Baltimore Improv helps disabled veterans improve self-expression
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore Improv visited the Baltimore VA Medical Center Wednesday to conduct a workshop with disabled veterans.
The group gathers monthly to acquire various skills. Wednesday's lesson focused on self-expression.
The Vision Impairment Service Team caters to low vision and blind veterans.
"Self-expression is not something we have to forfeit because we are vets," Terry Stokes, a U.S. Navy veteran, said.
Veterans at the Baltimore VA received a lesson in improv.
All the participants in this workshop are low-vision or legally blind veterans.
"We are mostly low-vision to blind. So we don't have the opportunity that often to meet people that can identify with us as military people and people who still have other objectives that we would like to succeed in," Terry Stokes, a veteran, explained.
Their instructor, Thomas, is a retired Navy submarine officer.
"When I joined the Navy, what I didn't know was there was this expectation that I had forfeited some portion of my humanity. You're a soldier. You're a sailor. You don't have any other interests," Stokes remarked.
Thomas has a passion for improv and now shares this enthusiasm with his fellow veterans, teaching them various ways to express themselves.
"We've been golfing, we've been bowling. We do things that say even though our vision has been compromised that we can still do things like everyone else, we just have to do them in a different way," Stokes added.
The Baltimore VA's Vision Impairment Service Team serves low vision and blind veterans. The group convenes once a month for learning and enjoyment.
