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# #InclusionWorks, National Disability Employment Awareness Month celebrated at DSCR

By Bonnie Koenig, DLA Aviation Public Affairs

                Richmond, Va.  –              
The National Disability Employment Awareness Month Program kicked off October 18 in the Lotts Conference Center on Defense Supply Center, Richmond, Virginia. Guest speaker, retired Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kathy Tilbury, a program management analyst with Defense Logistics Agency’s Office of Research and Resource Analysis, spoke about how adaptive sports have restored her ability to be an athlete. 

DLA Aviation”s Office of Equal Employment and Diversity, in conjunction with the Planning Directorate’s Special Emphasis Program Committee, joined the Department of Defense and the nation in recognizing National Disability Employment Awareness Month and the significant contributions and diverse skills people with disabilities bring to our workforce each and every day. The theme for this year is #InclusionWorks. 

Tilbury was featured in a DLA news article titled, “DSCR employee wins gold in 2016 National Veterans’ Wheelchair Games,” for bringing home four gold medals after competing in the 2016 National Veterans’ Wheelchair Games June 26 – July 2 in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she medaled in handle ball bowling and in three swim events: the 100 backstroke, and 100 and 200 freestyle.

Tilbury shared her experiences about serving in the Navy, where she worked as an aviation structural mechanic (egress), ensuring items such as aircraft canopies, ejection seats and oxygen systems were mission ready.  She also worked on the A6 Intruder and P3 Orion aircraft, and deployed twice, once to Alaska and once to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean where she did several short deployments to Oman during Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield. 

She medically retired from the Navy in 1997, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992. After completing her bachelor’s degree and a brief stint working for the insurance industry, she moved to Richmond and began working for DORRA in 2004. 

When she was first diagnosed with MS, Tilbury said she was told not to overdue physical activity, so she wasn’t very active. 

“I had always been competitive and participated on swim teams in my youth and I loved to dance, so hearing that I shouldn’t be physically active was tough,” she said. “I enjoy competing and my motto is you rest, you rust.”  She said she was swimming one day in her mom’s retirement community and an older women threw that phrase at her in conversation and she never forgot it.  

About five years ago, Tilbury said she was swimming in her sister’spool and decided to start swimming on a regular basis again.  She also joined several “meetup” groups in the local area, and got involved with Sportable, which provides adaptive sports and recreation opportunities for people with physical and visual disabilities, or as Tilbury likes to say, people who are “differently abled.”  

Tilbury said she rows, hand-cycles and kayaks with the group. Through the people she has met in the different groups, she became aware of the National Veterans’ Wheelchair Games and the adaptive equipment she was eligible for through Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond.  

In 2015, Tilbury medaled in the first wheelchair games she participated in. This year, she said there were more than 600 athletes competing in Utah and she competed against five other women in her class in swimming.  

She trains a couple times a week at the local YMCA and bowls weekly with a group of friends. 

“Next year will mark my third competition, and I would like to add Hand Cycling and Air Rifle to the events I compete in,” she said.  “My goal is to compete in swimming as a para-Olympian in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. I will have to spend a lot more time in the pool in order to do this.” 

Tilbury said she refused to let her MS limit her or make her give up. “Fatigue is a big problem and resiliency is a way of life, but I’ve become very competitive and I enjoy it. I keep a busy schedule and catch up on sleep on the weekends.” 

Tilbury encourages all who are “differently abled” to explore the potential to participate in sports activities through the wheelchair games and groups such as Sportable.  After Tilbury’s talk, Marielle Rando, director of Programs and Public Relations, for Sportable - Richmond Adaptive Sports and Recreation, a local non-profit organization, spoke about the available opportunities and accomplishments of athletes with disabilities. On September 30, 2016, President Barack Obama proclaimed October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

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