Local veterans have stepped up to help A.J. Cada, a National Guard member featured in a story published in Sunday's edition of The Press.

Bill Davis, chapter commander of the local Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, told The Press he delivered a manual wheelchair to Cada last night.

Cada was seriously injured in a diving accident last July, and is now confined to a wheelchair. He has an electric chair, paid for by insurance, but cannot get around easily outside his home because it is too heavy and large to get into his van. Cada has been unable to get to needed outpatient physical therapy appointments.

Family members have been working to raise funds so Cada can purchase a manual chair.

Gerrie Van Voorhis, president of the American Legion Auxiliary 14 in Coeur d'Alene, said she has been working with several veterans and a family assistance specialist at the Post Falls National Guard Armory to try and help Cada.

Members of other veterans groups have also been doing what they can, said Dusty Rhoads, a lifetime member of multiple federally chartered veterans organizations.

"It has always been ‘Veterans helping Veterans' for those of us involved in these organizations," wrote Rhoads in an email sent to The Press. "That goes back to our service where it is always teamwork, one protecting another, and this stays with us, especially those of us who stayed in the service and made it a career."

Read the Sunday story by Alecia Warren here: I'm alive