Obstacles can derail some individuals from achieving their goals. For others, these challenges ignite a sense of unyielding determination to succeed. Meet three strong-willed individuals whose zeal for an active and fulfilling life has enabled them to tackle physical challenges that uprooted their existing worlds. While their triumphant stories are inherently different, they each share the same courage, underlying passion and willpower to live a better life–and they each have a unique gift for inspiring others.
Living Life Well Again
When faced with a life-changing event, Mohnton resident Janet Oberholtzer found solace in the very same pastime that brought her serenity during her hectic days as a young mother.
With three toddler boys at home, Oberholtzer needed an emotional escape and discovered running in the early ’90s. Over the next 10 years, she ran numerous half-marathons and a full marathon. “I enjoyed the alone time,” Oberholtzer recalls. “Running made me respect myself more and gave me a sense of pride. I discovered it was beneficial for my mind, body and spirit.”
In 2004, Oberholtzer and her family embarked on a once-in-a-lifetime trip across the country in their motor home, but it ended tragically when they were involved in a six-vehicle crash in California. Oberholtzer’s husband, Jerry, and their three boys were unhurt, but Oberholtzer suffered severe leg and hip injuries.
Oberholtzer spent 12 days in a coma, followed by nine more weeks in the hospital. Doctors told her she might never walk again, let alone run. While dealing with chronic pain, she endured four years of surgeries and intense physical therapy. The sudden change in lifestyle spiraled Oberholtzer into two years of depression, but counseling helped her redefine her attitude and lead her on the road to recovery.
“I learned to focus on each day and not worry about the long term,” Oberholtzer says.
“Realizing that I was never going to have my pre-accident body back was key for me. I began setting smaller goals and asking myself, ‘what can I do today?’ I wanted to accomplish it and move forward. Some challenges we can overcome, and some we don’t. I have learned to live well again in spite of the pain, limitations and deformed leg I now live with.”
Oberholtzer’s new outlook on life lifted her spirits and motivated her to become more active. She began walking, kayaking and biking. In 2008–just four years after the accident– she defied doctors’ predictions and once again turned to her true passion: running.
Between 2010 and 2012, she ran five half-marathons, adapting a new method for her new body: run for three minutes, walk for 30 seconds. “This approach is significant for me,” Oberholtzer says. “It keeps my legs from getting re-injured. I treat myself very carefully. Some people say real runners don’t walk. Well, this real runner does, and I’m totally okay with it. I’ve accepted this body.”
As she continued to train, she became more confident in her abilities to conquer another full marathon. On May 20, 2012–the 8th anniversary of the accident–she completed the Bob Potts Marathon in York.
“Finishing this race was the best feeling in the world,” says Oberholtzer, who was surrounded by family and friends. “I finished at almost the exact time of day as the accident. I felt like I reclaimed a day in my past that I didn’t like. In that moment I felt like I can live life well, even though I had this major tragedy in my past. It was such a deep, satisfying feeling.”
Six months later, Oberholtzer ran in the Delaware & Lehigh Heritage Marathon in Easton.
Today, Oberholtzer shares her triumphant story at schools, hospitals and volunteer organizations. She encourages others to tackle the challenges in their lives. She wrote a memoir, Because I Can, that chronicles how she learned to live life well after overcoming her obstacles.
She offers the same advice to everyone, regardless of age, challenge or life-changing event:
- Recognize the obstacle.
- Ask for help (physical, emotional or spiritual).
- Adjust attitude.
- Adapt where needed.
Oberholtzer is training for a half-marathon in April, yet another example of how she is living well and adapting to her new life.
Overcoming Obstacles with a Positive Attitude
Since his early days as a U.S. Marine, Chris Kaag’s mantra has been to “dig deep and push on.”
Kaag’s positive attitude helped him overcome what he calls a “defining moment” in his life: being diagnosed at age 21 with adrenomyeloneuropathy, a degenerative nerve condition that would eventually affect his ability to walk.
“I feel like I was lucky because I had a good attitude from the start,” Kaag says. “I transferred the same attitude instilled in me in the Marine Corps to my life after my diagnosis. I knew I could overcome anything and take on any challenge.”
After his diagnosis, Kaag took an aggressive approach, not allowing his condition to slow him down and training hard to increase his upper body strength. Over the next five years, Kaag experienced a gradual loss of leg mobility, using one cane, then two canes and eventually a wheelchair.
This Reading resident found inspiration online by reading amazing stories of other disabled individuals who shared his same positive attitude for living an active and fulfilling life. Kaag, too, wanted to be a source of encouragement for others, leading him to open Corps Fitness in 2004.
Corps Fitness offers group fitness classes as well as personal training for both the disabled and able-bodied in the same environment. “Corps Fitness provides a place where disabled individuals can feel like they’re a part of something great,” Kaag says. “We don’t treat anyone here differently. Everyone works out together and shares the same energy and enthusiasm. We encourage people to stop making excuses, get out of their comfort zones and redefine their barriers. It’s inspiring for able-bodied individuals to see disabled individuals who continue to move despite their obstacles.”
Three years after opening Corps Fitness, Kaag founded the IM ABLE Foundation to raise money to provide adaptive recreational equipment to those with disabilities, further heightening awareness about physical fitness possibilities for individuals with disabilities and encouraging everyone to live an active lifestyle. The foundation raises money through an annual triathlon, corporate and individual donations, community events and grants.
“I want to change people’s perceptions of what a person with disabilities can do by showing them that I actually live my life this way,” says Kaag, who regularly handcycles, works out at Corps Fitness and hikes using a mountain handcycle. “I want to take away the misunderstandings, barriers and judgments of the able-bodied community.”
Kaag’s main motivator for establishing the IM ABLE Foundation was to help disabled children. During his early diagnosis, he spent time in the hospital with young ones who would never have a chance to live a so-called normal childhood.
“I really wanted to create a way for children to just be a kid and ride a bike with their friends,” Kaag says.
One way he has helped make a difference in these children’s lives is through awarding grants to both children and adults for the purchase of expensive handcycles. While Kaag enjoys seeing the smiles on all recipients’ faces, he especially appreciates the joy it brings to little ones.
Most recently, a local 5-year-old boy with cauda equine syndrome received his very first bike. Kaag arranged for 40 able-bodied children to ride their bikes with the eager grant recipient to demonstrate how all children enjoy similar activities and to show him that it was okay for his bike to be different.
“The smile on his face was unreal,” Kaag recalls of that day. “I always tell able-bodied children to treat children with disabilities the same.”
Kaag often shares his unique story and positive perspective on life at local speaking engagements, emphasizing the importance of appreciating one's strengths. "Don't take for granted all the abilities you have," Kaag says. "Utilize every single one of them as much as you can. Not to sound cliché, but you don't appreciate what you have until it's gone."
Want to get involved with the IM ABLE Foundation? Visit online and learn how you can donate funds, volunteer, attend an event and more! Visit Getupandmove.org
Walking to Make a Difference
As a young teenager, Bob Scheidt discovered a copy of John Goddard’s Life List, inspiring him to create his own list of feats to accomplish. Four years later when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, this bucket list became Scheidt’s saving grace, encouraging and motivating him to live a healthy, active life.
“The list played a big factor after my diagnosis,” recalls Scheidt, whose bucket list included activities such as climbing Mount Everest and walking across America. “I held it up like a beacon. It kept me healthy and looking to the future. I wanted to keep my mind, body and spirit healthy to accomplish everything on my list.”
Scheidt knew that staying active would increase his odds of overcoming doctors’ worst-case scenarios: loss of limbs, eyesight and kidney function. Scheidt’s positive attitude and love of the outdoors promoted an active lifestyle consumed by hiking, mountain climbing and backpacking. In 1979, he began running, eventually participating in 20 marathons and 30 ultra-marathons.
Although he desperately wanted to be a natural and effortless runner, Scheidt soon realized that walking was his true desire. He entered a six-day ultra-marathon in the late '80s as a pure walker. “Walking was the most natural thing in the world to me,” Scheidt says. “I can do it so easily without it taking a lot out of me physically. I once told a local newspaper that I want to walk like John Coltrane played the saxophone, and I want to walk like Miles Davis played the trumpet.”
Scheidt’s art form, as he calls it, took him on a crusade to raise awareness about diabetes, educate about the importance of exercise, and change people’s misconceptions about living with the disease. In the ’90s, he went on walking adventures throughout the United States, stopping along the way to give diabetes presentations and host walkathons. His first campaign took him across Pennsylvania, followed by walks across Virginia, Maryland and California.
Scheidt then embarked on the Walk Across America for Diabetes, a three-year project that led him 3,400 miles on foot from Seattle to Atlantic City, N.J. For those three years, he walked for two months–sometimes hosting up to three speaking engagements per day–and worked for 10 months at his residential painting business in Kutztown. On Memorial Day in 1999, he crossed off “Walk across America” from his Life List.
Yearning for more adventure, Scheidt traveled the perimeter of the United States in the early 2000s as part of the Adventure on the Rim of America. He walked and biked down the West Coast, across the Southern region and then up the East Coast. Both journeys benefited the American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Scheidt underwent open heart surgery for three clogged arteries in 2009 but has rallied back to health.
This diabetes advocate shares his victorious story at high school commencement ceremonies, hospitals, senior centers, diabetes camps and volunteer organizations. He often brings his authentic, tattered Life List to show listeners his original source of encouragement. He always tells them, “Find something that brings you joy and throw yourself into it. Research it. Practice it. Dream about it. Find your underlying passion and purpose. Discover a way to make the world a better place by using the gifts you’ve been given.”
In April, Scheidt will use his underlying passion and gift during his 4-year, 2,650-mile pilgrimage on foot across Europe, walking two months each year. He will begin on the French-Spanish border in the Pyrenees Mountains and walk 15 miles per day across Spain, stopping often to educate and motivate others. In 2016, he will finish his journey across Europe at the Black Sea in Romania and gloriously cross off another triumph from his Life List.
Want to request Bob for a speaking engagement or help fund his walk across Europe? You can do it all by visiting Diabetescrusader.org
BY KANDACE WERTZ | PHOTOS BY MIKE NOBLE
