Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

Teen Heads to Beijing

By Barbara Gelinas

Contributing Writer

Soon Kari Banta will get her chance to watch Olympic flags fly in Beijing.

The 14-year-old Colleyville resident recently won an essay contest awarding her and a guardian a trip to the Paralympics, a sporting event for people with physical disabilities. The Paralympics are held in conjunction with the Olympics every four years, said John Register, Paralympics associate director of community and military programs. This year the games open Sept. 5 and will continue through Sept. 17, he said.

Kari will be in eighth grade this fall at Cross Timbers Middle School.

Register said the contest winners will get a tour of the Olympic Village. The Paralympics use the Olympic facilities, so they will tour the same Village viewers are seeing on television, he said.

The trip will also include daily breakfasts with the athletes and coaches of the Paralympic teams. Register said they would watch each athlete compete on the following days.

"I think it will be fun to meet the players and watch the sports," said Kari’s brother, Justin Banta.

Justin, 25, will accompany Kari to Beijing. He is a graduate student at Princeton Theological Seminary.

Justin said Kari mailed her essay in January, and they received word in May that she had won.

Applicants were required to submit an essay of 250 words or less entitled "What Ability Means to Me," Register said. There were about 150 applicants and 25 trips awarded, he said. Kari’s essay told of her own experience dealing with a disability.

"It was about my disability in Thailand, and how in Thailand I couldn’t do a lot of things. But here [in the United States] I can ...," Kari said.

Kari was born in Thailand with spina bifida, said her father, Steve Banta. He said a surgery to correct the spinal cord defect has left her without the use of her legs since infancy.

"If she had been in the U.S., she probably would be walking now," Banta said.

Steve and wife Julie adopted Kari when she was 5, Banta said. He said when she came to the United States she didn’t speak English, but it only took her about two months to learn.

"She’s a bright young lady," Banta said.

He describes Kari as an active teenager. She loves the outdoors, swimming and sliding on the zip-line at summer camp, Banta said. He said she also loves playing wheelchair basketball with the Dallas Junior Wheelchair Mavericks, called the Junior Mavs.

Junior Mavs Assistant Coach Michelle Torina e-mailed Kari about the essay contest after hearing about it from Lorraine Gonzalez. Both are members of the Lady Mavericks Wheelchair Basketball Team, Torina said.

Gonzalez is also a member of the U.S. Paralympic Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. She volunteers to help coach the Junior Mavs about twice a month.

Gonzalez said she hopes the children on the team will learn that they have the same opportunities as able-bodied athletes. She said she has seen Kari’s interest in the sport grow since learning about the Paralympics.

"With Kari, she seems more excited [about basketball]. I’ve seen her come out of her shell," Gonzalez said.

Kari said she wants to visit the Great Wall of China on her trip. She said that she hopes to learn more basketball techniques from the Paralympics. But she said she is really excited about one more thing.

"I’m looking forward to watching my coach, Lorraine, play," Kari said.