Volunteer is recognized

Work and dedication to wheelchair athletes earns Kendall Park resident Debbie Armento a lifetime achievement award.

By: Brian Shappell
   Kendall Park resident Debbie Armento has certainly earned the right to take a breather and enjoy one of her most recent laurels — the 2001 Tri-State Wheelchair Athletic Association lifetime achievement award.
   She especially deserves that breather in light of the fact that she recently finished an immense undertaking — running the 2001 Junior National Wheelchair Championships.

Debbie Armento with her lifetime achievement award. Staff photo by John Keating

   Ms. Armento, a fourth-grade teacher at Cambridge School, got hooked on volunteering her time to the advancement of wheelchair sports in 1985 because her 3-year-old paraplegic daughter, Jen, began competing. Ms. Armento said she had no idea she’d be so involved 16 years later.
   "Our goal is to guide the young juniors to decide where their best interest and best ability is," Ms. Armento said. "What’s really exciting is seeing the athletes going through life, on to college and graduating. It’s so nice to be a part of someone’s life."
   Ms. Armento, an official with the Tri-State Wheelchair Association, received the group’s annual Robert McShane Award, named after one of Tri-State’s founding members and one of its most dedicated, is awarded to an official who demonstrates dedication and sacrifice in service to the Tri-State region.
   "Bob was a man who did anything he could for wheelchair sports," said Ms. Armento. "It’s an honor to have received it just for that reason.
   However, as organizer of this year’s Junior Nation Wheelchair Championship, which was held July 21 to 28 at Rutgers University in Piscataway, Ms. Armento has had little time to celebrate the distinction.
   Less than one week before the event, the local resident has quite an afternoon. The house phone is ringing off the hook, she’s cheering Jen on as she lifts weights to prepare for the competition, she’s coordinating a workout schedule for her daughter with a Work Out World physical trainer and she’s watching her recently adopted son, Tommy. All that, and it’s only a hour from dinner time.
   For the event, Ms. Armento had many responsibilities such as organizing 500 volunteers, creating an event schedule, finding accommodations for the competitors and their families, organizing extracurricular events for the athletes and getting special equipment for the various sports. And all that is just leading up to the actual games.
   For Ms. Armento, it is truly a labor of love.
   "If I could just focus on wheelchair sports and not worry about money, I would," she said. "It has such a positive effect on our physically disabled athletes."
   The efforts haven’t gone unnoticed by the handicapped community either. More than 150 athletes from as far away as Germany came to central New Jersey for the games as wheelchair events continue to grow.
   Ms. Armento and the other organizers gave the athletes not only a venue to compete, but plenty of social activities, including trips to theme parks and a Somerset Patriots baseball game.
   "We just want to give them something more," she said. "For some of them, this is their vacation."
   Of course, Ms. Armento did have a little time to be a spectator as her daughter garnered three national records in weightlifting during last week’s competition.
   Ms. Armento said it’s easy to become so spirited when getting involved with wheelchair sports because of the competitors themselves. She said the fun that surrounds the events could turn almost any one-time attendee into a longtime volunteer. Ms. Armento also said it is extremely easy to get involved.
   "People don’t realize the importance of the smallest things," said Ms. Armento "Even if people just filled up water bottles, that would be one more thing we don’t have to worry about."
   Though she and her husband, Ralph, also a longtime volunteer, hint about stepping away from their volunteer work, Ms. Armento knows few people believe she will.
   "We keep talking about retiring from this soon," she said. "Ralph said to me ’you’ll never retire.’ "
   For more information about volunteering for the future contests or the Tri-State Wheelchair Association, contact the Children’s Specialized Hospital at (908) 301-2530 or Ms. Armento at (732) 422-9094.