The Have-A-Go wheelchair basketball event took place at the Thornhill Community Centre in Terrace on April 28.

The event provides an opportunity for people of all ages of all different abilities play wheelchair basketball with other community members that share the same passion for sports and activities. 

“It gives people opportunity to try different sports even if you're disabled or non-disabled,” said Yvonne Nielsen, disability rights activist.

Years ago, Neilsen suffered a car accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.  For both her and local athlete Colton Carrita, the fact that the city of terrace is offering the wheelchair basketball event speaks volumes.

“It means a whole lot to me to have people be able to come out and kind of bring the community together.  There are all skill levels and abilities and all of that, so I think it's something that Terrace needs and something I would like to see kind of more in the future,” Carrita told CFTK-TV.

Northern Adapted Sports Association, also known as NASA, is the organizer of these events, traveling from communities all across the Northwest.  According to NASA organizer Rob Stiles, he and his team are always aiming to create an impact wherever they go.

Well our goal is to try and facilitate adapted sports.   Adapted sport is anything that a change is made so that people don’t miss out on something, so our idea is that we have lots of partners that we’ll get people into if they want to try something and then if there's nothing around we will run it,” he said.

So if we get a few teams in the north a few people that want to play then we can we can start traveling between those communities and we can have something so we’re not always trekking off to the lower mainland,” he continued.

For Neilsen, she was quite happy to try out wheelchair basketball for her first time, and she always encourages younger and older folks with disabilities to try new activities when they can.

If you wanted to try something new thats within the realm of safety, just try it.  That's what I've been doing all my adult life.  It's about finding things that I'm interested in and that are meaningful and productive for me," she said.