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Rick Hofmann - "Attitude is Everything"
Rick Hofmann |
Rick Hofmann returned home relatively unscathed from a year and a half in Vietnam. He lost his leg as the result of a motorcycle accident in North Carolina.
"Obviously the world changed in an instant."
Hofmann had been engaged high school and college sports, and had even completed the Marine Corps Marathon in 1986. "I identified with endurance sports," he said. "I always had great confidence in my ability to get from here to there on foot if necessary. That all changed in a heart beat."
Not content to sit in the Laz-y Boy for the rest of his life, Hofmann began looking for things to do, and discovered Amputee Soccer.
"I'd played soccer in college and found this game was very similar to the traditional game, except it was played on crutches," he said. "You very quickly become engaged in the game itself. It may sound strange, but the game becomes the focus, not the fact that you're playing a running, kicking game on one leg. That becomes a distant afterthought."
Through adaptive soccer Hofmann had the opportunity to meet amputees from around the world. "There's not a thumb-sucker in the bunch." he said. "On the playing field and in their personal lives they prove the world may change, but life doesn't stop after limb loss. They've chosen to live life to the fullest. Attitude is everything."
He realized that not everyone might share his passion for soccer, so to help give Delawareans more opportunities, Hofmann, a professional Internet consultant, launched delawareadaptivesports.org. The site gives Delaware amps an idea of what activities are open to then, and a forum for finding others who'd like to engage in those activities.
Emergency Planning
As an Emergency Planner trained and certified by the Institute for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Hofmann is the lead for emergency preparedness issues for the Amputee Support Group of Delaware. He emphasizes that people with disabilities have to plan to be self-reliant in emergencies, because "it's not going to be the government that rescues them."
He was recently the subject of an emergency preparedness article published by inMotion Magazine.
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