Veteran 2 9 2017

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35 cents

VOL. 5/ISSUE 14

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017

Sanford artist gives The Lone Sailor a mate Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE

pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com

Navy veteran Don Reynolds might be in the middle of creating an iconic image in the vein of The Lone Sailor or The Three Soldiers. “That would be a great honor,” he said. The United States Navy League Central Florida Chapter tapped the Sanford artist to create an as yet unnamed bronze statue to commemorate women sailors. The proposed heroic scale statue — 110 percent life-sized — when done will stand nearby to The Lone Sailor Memorial in Blue Jacket Park, 2501 General Reese Ave., Orlando. The park commemorates the Naval Training Center Orlando, which operated from 1968 to the late 1990s. It was the Navy’s only co-ed recruit training center for most of its existence. The league reports that nearly 188,500 women graduated from Recruit Training Command Orlando. “It was the first truly integrated (RTC) with companies made up of male and females, and it was here in Orlando,” Mike Phillips, chairman of the league’s Lone Sailor Memorial Committee, said. The league is fundraising to get the proposed statue made and installed under the name Project Sparky. The portrayed woman sailor is supposed to be an electrician’s mate, commonly called “Sparky.”

See SPARKY page 8

File photo by Patrick McCallister Joseph “Mighty Joe” Beimfohr, of Tampa, fought to keep top spot at the Rims on the Run criterium in this 2012 photograph. The former Army staff sergeant and Paralympics hopeful lost his legs in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Volusia vet running on the rims Patrick McCallister FOR VETERAN VOICE

pmccallister@veteranvoiceweekly.com

Scott Rimmer is aptly named. The Port Orange Navy veteran is a C 6-7 incomplete quadriplegic, but locals see him out cycling all the time. Rimmer is a former handcycle racer. The 48-year-old injured his spinal cord in a 2003 motorcycle accident. He rehabilitated in Denver. “Right away, the adaptive sports therapist knew I was a cyclist, and she got me in a handcycle,” Rimmer said. “Probably within the first month, month and a half, I was riding a handcycle.” Before his injury, Rimmer had done some famous mountain bike races, including offroad triathlons. Rimmer was also the race director of Rims on the Run, a handcycle race at the DeLand Municipal Airport from 2010 to 2015. It attracted handcyclers from all over the United States. He’s considered resurrecting the handcycle race, but doesn’t have specific plans for it now. Rimmer once aimed for the Paralympics. He didn’t get there, but was a bit of a sensation in cycle racing. “I was probably in the top three quad hand-

cylists in the county,” he said. Now at 48, Rimmer is content with cycling mostly for health. Handcycles were born in the 1980s during a time when cycling was hugely popular and the bicycle market was flooded with venerable and upstart brands competing for consumers’ attention and dollars. Many of those manuScott Rimmer facturers were looking for ways to stand out from the crowd with innovative designs. A few experimented with moving pedaling from the feet to the hands on recumbent bicycles and adult tricycles. Recumbent bicycles put riders in reclined positions. The idea of hand pedaling flopped with cyclists. But — as is so often the case with adaptive sports — people with disabilities developed ways to use the odd bicycle designs to suit their needs.

See HANDCYCLE page 7


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