Stratford’s Ryley McMillan is once again encouraging local community members to support The War Amps through its popular Key Tag Service to provide the funding he and other child amputees depend on to enjoy all the fun things kids should be able to experience.
Thanks to support from The War Amps, nothing is out of reach for Stratford’s Ryley McMillan.
Whether he’s riding his bike, playing hockey, fishing, cooking at home, or working with his dad in the lumberyard, McMillan, a 14-year-old who was born a left-arm amputee, has access to the artificial limbs and adaptive devices , as well as the support and encouragement of other Canadian amputees, he needs to try anything that catches his interest.
And because he can do anything he sets his mind to, he has also spent the last several years showing other kids like him and the wider community that amputees can live life to the fullest.
“I know a couple people who haven’t known about The War Amps before, and now they do,” Ryley said. “It really helps people who haven’t lost a limb understand what they do and how they helped me and other people like me.
” … They really helped me out with hands and other attachments. People think that you just kind of get them — that’s what my friends thought — and I told them that they’re really expensive, but The War Amps get them for me. I just got this hook attachment from (Prosthetics, Bracing and Orthotics Group) in Toronto and it’s been helping me (open and close my hook) without using my other hand.”
From attachments that connect to his hockey stick, help him throw a baseball and connect to the handlebars on his bike, Ryley says that no matter what he wants to try, The War Amps can help him find a device that works best for him. And even when an attachment doesn’t work exactly as he’d hoped, Ryley said he can sometimes find other uses for those same attachments.
For example, Ryley said the attachment he received to help him play golf also works really well with helping him hold his fishing rod.
Crystal McMillan, Ryley’s mom, says the attachments and prosthetics he has access to through The War Amps have also been helping him explore potential future career paths like cooking or helping his dad in the lumberyard by driving the Bobcat loader using his baseball attachment to operate the joystick or using his more-durable, stainless-steel hook attachment to lift and carry heavier objects.
“We’re getting closer to a more-adult age. We’re getting closer to the workforce, so it’s definitely something we’re trying to think about,” Crystal McMillan said.
And as he uses his attachments and prosthetic limbs for different sports, jobs or activities, he can offer feedback and advice to other single-arm amputees when he meets with them at various symposiums, conferences and virtual events and activities hosted regularly by The War Amps .
But The War Amps programs and services that Ryley and other amputees depend on aren’t possible without support from the community. One of the most popular ways to support The War Amps is through the organization’s Key Tag Service.
The Key Tag Service was launched in 1946 so that returning war amputee veterans could not only work for competitive wages, but also provide a service to Canadians that would generate funds for the association’s many programs. The service continues to employ amputees and people with disabilities and has returned more than 1.5-million sets of lost keys to their owners.
The War Amps receives no government grants and its programs are possible through public support of the key-tag and address-label services.
For more information or to order key tags, visit waramps.ca or call 1-800-250-3030.