Paraplegics Abandon Wheelchairs to Skydive

June 12, 2004 -- For anyone gutsy enough to take that giant leap into the clouds, the sport of skydiving can be both exhilarating and liberating, with breathtaking views from an altitude of some 13,500 feet in the air.

But for one recent group of mostly first-time skydivers, the chance to float freely above the earth was not the sole appeal. Skydiving also offered them a rare opportunity to be free of their wheelchairs, a moment of absolute freedom that was difficult to pass up.

"It's fantastic as soon as you're out [of the plane], it feels safe and free and just beautiful," said 51-year-old Julie Compton, who has been in a wheelchair since an undersea diving accident in her native New Zealand over 30 years ago. "To me it's a stretching experience, expanding boundaries. You don't get that chance when you're in a wheelchair."

Compton is part of a group of spinal cord injury sufferers who went skydiving at the Blue Sky Ranch near New Paltz, N.Y., as part of the Life Challenge program at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. While each member of the group is confined by their disabilities, none allow it to limit them.

Compton's accident did not destroy her adventurous spirit, or her desire to be among like-minded people.

"If you're involved with a sport, you know, you're meeting people, you're having fun, you're expanding energy and it's just vital," Compton said. "It's a vital way of using your energy, getting out there and experiencing life."

Sports as Therapy

James Cesario, the trip organizer, who has been wheelchair-bound since he was 18, could not agree more. As program coordinator, it is his mission to keep the group's minds and bodies active and healthy through sports.

"It's more than just the activity, and the event," Cesario said. "It's showing people that there are so many things that they can do in life even though they have an injury. They come away empowered and charged up and excited about life."