Activities

Turning POINT

The National Chapter is the hub of Turning POINT activity, planning and hosting events and programs throughout the DFW Metroplex while providing support and guidance to the “satellite” chapters across Texas and the United States. Our first chapter, Gulf Coast, was started in 1993 and continues under the guidance of David Gaston in Galveston. Since then we have developed chapters in East Texas (Piney Woods) and North Carolina (Carolina). Due to unique interests in different locales, listed below are our Chapter locations and their specialties but not limited to:

Texas:
Gulf Coast (Galveston):  Hand Cycling, Fishing, Ocean Kayaking, Sailing, Shooting Sports
North Texas:  Boating, Camping, Fishing, Hand Cycling, Hunting, Kayaking, Shooting Sports

 

North Carolina:
Carolina (Mooresville):  Fishing, Hunting, Shooting Sports, Waterskiing, Wheelchair Basketball

 

National Events:
 Annual National Bass Tournament, Caddo Lake 
 Annual Extravaganza

Carolina Chapter

Dave Kiley - Chapter Director - Carolina Chapter

Dave Kiley

Chapter Director

244 Farmstead Lane
Mooresville, NC 28117
Phone: 704-575-0250

Dave Kiley is the owner of 13 Paralympic medals (9 of them gold) in basketball, skiing, and racing.  In addition, he has received an unprecedented 6 “MVP Awards” from National Wheelchair Basketball Tournaments.  Kiley was voted the Most Valuable Player of the First 50 Years of the Sport by the International Wheelchair Basketball Association.

Dave Kiley was also the first active player to serve as commissioner, then president, of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.  While in office, he forged an alliance with the National Basketball Association, which led to the NBA/NWBA Wheelchair All-Star Classic -- an all star exhibition at the 'Jam Session' part of the NBA All-Star Game weekend.

Kiley and Shorty's relationship is the stuff of legend: In 1982, they and four other members of Turning POINT set out to scale Guadalupe Peak, the highest mountain in Texas.  Against the advice of park management and despite steep grades and the risk of electrical storms, they made the ascent.  Shorty and Robert Leyes had to turn back, but five days after they started, Kiley, Donny Rogers, and Joe Moss reached the summit by crawling the final few hundred yards, pulling their wheelchairs behind them with rope clenched in their teeth. The guys spent the night on the mountain and the next morning were lifted off by U.S. Army helicopters.

Kiley was injured at age 19 when the inner tube he was riding in the snow met a tree.  When Kiley recalls that young man who played high school basketball and "lived and breathed sports" in the non-disabled world, who does he see?

"Even though I was good at sports, I was unsure of myself," he remembers. "I had no direction. I didn't know what the heck I was going to do. Right when I was the most confused, I got hurt. But from that point forward, I had clarity and direction. After the first year or two of adjustment to being disabled, I knew exactly what I wanted to do."

Now, Dave Kiley has spent nearly two-thirds of his life as a paraplegic, and as a highly successful individual. "A lot of people expect you to still wish you were walking.  But, I love my life, and I can't imagine it being any better."

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Our mission is to develop self-esteem and confidence in the physically challenged population through participation in adapted outdoor activities

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