Sports Enrich Tori’s life
By Diana Hensley,
On June 14, 1997, a beautiful baby girl named Tori, was born. Tori was born 6-8 weeks prematurely and stayed in the hospital for 5 weeks before going home with her parents, Ivan and Marilyn Van Peursem. Ivan is a crop farmer who also raises stock cows and feeder cattle about 4 miles east of Leota. They were delighted with the beautiful little addition to their family.
Because of Tori’s prematurity, a member of the Birth to Three Program (BTT Program) came to evaluate her. The evaluator had some concerns, but Marilyn dismissed them. At about eight months Ivan and Marilyn noticed that Tori wasn’t able to hold her bottle, nor was she rolling over. Because she wasn’t reaching her developmental milestones, their family doctor referred Tori to a developmental specialist in Sioux Falls, S.D. At eleven months old, Tori was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.
It was then that Marilyn said to Ivan, “We’re going to do whatever we have to…” to give her the best life, the most successful life they could. “We didn’t know much about Cerebral Palsy,” recalls Marilyn. “It was emotionally difficult telling people that we didn’t know if Tori would ever walk or talk.”
Ivan grew up near Chandler, attended Chandler-Lake Wilson School, and played football and basketball. Marilyn grew up by Ruthton and played in volleyball, basketball, and was in track as well. Both parents assumed Tori would be in sports when she got older, but plans changed due to her disability.
With multiple therapists involved, the therapy journey began. Tori had pool and land physical therapy in addition to occupational and speech therapies. At first, speech and occupational therapy came to the Van Peursem home. Marilyn took Tori to physical therapy in Adrian or Luverne, and Tori participated in water therapy at the Luverne Aquatic Center.
Once Tori started preschool at Murray County Central, speech and occupational therapies were handled at the school. She had a para with her all through school. Throughout her school years she had different paras with her for the entire school day.
Once she began school, she started adaptive PE, or Developmental Adaptive Physical Education. (DAPE) It involved the PE teacher, Tim Bobeldyk, working with Tori to stretch-out all of her muscles. She was taken out of her wheelchair, laid on a mat, and had to do physical activities that were considered physical education and were often similar to physical therapy exercises. One example was working to reach for things. The purpose of adaptive PE is to address a student’s specific gross motor developmental needs.
Through all of her years in school, Tori had Mr Bobeldyk, who included her in as many of the group PE class activities as possible. He was also the basketball coach. Tori and her parents had attended games when she was young, and she especially enjoyed watching her classmates at athletic events in high school. Tori was, and still is, sports minded. She would talk about going to PE and DAPE. She and Mr Bobeldyk talked about sports everyday at DAPE. To this day Tori loves attending basketball games.
Tori graduated from MCC in 2016. Because of her disability, she had an Individualized Education Plan, or IEP. Therefore, she was eligible to attend school until age 21 through extended learning, which she did.
These days Marilyn still does range of motion stretches, especially with Tori’s legs, before going into the stander. She goes into the stander once or twice each day, and is held in a vertical position for about one and a half hours each time. Her legs are completely straight in the stander, which is why Marilyn has to make sure Tori’s legs are stretched well. She currently goes to pool therapy twice each month.
Tori works a couple of days a week at Progress in Pipestone. It is a day facility for those with special needs. Work includes paper shredding, tape and cardboard recycling, and jewelry making. Tori enjoys it. She has been there for about three years. She is happy there. She enjoys the staff and listens to music while she works.
In 2009, the Miracle League was created in Sioux Falls, with a completely rubberized field, for individuals with disabilities who love to play baseball. Tori has played in the Miracle League since its inception.
Because there are two separate leagues- one for youth, and another for adults-Tori started playing as a youth, and switched to the adult team a few years ago. Teams are created at the beginning of each season, and each team is named and players are given a colored shirt specifically for their team. A game schedule is put together for each team, with one game per week, in a six week season.
Adaptive equipment becomes an important piece of the playing puzzle. Recently, Dustin Rhoades from Ability Tech, in Sioux City, IA, has been working on a switch hitter for Tori. It is a bracket mounted on the wheelchair, to hold a lightweight bat. Once Tori hits the switch, the bat swings to hit the ball. Hopefully, Tori will have the switch hitter by the beginning of the next season, which will be her 13th.
In 2019, Marilyn took Tori to an adaptive sports clinic in Sioux Center, IA, for people with disabilities. They offered adaptive cheer, swimming, basketball, and sled hockey. One of the sports Tori tried that day was sled hockey. She enjoyed it and soon became a member of a team.
VanPeursem’s team is Siouxland Lightning based out of Sioux Center, IA. They get together for 6 or 7 tournaments each season, which runs from October to June, and have practices and scrimmages in between. They have adult and youth teams. Often, youth may join adult teams to ensure there are enough players for tournaments. Participants from South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota come together to make-up the team.
