Natalie Schneider set to talk at CAMC Auxiliary meeting
An athlete who once ruled Crete High’s basketball courts has since taken her talents across the globe, earning four Paralympic medals, two World Championship medals and a Parapan American Games medal.
Natalie Schneider now is set to inspire and educate with a speech at an upcoming Crete Area Medical Center Auxiliary meeting.
Schneider, the 2023 recipient of Billie Jean King’s Sportswoman of the Year Award – Teams, spoke to the CAMC Auxiliary once before a few years ago. A vice president of the group’s board, Nancy Nelsen, said event attendees loved hearing from Schneider.
“A lot of (auxiliary members) have known (Schneider) since she was born, and so they really enjoy listening to her stories,” Nelsen said. “And, she really has a lot of experiences that they learn a lot from.”
Nelsen, who is also Schneider’s mother, said she is looking forward to seeing people enjoy Schneider’s speech again. She also hopes visiting with Schneider will help people better understand those who are physically disabled.
“You can't judge the book by the cover,” Nelsen said. “Just because they're disabled doesn't mean that they're not intelligent.”
Schneider, Crete class of 2001, was an impressive high school athlete and went to state as a starter on the girls basketball team before she was diagnosed with an osteosarcoma, or bone cancer tumor, above her knee at age 16.
She underwent chemotherapy and surgery to remove the tumor. The doctors then gave her a titanium knee and told her she would never run or jump again. So, although she can walk independently, she must use a wheelchair for sports.
“Her junior year was pretty much spent doing chemotherapy and then also recuperating from her prosthetic being put in,” Nelsen said.
During Schneider’s senior year at Doane University, Nelsen read an article about someone who had the same surgery and a similar titanium replacement who played sitting volleyball.
Schneider was thrilled by the chance to get back into sports and joined the men’s sitting volleyball team in Omaha because there was no women’s team in the area. She made Team USA for the Paralympics, but when she told her doctor about it, he said it was too dangerous for her to continue playing.
One wrong move could crush the rod in her prosthetic and force them to amputate.
However, her friends on the Omaha team suggested she try sitting basketball instead. She was successful and competed with Team USA for sitting basketball for the first time in China in 2008.
CAMC Auxiliary Board President Cheryl Retherford said she believes attendees will enjoy hearing about all of Schneider’s experiences, including all she has persevered through, the places she has traveled and the many friends she has made through the Paralympics.
“She doesn’t like to toot her horn, but I think it’s just wonderful what she had done, and with her family also,” Rutherford said. “I look forward to hearing her again because I’m sure there are other things that will come up that she didn’t say the first time.”
The CAMC Auxiliary typically has a speaker for its spring and fall meetings, and past speakers have included Schneider, a doctor, a business owner, community health and nonprofit workers and the K-9 unit.
The CAMC Auxiliary is a volunteer organization that has purchased thousands of dollars worth of equipment for the hospital over the years, provides outfits for newborns at the hospital, gives comfort bags to chemotherapy patients and more. It has held garage sales, festivals, luncheons, bake sales and more to raise money.
Retherford said the group, which meets biannually, is aging and looking for new members. It used to run a CAMC gift shop but cannot do everything it used to due to a lack of membership. She encourages anyone in the community who is interested in serving others to join, and the spring meeting with Schneider is open to everyone in the community, not just auxiliary members.
Schneider has competed in the Paralympics again since the last time she visited the CAMC Auxiliary, and Retherford said she is looking forward to hearing about her latest adventure.
“I went on the internet and watched the last Paralympic game where Natalie was playing,” Retherford said. “To see these girls in a wheelchair, their strength, their arm strength to move those wheelchairs is just amazing.”
