TROY – For the first time in its 11-year history, Troy University’s Helen Keller Lecture will bring students face-to-face with other students who have physical disabilities.

In an innovative approach to presenting life with disabilities, two TROY students will provide their first-hand accounts in a panel that includes a former and highly successful coach.

Donovan Beitel, currently an adult, full-time student on the Troy Campus, Tara Blackwell, a Lady Trojan softball player injured last year, and Coach Don Hackney, who led the Alabama School for the Deaf to 12 national championships from 1978 – 2002, will be the primary speakers at 10 a.m. Thursday in the Claudia Crosby Theater.

Beitel, employed by Bonnie Plant Farm and responsible for fleet purchasing and finance, was reared in Jasper and diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease at age 9. Legally blind, he relocated his family to Troy in July 2005 to pursue a degree. In the ninth grade, Beitel transferred from Jasper schools to the Alabama School for the Blind, where he earned the Eagle Scout award and was valedictorian of his senior class. Prior to his move to Troy, he was employed with the Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Inc. as corporate finance manager and equipment finance manager. He and wife Kathy are the parents of two sons, Devan, 15, and Daniel, 7.

Blackwell, 21, was a sophomore member of the Lady Trojans Softball Team when she was injured last season. On April 9, 2005, she landed on her neck while tumbling after a practice in Nashville, Tenn., suffering a spinal cord injury in the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae. The injury left the 44-game starting infielder from Pensacola, Fla., paralyzed from the chest down. At the time of her injury, Blackwell had racked up a .311 batting average with five doubles, 15 RBIs, and a slugging percentage of .403. He recorded 31 runs with 52 total bases and nine stolen bases. She was on a 13-game multi-hit streak with a fielding percentage of .975 with 76 put outs and 43 assists. She was hospitalized at Vanderbilt Hospital, transported to Atlanta’s Shepherd Spinal Center and released in July 2005 to complete five months of physical and occupational therapy at West Florida Hospital. She returned to TROY to continue and upgrade her physical therapy and to continue her classes via email. After nearly a year, she has regained almost a full-range of motion in her arms.

Hackney is a native of South Williamson, Kent., and also has a spinal cord injury that has left him paralyzed. A team captain in football and baseball at Belfry High School, he went on to a collegiate baseball career at Morehead State University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in health, physical education and recreation in 1971. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee and completed advanced graduate studies at the University of Alabama. In 1978, he joined the faculty of the Alabama School for the Deaf as supervising teacher and athletic director. During his tenure at AIDB, Hackney was three times named the National Basketball Coach of the Year by Deaf American, was named the Class A Basketball Coach of the Year by the Birmingham Post-Herald and the Anniston Star’s Area Coach of the Year. He led AIDB teams to 12 national championships in track, basketball and football, won three state track championships, two Northeast Regional Basketball Championships, 26 Mason-Dixon Championships and a host of state playoff berths. Hackney is also credited with creating the national model for statewide transportation networks for AIDB students, developed and revised the Alabama School for the Deaf Physical Education curriculum and assisted in the development of fundraising activities for the construction of a football field, track and a $2.5 million gymnasium complex at AIDB. In addition, he spearheaded the drive that sent six Alabama School for the Deaf athletes to the World Games for the Deaf in Germany and Australia.

The Helen Keller lecture is designed to promote awareness of people who excel in their chosen fields despite physical limitations. The lecture is sponsored by Troy University, the Alabama Department of Education, the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services and The Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education. Others who have presented the lecture include Erik Weihenmayer, the first person who is blind to climb Mt. Everest; Heather Whitestone, the first Miss America with a disability; and former U.S. Sen. Howell Heflin, a friend of the Keller family.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

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