In The News
With device, paralysis proves no barrier to bowling.
Orlando Sentinel
August 8, 2009
By Rosalind Jennings
Several years ago, it was hard for Bill Miller, 32, to take part in sports. Being paralyzed from the neck down had left him with few options.
"There was nothing I could do recreationally or sports-wise," said the Leesburg resident, who suffered a spinal-cord injury in 1997 when he tripped on an exercise device in his bedroom.
The accident left him with injuries similar to those of the late actor Christopher Reeve, and Miller uses a ventilator to breathe.
He figured there might be a way for him to bowl. Today, at a Lady Lake alley, he bowls with other disabled people using a device he invented with Leesburg engineer Claude Giguere. Called the
IKAN Bowler, it's a ramp that fits on a wheelchair and allows the user to send a bowling ball down the lane. It was
completed in 2002, and disabled bowlers were soon using it.
Read Full Article
Any Power Wheelchair User Can Go BOWLING and Play Power Soccer.
By Vincent A. Tifer
Chairman, Board of Directors MGT
With the IKAN BOWLER® and IKAN SOCCER GUARD all POWER WHEELCHAIR USERS can go WHEELCHAIR BOWLING and play WHEELCHAIR POWER SOCCER. Including people with Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Spina Bifida, Quadriplegia, Spinal Cord Injuries, Multiple Sclerosis and other power wheelchair users...
August in the college town of Gainesville, Florida is a time when you find the few and the hard core still hanging around off campus, waiting for another semester to begin and more friends to return. For Bill Miller and his roommates Rob Harrison and Ernie Barnett, it was a carefree time, filled with workouts, cookouts, girls, sports, beer and take out.
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Bowling, bonding
Paralyzed father takes son to hospital event
Rocky Mountain News
By Rosa Ramirez
 |
| Ron Gulick, 35, uses an IKAN, a device attached
to his wheelchair, to compete in a bowling tournament.
Gulick scored 100 points as his son, Jack, cheered
him on. |
The weekend before Ron Gulick's truck
rolled over during a hunting trip, he threw a bowling
bash for his son Jack as an early birthday present.
The boy was turning 5 and Gulick wanted to host an activity
they would both enjoy. Read
Full Article
Inspired Invention
SPINAL COLUMN
The Magazine of Shepherd Center
Winter 2007
Dan Sadowsky
 |
| "We’re on
a mission to get wheelchair users back in
the game of life!" |
Bill Miller and Bruce Howerton
don’t know each other, but they share
a lot in common. Both suffered life-altering
accidents. Both are now quadriplegics. And both
have invented products to help keep them active
in their wheelchairs. In the process, they’ve
helped improve the quality of life for others
with spinal cord injuries. “To me it’s
not about inventing things,” says Miller.
“It’s about overcoming obstacles.”
Read Full
Article
Rolling to strikes
Disabled bowler knocks down pins — raises
score and awareness
By Phil Sandoval
Free Press Sports Editor
February 14, 2007
 |
| Jon Musgrave releases
the ball during a recent practice at GJ
Scores. Musgrave practices five times a
week for three hours daily and competes
in a weekly league. |
Jon Musgrave angers other bowlers.
That’s not his intention when he wheels
his way up the GJ Scores alleys. It’s
just that the wheelchair-bound Musgrave usually
outscores most able-bodied bowlers who happen
be in the next lane. Read
Full Article
Article
seen in International Bowling Industry Magazine/June
2006
 |
| Tournament winner Doug
Sinclair wIth Cindy Shock, regIstered nurse
on staff at Craig. |
Fifty bowlers, caddies and spectators turned
out at Belleview Lanes in Englewood, Colorado
recently for a tournament using IKAN Bowler®,
a ramp-based assistance device designed and
manufactured by MGT Corp. of Brandon, Florida.
Read Full Article
The
Villages Daily Sun
The Villages, Florida
2-6-2006
IKAN
Bowler® allows those suffering from spinal
cord injuries to hit the lanes
By ELISHA PAPPACODA, DAILY SUN
 |
| Marguerite Sharp, right,
places the bowling ball on the Ikan Bowler®
of Bill Miller's wheelchair as he prepares
to bowl a strike at the Spanish Springs
Lanes in The Villages. George Horsford /
Daily Sun |
THE VILLAGES — Bill
Miller glides down the waxed lanes of Spanish
Springs
Lanes bowling center and carefully
lines up his shot before pausing at the foul
line. He releases the ball, which rolls slowly,
but steadily, toward its 10 targets. As it smashes
the pins, a single one remains standing. Read
Full Article
|
