The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Changing lives, one paddle at a time
U.S. Veterans Rowing & Kayaking opens new division
The U.S. Veterans Rowing & Kayaking Foundation launched its newest division Friday at the Polish Falcons Club at Crystal Lake.
The group has grown from six members at the West Haven Veterans Affairs medical center in 2013 to more than 16,000 members in 12 states.
In 2013, Paul-Stephen Varszegi, of Trumbull, was working as a housing specialist at the West Haven Veterans Affairs, helping disabled veterans find homes.
“When we came into the office on Monday, we found out, through our computer system, half of our clients were recovering in the emergency room,” he said.
The veterans had been using the hospital as a place to congregate during the week — in the day rooms during the winter and in the recreation yard outside in the warmer weather.
They had nothing to do on the weekend when the VA closed, Varszegi said.
“They would go out and drink and use. This was a constant theme. Every Monday when we came in, the clinicians and the doctors couldn’t figure out what to do,” he said. “I’m relatively new, I’m sitting in the back with my arms crossed listening to this nonsense and I just got sick of it.”
Varszegi made a proposal to the director.
“I felt that recreational rehabilitation was the key to recovery,” said Varszegi, a former Marine discharged due to a broken neck.
He said many veterans have invisible wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The foundation was begun “to provide adaptive rowing and kayaking recreational rehabilitation programs, which the VA health care system was unable to do,” said Varszegi, who established the foundation because of his struggles after he underwent spinal cord fusion surgery in 1976.
He was “overmedicated due to my severe pains,” but as a result, he became “addicted to pain meds and, later on, to antidepressant drugs.”
“Being deployed today is very different from being deployed back in WWI and Vietnam.”
Paul-Stephen Varszegi, of Trumbull
He evolved into self-medicating with alcohol and recreational drugs “to help offset my anxiety and mood disorders.”
He eventually was able to end his dependency on medication after he met a new clinician “who said I was overmedicated and was a walking zombie,” Varzegis said.
At one time, took between 17 and 18 prescriptions a day.
Now, “I’m completely against drugs for recovery unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Exercise made all the difference. “Now I take multivitamins, baby aspirin to keep the blood flowing and that’s about it,” he said.
Foundation secretary Jerry Augustine, of Middletown, a former marathon runner, won the 1K indoor rowing race in his category in Connecticut earlier this year.
Varszegi has been trying to get Augustine to consider competing in the world indoor rowing championships in Boston in February.
Augustine has already had much success in the sport. In January, he competed in the 10K race from Rocky Hill to Cromwell on the Connecticut River in a two-person kayak and won his division.
Ever since his time in Vietnam, Augustine said, he has had an excess of energy which he has funneled into physical activity.
“I did a whole, hard day’s worth of roofing, I joined the Y. I had to be the best at something,” he said of his younger years.
“He’s been a great role model, so I recruited him right away for our foundation,” Varszegi said.
The club’s goal is to network with as many veterans service organizations as possible: the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the newest, the Iraq Afghanistan Veterans of America.
“We’ve got to start reaching the younger guys who are coming back very, very injured. Being deployed today is very different from being deployed back in WWI and Vietnam so forth,” Varszegi said.
While younger, Augustine won the Mr. New England and Mr. Northeast America competitions, something, along with running, he took up to help him ease repercussions he feels from combat decades ago.
Augustine ran to the top of the Empire State Building nearly 10 times.
On Friday morning, he took the kayak out on Crystal Lake with Dean Buden, of Plainville.
Meanwhile, the group is gearing up for a competition Nov. 3 on Long Island, when about 120 participants will take part. Varszegi said he has identified 24 people who have the potential to set an American or world record.
“There’s even 102-year-old man. We’re not going to make him do 1,000. He’ll do a 100 meters — which will probably take him about 50 seconds to do.”
For information, visit veteransrowing.org or call 844-838-7697.