteer, tracked down some federal money aimed at rehabilitation that could help buy kayaks and two years ago started taking to the water.
Helped by Nathan Depenbrock of Canoe Kentucky and volunteers from the Bluegrass Wild Water Association, they started in tranquil waters instead of a pool.
The program was open to all veterans at the hospital and those who had completed programs there, including recent vets and warriors from conflicts long off the front page.
Their wounds range from physical to emotional. A number suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or struggle with addiction. Some appear physically sound but have suffered closed-head injuries that complicate everyday life.
Others have severe physical challenges but thrive with the help of volunteers. One, Ben Brown, an Army vet and paraplegic, has excelled, going white water rafting in Montana and becoming a vocal advocate for the group.
Getting out on the water has therapeutic values, said VA speech pathologist Lyn Tindal. For vets with head injuries, for example, it helps sharpen spatial perception, helps patients practice how to follow directions, solve problems and stretch their memory. On the physical side, it takes balance and strength.
They have to interact with strangers and depend on one another to venture out into a world many have avoided too long.
Last week in Georgetown, on the shores of Elkhorn Creek, the mostly silent veterans got out of the VA bus as the sun was going down. Most were quicker to light up a cigarette than put on the kayak gear. But soon there was a buzz as they emptied boxes of water shoes and suitable shirts and grabbed paddles and vessels.
It wasn't 10 minutes in before the first vet tipped over into slow, green current but he was soon righted and on his way.
There was a little game of kayak football but mostly just smooth waters during the hourlong trip. There was lots of laughing as they ventured just far enough out of civilization that they could no longer hear the cars on the nearby roads.
They came back energized. Williams stowed his gear and then helped his buddies. "It's just like in the military," he said as he stacked kayaks in a trailer.
"You can tell there is a big difference between them when they go out and they come back," Tribble said. "They've bonded. They're more relaxed."
Real heroes
Depenbrock, of Canoe Kentucky, sees it, too. "These guys are real heros," said Depenbrock, who chokes up a little when he talks about the transformations he's seen. "I get way more out of it than they do."
He hopes to expand the program. He, Tribble and Brown will soon be speaking at a national meeting of water sports professionals, hoping to help others start a program in their area and secure more sponsorships to serve vets.
It's not that one trip down a country stream can heal years of pain.
But it helps.
For a while this week, Williams didn't dwell on what happened, what should have happened, what's going to happen next.
He floated and splashed and laughed a little.
He went out in the world, and he wants to do it again. He's going to get a necklace for those tucked-away dog tags so he can wear them and keep them safe the next time.
"This is the most fun I've had in a long, long time," he said.
Reach Mary Meehan at (859) 231-3261 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3261.

TRR: Lexington's Own Ben Brown makes Montana News!

Disabled War Vets Take On MT Rivers


A group of kayaking war veterans from around the nation are making waves in Big Sky Country this week as Team River Runner hits the water.
But this clan of warriors is unique each of them has suffered from some sort of injury as a result of serving their country.
"In the last five years since we started, we've had probably over 1,000 disabled veterans and their family members boating with us in one aspect or the other," says Team River Runner Founder and Executive Director Joe Mornini.
Among those vets is Mackay Mathiason of Billings. He was introduced to the program while recovering from a gunshot wound to the head at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C. Mathiason says the kayak program played a big role in his recovery process. Now the Billings man is bringing the program to Montana.
"For like two years now, I've been talking to Joe Mornini, the director of the program, wanting to get this program set up and come to Montana," explains Mathiason. "Because Montana is completely something different than anywhere else in the nation."
The group of fourteen veterans and a few of their spouses spent Tuesday kayaking down the Stillwater River near Absarokee. H2Obsession Kayak School out of Bozeman is serving as the group's river guide this week.
Disabilities within the group range from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to paralysis.
Ben Brown of Louisville, Kentucky became paralyzed from the waist down after a 2002 accident while serving with the U.S.. Navy in Naples, Italy. Since the accident Brown has often found himself as a spectator, rather than a participant. Team River Runner has changed that.
"It's total freedom," says Brown with a twinkle in his eye. "You know, it is really hard to explain in words, but when you're out there on the water, being someone who can't walk, it's just so liberating. You're just out there doing things like everybody else, there's no separation."
The team stopped for lunch at a popular spot along the river, "Mr. Bubbles." Mr. Bubbles is a large wake caused by a rock that allows kayakers to surf the wave.
Brown didn't hesitate to participate in the action. He paired up with H2Obsession owner Wes Heustess and rode the wave twice in an inflatable kayak. The second time, Brown went overboard. With a flicker of panic, teammates were quick to respond, but the concern vanished when Brown emerged from the water laughing.
As the vets took their turn surfing, Mathiason compares the rush of kayaking to the intensity of combat.
"All your worries are just washed away and then you've got a hole coming up, you know, some white water and you're just thinking about that second, right now, 'What am I going to have to do to get through this hole?'" says Mathiason. "Just like you did in combat. 'What am I going to have to do to stay alive?'"
While conquering the whitewater gives them the adrenaline burst, it's the comradery that makes the program what it is.
"We've got a fairly even mix of combat vets and non-combat vets," explains Brown. "And for a lot of us it's a way to open up and talk about, you know, different things."
Billings veteran Alex Leonard has been involved with Team River Runner since day one. While recovering at Walter Reed Medical Center after both his legs were amputated, Mornini recruited him to join his team of kayakers.
"It really is stress free, it's just, I suppose you could call it therapeutic," Leonard admits. "It's relaxing, just getting to know people that kind of know what you've been through, what they've gone through."
This week the veterans from nine different states will share their stories from the past as they build leadership skills that will carry them and the program into the future.
"We've learned a lot today," Mornini announces to the group at the end of Tuesday. "We had some things that we can be better at. We had some carnage, that was awesome! Everybody's in good shape, except for my nose, everybody looks great!"
Team River Runner will also paddle the Gallatin river and Yellowstone river this week.
"We're very excited about being able to develop leaders throughout the country and use this week to give them the skills and the training necessary to start that process," says Mornini.
With a few hoots and hollers, the team wrapped up their first Montana river adventure

Team River Runner in the State Journal

State-Journal.com

Kayak program has disabled vets moving again

By Charlie Pearl

Lexington’s Ben Brown, a 27-year-old disabled Navy veteran, came to Knight’s bridge early Wednesday evening to take a biweekly kayaking journey with other veterans on Elkhorn Creek.
But he didn’t know the new black kayak waiting for him on the creek bank was a gift from Jackson Kayaks and Canoe Kentucky.
When Nathan Depenbrock of Canoe Kentucky told him, Brown smiled, saying, “Awesome.”
Just being able to kayak is an incredible pleasure, says Brown, who was injured in a 2002 motorcycle accident in Naples, Italy, and is paralyzed from the waist down.
On a trip for coffee, Brown’s motorcycle hit “an unsecured manhole cover and ran into a wall and went over the wall,” he says. “I broke my lower three lumbar (vertebrae).”
Wednesday’s two-hour kayaking trip was part of Team River Runner Lexington.
“It’s a program we do with the Lexington VA,” Depenbrock says. “We use kayaking as a form of rehab for soldiers affected by war.
“The national program focuses on vets returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, but we are open to any veterans. We consistently get over 10 vets a week and 10 to 20 volunteers.”
Linda Tribble, compliance officer at VA in Lexington, says Ben “is a great guy. You just love him the minute you meet him.
“He has said when he’s in a wheelchair, he’s looking up at people all the time. But when he’s in a boat he’s eye level with you and on the same playing field.
“The freedom kayaking gives him is phenomenal. He’s out with everybody else as an able-bodied paddler.”
Team River Runner was founded in 2004 by Washington, D.C., area kayakers who worked with veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“It has spread across the country with different chapters, and it started out with one guy and a vision,” Brown says. “Joe Mornini went down to Walter Reed and took injured veterans out of hospital beds and put them in kayaks in (swimming) pools for rehabilitation.”
Brown said he met Mornini at a VA sponsored summer sports clinic in San Diego last year.
“That was the first time (since his accident) I ever participated in an organized disabled sports event,” he says. “There were so many opportunities in recreation – sailing, surfing, kayaking, track and field.
“It’s awesome. There are really no barriers. You just have to figure out how to do it. Kayaking is cool for me because I’m moving in the water. Instead of being a spectator, now I’m a participant. I never thought I’d be a kayaker.”
Brown’s wife, Tiffany, was going with him on Wednesday’s trip on the Elkhorn in Franklin County.
“This has been great for Ben to get out and be active,” Tiffany says. “Before his accident, he was really active and liked doing things outdoors.
“After his accident, he felt he was limited with what he could do and he felt he spent a lot of time sitting on the sidelines. This gives him the ability to get involved and be in action.”
Ben Brown, a Scott County High School graduate, just received his bachelor’s in communications and leadership development from the University of Kentucky.
He says he would like to get into “public relations or government relations” work.
Many of the Team River Runner Lexington volunteers are members of the Bluegrass Wildwater Association of Lexington. Each veteran who goes out in a kayak has at least one volunteer teammate.
“We really couldn’t be doing this without them,” Tribble says. “They’ve donated money, time and taken it on as their cause.”
In winter, the local Team River Runner veterans practice their kayak rolling skills at The Pavilion indoor pool in Georgetown, Depenbrock says.
“The pool director said she had a friend whose dad is a Vietnam veteran and is in a model airplane club in Carrollton, and the club decided to donate money to pay for the pool sessions,” Depenbrock says. “That was really neat.”
Depenbrock says it’s a wonderful program.
“For me personally, the best part is the feeling that you’re giving back to someone who has given so much in the first place,” Depenbrock says.
“These veterans I work with, I absolutely think of them as heroes. They’re good people, they’re genuine. The reward they give me through a smile and appreciation is one million times worth me doing the program.”
This summer, the veterans also will kayak on the Kentucky River at Clay’s Ferry, Boonesboro, High Bridge and Frankfort; and again on Elkhorn Creek in Franklin County occasionally, depending on the water level, Depenbrock says.
Other Team River chapters are in Augusta, Ga.; San Antonio; Tampa Bay; St. Louis; Seattle; Richmond, Va.; Washington, D.C.; and San Diego, Loma Linda and Palo Alto, all in California.

Time on the Water

Time on the water is something all paddlers yearn for. I am no exception. On the water I can think, yet not think at all. It allows me to clear my head and concentrate only on the water and the paddle. I can see things I won't see anywhere else, like a Great Blue Heron feeding on the bank, a doe leading her fawn to the water for the first time, or a small mouth making it's first jump of the season. Being on the water is not only relaxing, but it is therapeutic. It gives us the re-creation that we all need as people who are pulled in numerous different directions.
Don't believe me, or think I am being "hokey", you should give it a try. Let it be flat water, or whitewater, let it be a lake or a river, let it be by yourself or with a group, let it be a four hour tour or let it be just a fifteen minute jaunt; get out and give yourself a good paddling. You'll thank yourself.

TRR: Lex Volunteer named AW Volunteer of the Month! Way to go, Allen!

March Volunteer of the Month Presented by Kokatat
posted March 2, 2009
by Jeffrey Paine

American Whitewater would like to recognize Allen Kirkwood as our March volunteer of the month.

As a river steward and whitewater community member, Allen sets a great example. He was the Silent Auction Coordinator for the National Paddling Film Festival this year in addition to his role as the Vice President and former Conservation Officer for the Bluegrass Wildwater Association. Allen has also been responsible for organizing one of the biggest cleanups on Elkhorn Creek in Kentucky, removing over 2000 pounds of scrap metal from a hillside dump site, and is involved in the Team River Runner program, which teaches kayaking to disabled veterans. Furthermore, Allen was a very active volunteer helping American Whitewater put on Gauley Fest in 2008.

In recognition of his efforts Allen will be receiving an OuterCore Long-Sleeve Shirt from Kokatat! Thanks Allen!