Moving Forward Adaptive Sports is living up to its name in the Flathead Valley.

The sports program and foundation offers a dozen different sporting events for differently abled athletes, plus instruction about modeling, acting and public speaking. Moving Forward also offers a Gifts of Love program and helps children going through a terminal illness.

Since it began just two years ago, the adaptive sports program has had participation from 154 athletes. The nonprofit organization has held 34 events in the past year, including a few in Idaho.

“Having people travel from all over the U.S. and Canada to attend our sporting events has been amazing,” said Starla Hilliard Barnes, a Kalispell paraplegic who with her husband, Shannon, started Moving Forward. “Some have told us that they never dreamed it possible to be doing some of the things that we have done.”

Moving Forward’s mantra is apropos: “Never stop rocking just because you roll.”

Starla was left paralyzed by a hit-and-run accident in downtown Kalispell in 2009. Since then she got married, gave birth to daughter Elissiah four years ago and has been an ardent advocate for overcoming adversity. She was also named Ms. Wheelchair Montana in 2014.

Moving Forward’s sporting events include sled hockey, zip-lining, whitewater rafting, fishing, hand-cycling and kayaking, among others.

“This year we unfortunately had to turn people away from zip-lining due to limited spaces available and put them on next year’s list,” she said, explaining that more zip-lining weekends will be added next year. “Bill Cubbage at Whitefish Mountain Resort has been an absolute pleasure to work with.”

For nearly every sporting activity, Moving Forward has been embraced by the community and local business owners, Starla said. “For whitewater rafting we have been working with Cassie Baldelli, the owner of Glacier Raft Co., doing multiple two-boat trips throughout the summer.”

Summer activities are now wrapping up and the sled hockey season is underway.

One of the biggest challenges for Moving Forward has been providing the expensive adaptive equipment required for some sports. Hand cycles can range from $5,200 to $8,000 each, and the equipment for each sled hockey participant costs about $1,000.

“Something that sets Moving Forward apart from many other nonprofits is that we are completely volunteer-run, so all of the funds go directly toward the athletes, equipment and events,” Starla said.

Matt Sather of Bigfork, assistant director of athletics for Moving Forward, said being involved with the program has been fulfilling.

“It feels great to help those who don’t have an opportunity” for sporting events, Sather said.

Born with spina bifida, a congenital condition of the spine, Sather got his first wheelchair when he was just a year old. Now 31, he said working with other differently abled athletes has “meant everything to me.”

He’s a hands-on instructor, out on the ice teaching participants how to maneuver their hockey sleds and helping with various other activities.

“A lot of people are a little hesitant at first or are worried about what can happen,” Sather said. A big part of his role is encouraging other athletes to take that leap of faith.

DeAnn Dishon said she has seen the benefits of Moving Forward’s activities in her 12-year-old son Tristan, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a 2007 road grader accident.

“His self-esteem has risen immensely,” Dishon said. “He’s more confident in himself, more willing to try new activities.”

Emily Berner, another of the differently abled athletes, said Moving Forward is now an important part of her life.

“I’m very glad that I met Starla, being as how positive and how ambitious of a person she is,” Berner wrote in an email. “Because I’m a part of the foundation, I’ve gotten the opportunity to participate in very fun and exciting activities that I wouldn’t have been aware of otherwise. It’s also given me the chance to enjoy life again, despite my challenges.”

The overriding goal of Moving Forward has been inclusion, Starla stressed. By offering non-sporting activities such as modeling and public speaking, no one is left out.

Starla had made some progress in being able to stand again after she, Shannon and their daughter were in an accident last November that left her paralyzed for a second time, unable to move her legs once again.

She hasn’t been able to regain any movement, and Shannon continues to recover from a brain injury that left him with headaches and double vision. Their daughter was not injured when they were rear-ended by an inattentive driver going 70 mph.

“We’re just grateful to be alive,” she said.

Starla hopes to be able to get treatments out of state that would replicate stem cells from her bone marrow and insert them in her spinal cord.

“It’s still considered experimental, but all my friends who have had it done have had some measure of success. Some are walking,” she said.

Right now, every ounce of her energy is going into Moving Forward and the fundraiser on Sept. 16. She’s enormously grateful for the community support.

“The momentum is building. It’s all coming together,” she said.

For more information about how to support Moving Forward Adaptive Sports, email Starla at starz7736@gmail.com.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.