BEAVERTON, OR (KPTV) - Physical health often coincides with mental health but what about special needs athletes who can no longer gather in their safe places of play and connection?
“It was some of my teammates, some of my volunteers reaching out to me and saying, “hey, I miss my friends, when can I see them again? I was like, oh, really? Perfect.”
Every Body Athletics founder Brad Franklin and his team has innovated on the spot to be better for the long haul.
“By and large, it’s kind of the same format which is important in helping our athletes in having some level of normalcy,” Franklin said.
The Westview High and University of Oregon alum shifted EBA to virtual gatherings with Zoom in June keeping the physicality up along with the social and emotional strength training for 10 classes a week streaming live from his garage
“Definitely with the population that we support, isolation was already kind of a big thing prior to the pandemic and now more,” Franklin said. “So, it seems amplified so people are just looking for how can I get physical activity but also continue these social opportunities and I think that is where we come in.”
Seventy percent of Every Body Athletes have logged on to check in and work out from well beyond the walls in Beaverton.
“It doesn’t really matter where you are anymore. We have a couple of people from Florida, a couple of people from Texas, from Washington, so that has been a cool part of it,” Franklin said.
For the parents of adults with disabilities, EBA still going strong during the pandemic has been so vital to a bit of normalcy.
“Our in-person classes, you saw them, we do big group stretching and conversation starters and we partner up an athlete with a disability and a teammate without disability and then go around and do stations,” Franklin said. “The great thing about Zoom is they have these breakout room feature so we are still able to pair people up one on one and then with one click of the button everybody goes in their own room and they are with their workout partner, so we will do stations where they work on a physical exercise and a social exercise together. We obviously have to modify some things, instead of dumbbells a lot people are using canned foods or shampoo bottles.”
Keeping it clean, staying lean and Every Body Athletics is gleaning plenty of smiles.
