When Bill Bogdan joined the Diveheart board of directors I had no idea that he was a six-time Chicago Blackhawk sled hockey champion.

You see, when Bill was a child he had cancer of the spine. After surgeries at Shriners Hospital for Children, the good news was Bill no longer had to worry about the cancer, but now he had a new normal to deal with because he would be using a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Bill was young enough that as he grew older, his being a wheelchair user was just part of who he was. It didn’t stop Bill from participating in as many activities as he could. Bill later became a scuba diver and fell in love with zero gravity. Escaping the wheelchair to go underwater and be weightless was for Bill. Leaving the wheelchair on the shore or on the boat was one of his greatest joys.

Bill is now self-identifying as a scuba diver as well as a Chicago Blackhawk sled hockey player.

Bill also is a great example of one of the types of individuals with disabilities with whom Diveheart works. That is, someone who either was born with a disability, or someone who acquired a disability while still very young.

The challenge in working with this group of individuals is that many times parents who are well meaning can be overprotective and hover over their child worried for their safety. It’s understandable, but sometimes this loving behavior can create apprehension and fear in the child which can keep them from attempting activities.

I know because my daughter was born blind. This is going to sound crazy, but when the neurosurgeon walked out of the operating room when she was a baby, he said, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that your daughter doesn’t have brain damage. The bad news is that she is blind.”

Believe it or not…. I celebrated. I said to myself, I can teach a blind kid to do anything. Not worried, I got this.

While the parents of my blind daughter’s friends were still cutting their food as young teenagers, my daughter was downhill skiing, taking on every adventure that she could.

Warning parents! Making your child independent can seem like it backfires when they become teenagers. That’s the subject for another time. Just know that being able to self-identify as a diver or a skier even though you are blind or a wheelchair user is a very cool thing.