MAPLEWOOD, Ohio — Like thousands of other soldiers, the Vietnam War changed Mike Clark’s life in every way possible.
“I hit a landmine and that took care of everything,” Clark said. “Lost both legs, part of an eardrum and I've got a mile of scars from it.”
He came home to the family farm in Maplewood, Ohio, where he worked alongside his grandfather and other family members as a kid.
“I first started farming 30-bushel beans was huge, and now, if you don't make 60, you're not hitting average,” he said.
Over the years, he would go through a variety of prosthetic legs and utilized a wheelchair. They all had limitations when it came to the farm and getting around. In fact, he now relies on his sons or family friends to help with many of the projects he once could do.
This year he was made aware of a program called Ohio AgrAbility, a national program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a partnership between Ohio State University and Easterseals Redwood based in Cincinnati.
“We help farmers who have incurred injury, illness or disability get back to farming,” said Rachel Jarman, rural rehabilitation coordinator with Easterseals Redwood.
Through the program, Clark received a major hand up with a new all-terrain motorized chair that has treads like a tank and allows him to get places on the farm he hadn’t been in years.
“Once I’m in it, I’m hell on wheels,” Clark said. “The mobility is great, and you can — wherever you want to go you can go no matter mud, water, obstacles — it will climb over them.”
In addition to the new electric wheelchair, a new hydraulic lift chair attached to his farm truck raises him up to the cab of his John Deere tractor allowing him to work the fields.
“It's about keeping people working that want to keep working, and keeping them on the farm,” Jarman said. “For a lot of farmers, farming is a way of life for them, like you said, it's very generational, and so the thought of having to remove yourself from something that your family has been a part of is undoubtedly a difficult thing to think about, but these types of equipment definitely help people continue to be on the farm.”
From checking the mail to getting into the barn to work on pieces of equipment, the AgrAbility program has given Mike and his family peace of mind and new independence. He encourages other disabled veterans to reach out to see what Easterseals Redwood and the AgrAbility program could do for them.
“Get a hold of AgrAbility, get them headed in the right direction. I mean, there's so much stuff out there that you are not aware of, but people like them get you hooked up with makes life easier,” Clark said.
You can find out more about Easterseals Redwood and the AgrAbility programs by visiting their websites.
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