Making it Happen

Cerebral palsy pushes family to find new options for outdoor activities

BY SAVANNA SIMMONS

In her 24 years of life thus far, Kenzi Burnside has led an adventure-filled life, from snow skiing annually the past 11 years to showing horses at the Pinto World Championships to fishing regularly with her dad and brother Thor and competing in marathons. All of this she did from her wheelchair or boosted onto a horse’s back.

“Kenzi was born with cerebral palsy. She is full of life,” said her dad, Mike Burnside. “I’ve always said for somebody who, in my opinion, has every right to be mad at life, she has just embraced life and loves everything about it.”

Throughout her life, Kenzi has undergone several major surgeries to fix tensions caused by her lack of muscle control. Fortunately, with Kenzi’s cerebral palsy, her mind is unaffected by her condition. Her muscles are another story.

“At some point before, during, or after childbirth, that part of the brain that controls muscles doesn’t get oxygen, and it can be to varying degrees, Mike said. “Kenzi is classified as moderate to severe. She can’t walk or do any fine motor skills.”

Kenzi has had several hip surgeries due to “scissoring,” in which the inside muscles of her legs cause one leg to cross in front of the other.

“That eventually pulled that hip bone out of socket, so they ended up having to go in and cut that ball socket off the end of her femur and reattach it at a different angle and put it back in the socket,” Mike said.

At one point, Kenzi had a double hip surgery, yet another on the left hip, then another, before having to have surgery to take the hardware out of both hips. She has rods along both sides of her spine from her neck to her tailbone from developing scoliosis while in her wheelchair. The nerves that control the leg muscles have been clipped in an attempt to get them to release.

But Kenzi and her family work to make sure she gets to experience anything she thinks she’ll enjoy.

The Burnsides trek from their home near Tulsa to an adaptive snow sport center in Colorado where Kenzi can ski, and each year they travel the 45 miles to compete on a horse whose owner donates the use to a special-needs individual to compete at the Pinto World Championship Horse Show. She has ridden horses since the age of three and rides weekly.

Kenzi and her family have figured out ways for Kenzi to enjoy nearly any hobby she wants, including horseback riding and hunting,

Kenzi is part of the Tulsa chapter of Ainsley’s Angels, a group who gathers together to run races of any length from 5k to half or full marathons while pushing a special running chair with a special needs competitor.

“They see these individuals with disabilities that love the feel of running. Kenzi has a team of usually two to four runners who push them in races,” Mike said. “The longest one she was in the chair was six hours. She’s usually up to trying anything at least once, some things she says, ‘Ok, I’ve done that’ and doesn’t do it again.”

In the last several years, Kenzi has discovered a love for her dad’s sport, hunting, particularly rifle hunting. Her able-bodied brother Thor, who is a triplet with Kenzi and their late brother Hunter, could typically be found hunting with Mike in the fall. Recently, Thor has made way for his sister.

In 2018, a contact the Burnsides met at the Pinto World Show recommended that Kenzi participate in a hunt facilitated by Holy Pursuit’s Dream Foundation, a charity dedicated to making it possible for disabled and medically fragile youth to hunt game of all sorts.

Mike promptly reached out to Holy Pursuit and filled out the necessary paperwork for her to go on a hunt. The next day or two, they replied to Mike and said they would like to take Kenzi hunting.

“Basically, whatever she wanted to hunt, they would make it happen,” Mike said. “We went through with Kenzi all the different choices and different animals. She settled on mule deer.”

The North Platte River attracts a variety of knew anglers that it and was recreationists. fairly unlikely Fishermen that Kenzi can would

get to now hunt look mule forward deer to hooking through a the sauger organization in the stretch below the Dave Johnson Power Plant. that More fall, but than he 300,000 assured sauger his daughter will be he stocked would take her hunting. the effort to reintroduce the native fish.

Holy Pursuit let the Burnsides know that they weren’t able to get it all organized as Mike anticipated, but the following year she would get to hunt mule deer in Wyoming.

Instead, Kenzi and Mike went hunting together in Oklahoma that fall.

“She had said at one point while we were hunting, ‘When you and Bubba [her name for Thor] would go off hunting, I always wondered when was my time. This is my time.’ That hit me hard as a dad,” Mike said.

In the midst of hunting season 2018, Mike got the call that an already-organized hunt had freed up in Illinois the week of Thanksgiving. The child who was slated to hunt had gotten sick, and Holy Pursuit offered the hunt to Kenzi.

“Kenzi’s birthday was on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and she had a marathon the next day,” Mike said. “I had to talk to both Janet and Kenzi about the possibility for Thanksgiving week, and both said we can leave after the marathon and come back on Thanksgiving.”

On Sunday night, Kenzi, Janet, and Mike set off for Illinois, driving partway that day and finishing Monday.

They practiced with a crossbow using a vacuum air system that allowed Kenzi to pull the trigger by sucking a tube before hunting Tuesday and Wednesday.

The last thirty minutes of their hunt, several does wandered into the meadow where they were set up, and Kenzi was able to shoot her first deer.

“She was so thrilled that she was putting meat on the table for the family,” Mike said.

“Many of us who hunt take that for granted. For someone who has never been able to physically do something for the family, that is a huge milestone.”

Holy Pursuit quickly coordinated the processing of Kenzi’s doe, and, by the next morning, the meat was in an ice chest awaiting the return to Oklahoma. They arrived home late evening on Thanksgiving, and, for dinner the next day, the Burnsides had spaghetti with Kenzi’s deer meat.

“Hunting means dad and I get to go together, I get to meet new people, and I get to provide meat for the freezer,” Kenzi said.

Upon returning home, Kenzi went back to hunting with her dad, though he didn’t push her, allowing her to hunt when she wanted to and rest when she didn’t.

“We hunted various days,” Mike said. “It came down to next-to-last day of the season, and she said ‘This is it, my last hunt.’ As luck would have it, a young buck came out, an eight-point whitetail buck, and guess who was just overjoyed and excited.”

Kenzi shot the buck with her dad by placing her hand on the butt stock of the rifle. For the 2019 season, the Burnsides purchased an air actuator system, which requires two people to assist Kenzi. One person aims the firearm and the other helps Kenzi with the safety and tube.

Kenzi had another exciting hunting season last year, the fall of 2019. In September, Kenzi and her dad traveled to hunt aoudad in the Texas panhandle. She also harvested a red deer hind, which is the female to the red stag. Her long-awaited mule deer hunt followed in October.

“On that mule deer hunt, the group that the Muley Fanatic Foundation hosted ended up being 11 children and young adults,” Mike said. “It’s the hunt of a lifetime; they cover all costs, travel, meals, lodging, everything is taken care of. The downside is that since October, two of those 11 have passed away. For some, it really is a hunt of a lifetime.”

That makes Mike and his family realize how fortunate they are to be able to support Kenzi’s experiences and to make these memories together.

“These kids like Kenzi have gone through a whole lot,” Mike said. “When she’s hunting, she’s doing something she knows is beyond her capabilities without help. As a dad, it makes me extremely proud for her determination, her spirit to stick with it, go against all odds, and pull it off. Most of the time, people on the hunt realize how much it took for her to do that, and there are usually a lot of moist eyes in the area.”