Spotlights: Ben Carpenter and Kate Nelson

Yesterday morning, wheelchair users were featured twice on WESH 2 News. The first news story was about 22-year-old Ben Carpenter, the captain and starting midfielder of the Tampa Thunder, a United States Power Soccer Association (USPSA) team. The team consists of people with physical disabilities who use wheelchairs to move the soccer ball on a basketball court. Carpenter, who has spinal muscular atrophy, was not expected to live past age three. Despite the progression of his disease, he plans to compete at the 2021 USPSA World Cup in Australia. For more information about the Tampa Thunder, go to https://www.tampathunder.org/.

Ben Carpenter

(image via nbcnews.com)

The second news story was about Kate Nelson, who became the first model in a wheelchair to participate in Fashion Week in Denver, Colorado. Nelson, an accountant, was two years old when she became paralyzed from the waist down during a car accident that took her father's and brother's lives in 1979. Going down the runway with bedazzled wheels, she wore a ring that belonged to her mother, who recently passed away from cancer. Being a part of Fashion Week was a dream come true for Nelson. For more details on this story, go to https://abc7ny.com/community-events/model-takes-fashion-week-on-in-wheelchair-in-denver/5232263/.

Kate Nelson

(image via denver.cbslocal.com)