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COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — High school students from several schools in Salt Lake came together Saturday afternoon to go ice skating with students in wheelchairs.
The Opportunity Foundation of America (OFOA) and the Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center invited students from Olympus, Jordan and Taylorsville high schools to help push students from Jordan Valley School, Hartvigsen School and the Salt Lake campus of Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind across the ice in their wheelchairs.
“It’s such a cool event,” OFOA Executive Director Debbie Inkley said. “Somebody in a wheelchair doesn’t get to go fast very often and when they’re on the ice, guess what, they get to go fast.”
The event, “Ice Skating on Wheels,” started last year when the Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center invited the students to come skate on the ice for free. Inkley said it was so great, they decided to do it again this year.
The students’ parents and siblings joined them on the ice. Two of the Jordan Valley School student’s dads are ice hockey players and raced their kids in their chairs, Inkley said.
“The families, brothers and sisters, moms and dads, our high school kids, everybody skated with our kids in chairs, it was just great,” Inkley said of the event.
Close to 60 people attended the event and everybody had a great time. Mayor Kelvyn H. Cullimore Jr. from Cottonwood Heights also attended the event, Inkley said.
Many of the students in wheelchairs are involved with the Opportunity Foundation of America’s “Eagle Eyes” program, a technology that enables the students to learn how to participate in cause and event activities by moving their eyes, Inkley said.
Somebody in a wheelchair doesn't get to go fast very often and when they're on the ice, guess what, they get to go fast.
–Debbie Inkley, OFOA executive director
“Eagle eyes is an eye control technology that was developed at Boston College for children and adults who are totally locked in their bodies and have control of the movement of their eyes and nothing else, Inkley said.
In the Eagle Eyes program, the students learn to use computers by doing things like “eye painting” by moving their eyes in front of a screen. As they move their eyes, they see splashes of colors and shapes appear before them, Inkley said.
“When they internalize that they just painted a picture, they did something for the very first time, the twinkle in their eyes is so exciting. It’s just incredible,” Inkley said.
The students from Jordan, Olympus and Taylorsville high schools who came to “Ice Skating on Wheels” are also involved in a peer leadership class, which allows them to volunteer twice a week at the OFOA.
“Our high school kids, once they meet our kiddos, they’re empowered, it changes them, they fall in love with our kids,” Inkley said. “The older kids working with the high school kids think that’s great, because they have a friend their own age, so that’s pretty cool too.”
Steven Powell, publications and community outreach specialist for Granite School District, said it’s “incredible” to see the students work together.
“There’s no reservations about working with kids and teens who have struggles that they will never encounter,” Powell said. “The way they interact with them is just so completely positive for all parties involved.”
