Wheels in Motion — January 2026

Well Folks, welcome to 2026! A new year always brings new opportunities and that is certainly the case for the Paralyzed Veterans of America Central Florida Chapter. To begin with, we are already gearing up for the 2026 National Veterans Wheelchair Games and already have nine of our members that have expressed an interest in attending the games this year in Detroit Michigan. Additionally, we have put together a PVACF 2026 Adaptive Sports agenda as we partner with Florida Adaptive Sports to bring a sporting and recreation opportunities monthly to both our members and the general disabled community. Florida Adaptive Sports has committed $15,000 to help fund this effort. We will be posting more information about this on our webpage www.pvacf.org and in our upcoming monthly newsletters. Keeping our members informed is important to us. So, in addition to the newsletter and the webpage, we will also be calling each of you, on occasion, to check up on you and let you know what events are being planned. Anyone who would like to help with this can call the office and speak to Joanne to schedule a time to come by. Additionally, a few of our members have been coming to the office to be engaged in what is happening there. You are welcome to come by anytime and get involved. Our Women’s veterans’ group will be planning different events throughout the year, and our hope is sometime during the year to have a Florida Paralyzed Veterans of America Women’s Weekend Retreat scheduled. Two of our women board members, Amy Patterson and Sharona Young are working on securing funding for such an event. And as we have done for the past 11 years, we will be having our 12th Annual Jerry Dugan Charitable Golf Tournament on April 25, 206 at the Venetian Bay Gold Club in New Smyrna Beach. Last year we raised over $86,000 at the event and this year’s goal is to raise $100,000 at this event. This event takes a lot of effort and hard work for both our staff and volunteers. We have nearly 40 volunteers to help us in preparation for the event and during the event. As we have for the past 10 years, we continue to store and distribute durable medical equipment to people in our community. This past year we finished our new 2400 square foot warehouse, which primarily houses this program. We finished this building and paid for it fully with the help of major donors, The Harper Foundation, Nelson Investments and AGED. We are working on planning a grand opening soon. We have a couple of things set up and ready for your enjoyment at the Chapter. We have just refurbished a slate pool table that is ready for any of you interested in shooting pool. We have a ping-pong table, a Wi gaming system and an IRacing gaming system as well. We have an air-rifle range, boccia court, pickleball, wheelchair obstacle course, weights and adaptive rowing, multiple handcycles and field equipment. All we need now is YOU!

HAPPY NEW YEAR Jo hn D eMauro