WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) – When wheelchair-bound Ann Satterfield started water skiing in her late 30s, she took to it like a duck to water.
Now, she offers other disabled people the chance to learn the same thing.
Satterfield, 64, contracted polio when she was 2. The viral disease left her paralyzed. The two-time world champion and six-time national champion in disabled water skiing teaches her guests to water ski.
She founded UCanSki2, an affiliate of the USA Water Ski Association, more than 25 years ago after moving to Florida from Washington state. She finances her work through grants and donations.
“It is, after all, the water-ski capital of the world,” she said of Polk County, Fla. “I also wanted to start this program where it’s warm most of the year.”
The nonprofit organization provides disabled children and adults with a chance to get out of their wheelchairs to water ski.
“There was nothing available for us when we were kids,” Satterfield said. “We couldn’t go to public school, and there were no sports for us. That’s why I have a passion for it now because I knew what it was like not to have it.”
She has used that passion to give children and adults freedom from their wheelchairs for a time, something she said meant so much to her.
Her calling also has given her perspective about her own situation.
“I see people who are more severely disabled than I am,” she said. “It makes me thankful. My disability is just an inconvenience. I can drive, cook, dress myself and take care of myself.”
Satterfield hosts water-skiing parties at her home on Lake Jessie as well as in other places around the state. She said she averages nine events per year, with each event costing $1,500 for a total of about $13,500 per year. The only expense the participants are responsible for is liability insurance.
On a recent Saturday, she hosted a private water-ski party at her home for the Central Florida Spina Bifida Association of Orlando, Fla.
Melbourne-based Liquid Access supplies Satterfield with adaptive ski equipment designed for those who are paralyzed, amputees, stroke victims and people with birth defects, as well as those who have cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and any other disability that limits mobility.
Leon Hester, owner of Liquid Access, said his company got into building adaptive equipment for water skiers largely because of Satterfield.
“She cannot stand the word ‘handicapped,’” he said. “She said, ‘We’re disabled. It’s the able-bodied people that are handicapped. At least we know what our disabilities are.’”
