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From left, Patti Hasty, Patricia Kucera, Daryl Kucera, Ann Sorys and LeAnne Denney laugh at MS Forward gym in Omaha. About two decades ago, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Daryl Kucera converted a large part of his gym into an exercise room for people with MS. Now, about 130 people participate in programs at MS Forward.
Daryl Kucera, right, coaches Mike Valentino through an exercise at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Volunteer Kyle Hall, left, holds punching pads for LeAnne Denney, right, as Daryl Kucera cheers her on at the gym in Omaha.
Josh Kucera, left, and volunteer Kyle Hall, right, help LeAnne Denney get into her wheelchair at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Daryl Kucera, left, coaches Mike Valentino through an exercise at MS Forward gym.
Vicky Perlmeter high-fives Daryl Kucera at MS Forward gym.
A stuffed animal sits in Arlene Cooperider’s bag at MS Forward gym.
Daryl Kucera speaks with his son, Josh Kucera, at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Volunteer Ann Sorys, left, pets Daryl Kucera’s dog while Daryl counts down to the start of an exercise at MS Forward gym.
From left, LeAnne Denney, volunteer Ann Sorys and Kim Kozelichki laugh while at MS Forward gym.
Daryl Kucera, left, pats the Rev. Fred Raybourn on the shoulder at MS Forward gym.
Rick Denney, left, speaks with Daryl Kucera at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Physical therapist assistant Jessica Niemann, right, works with Patti Hasty at MS Forward gym.
Physical therapist assistant student Brennen Smith, right, helps the Rev. Fred Raybourn with an exercise at MS Forward gym.
At first glance, MS Forward looks like a typical gym.
Exercise equipment lines the walls. Artificial turf and rubber mats cover the floor.
In one room, owner Daryl Kucera coaches Mike Valentino through a series of upper-body exercises. Valentino punches forward, one arm at a time, with the 5-pound dumbbells in his hands, and then pulls back.
“When you’re moving like that, you’re bringing in your core,” Kucera says. “You can see it through your shirt.”
Valentino mentions that he spent time with his grandchildren over the weekend. A few minutes later, Kucera, stopwatch in hand, asks Valentino what he thinks of the new name for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ stadium (Acrisure Stadium) and then gives his next instruction: “All right, kid, flys — both sides.”
Sports banter and exercise aside, there are differences. Kucera, 59, zips around the gym, which is tucked into a strip mall near the Millard Airport, in the electric wheelchair that in 2014 became his mode of transportation. Valentino, a retired mail carrier, entered with the help of a walker.
Both men have multiple sclerosis, a disease in which the immune system attacks the protective sheath — known as myelin — that covers nerve fibers. Like shorts in an electrical wire, the lesions caused by the attacks disrupt communications between the brain and the rest of the body. Nearly 1 million people in the U.S. are living with MS, according to a study funded by the National MS Society. The effects are widely variable. Some have mild disease that has little impact on their lives. But others have significant disability. Each person’s symptoms can change over time.
Kucera had his first symptoms a month after he opened the gym in 2001 in a different west Omaha location. His initial plan was to train young athletes. Doctors advised him to sell.
“That was really a downer,” said Kucera, who has a master’s degree in exercise and nutrition science from the Fitness Institute of Technology in Tampa, Florida.
Through faith, he decided to stick with it. “It turned into more of a prod to keep going,” he said.
After meeting with neurologists and therapists, in spring 2003 he converted a large portion of the facility into an exercise room for people with MS. His son, Josh Kucera, 31, still trains athletes in the afternoons and evenings as well as working alongside his father.
Now, about 130 people participate in programs at MS Forward, between in-person sessions and seven telehealth classes, including one for homebound residents in connection with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and another for people in the Kansas City area.
In early July, Kucera launched a new day program for people with MS and other disabilities in partnership with Clarkson College, Creighton University and Fusion Medical Staffing, which earlier this summer raised $40,000 for the program through a company golf tournament.
The program, called ReaLM, The Community of Possibilities, is named in honor of Randy Marlatt, a gym member and friend who died of complications from COVID-19 in February.
“Community,” Kucera said, “is what’s making this happen.”
MS Forward is as much a community as it is a gym. Many of the members have been coming for years. Some get together outside the gym for dinner or movies. Volunteers contribute time and talent, from securing grant dollars to designing and making equipment.
“I get so inspired every day by people at this gym,” Kucera said.
Vicky Perlmeter has been coming since March 2005. She had been in an MS support group, which later disbanded. The group took a field trip to the gym’s original location.
Perlmeter initially vowed there was no way she would drive all the way from her home near 93rd Street and West Dodge Road.
“Now he can’t get rid of me,” she says with a smile as she logged steps on a seated elliptical machine.
Perlmeter, who’s 71, was diagnosed at 20. She had just gotten married. Nine years and two kids later, she and her husband divorced. Her children were 4 and 6. Her parents and family helped out.
“It’s been tough,” she said. “But I try to have a positive attitude.” She has posted signs reading, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are,” in her bedroom and bathroom. She reads them every day.
She has friends in the community who don’t have MS. But the gym group gets it. “We’re all family,” she said. “It’s like a support group, plus we exercise.”
Nearby, volunteer Ann Sorys, a retired Omaha police officer, kicks a soccer ball back and forth with Kira Baker, 39, of Omaha, who has MS and epilepsy.
Kucera zips over. Adaptive sports such as soccer and tennis, he explains, require timing, coordination and balance. The goal is to connect the mind to the muscle. “You’ve gotten so good at this, Baker!” he calls.
Sorys said she volunteers elsewhere. But seeing the progress people make at the gym, even if it’s just gaining the ability to stand on their own, stands out.
“This is just more rewarding for me,” she said. “There’s just something about the place. It’s so positive.”
Ryan Figgins, Fusion Medical Staffing’s employee engagement manager, said the company recently completed its fourth golf tournament for employees in support of the gym. The mother of one employee has MS and works out there. Recently, he learned that another employee has the condition.
“It’s crazy how it all comes back in the end,” he said.
Valentino’s doctor sent him to the gym more than 10 years ago. Valentino said Kucera works him hard, and that’s why he’s there. “I tell my wife, ‘A body in motion stays in motion,’” Valentino said.
He admits that he sometimes just wants to sit. “My body’s always so stiff. I come here and I get nice and loose,” he said. “Plus, it’s nice to get out of the house a couple times a week.”
Kucera calls that the power of people: a touch on a shoulder, a pat on the back. Many people with disabilities are isolated, and the pandemic made that worse.
Teresa Otto, the sister of the late Randy Marlatt, recently made her first trip to the gym as a volunteer during the day program, bringing daughter Jaycee. For Otto, it’s a way of being with her brother.
“He just really needed to find a community,” Otto said of Randy, who was diagnosed in 2013. “It not only helped him with strength, it helped him mentally, too.”
***
Researchers for some time have recognized the positive effects of exercise on physical as well as mental health, and they also have come to recognize its impact on conditions such as MS.
Recognizing that, the Multiple Sclerosis at Home Access program for years has provided referrals and scholarships for MS patients to MS Forward and other gyms in the community. MAHA was founded in 2013 by Kathleen Healey, an emeritus neuroscientist at UNMC. Through the program, staff meet patients at home to improve access to MS care.
Healey said people who are diagnosed with MS and other disabling conditions often face depression. Kucera, she said, is well-suited to provide the motivation to overcome it.
“He is probably the most inspirational person I know,” she said. “People totally relate to him, no matter who you are.”
Horizon Rehabilitation Centers in Omaha also offers a live, online class, sponsored by UNMC, called Horizon Stars, as well as other separate online classes for people with MS and other conditions.
Co-owner Tammy Roehrs, a physical therapist, has been seeing people with MS since 1990. The center also expanded its program at the start of the pandemic to include a medical fitness gym where people who have completed their therapy can come and take classes. That’s the brainchild of Roehrs’ husband, Troy Roehrs, who also is a physical therapist.
Tammy Roehrs said there’s a saying in exercise science and physical therapy that “exercise is medicine.”
With chronic conditions from MS to rheumatoid arthritis, she said, it’s easy to think of exercise as a drain.
“But actually, it’s the opposite,” said Roehrs, who early in her career worked with Dr. Randy Shapiro in Minnesota, an early believer in the benefits of exercise for MS. “It gives them more strength so they can do more, and it’s something they can do that they have control over.”
But Healey said people with MS remain underserved. She and members of the MAHA team have been talking with City of Omaha officials about creating accessible housing for people with significant disabilities, particularly neurological ones like MS.
“That is our dream,” Healey said. “I think it’s possible … Our first thing was to focus on awareness. So many in this community don’t know the needs and the services lacking for people with significant disabilities.”
***
Back in the gym, two students in Clarkson College’s physical therapist assistant program help participants at various exercise stations. Students rotate through the program during the course of their training.
Jessica Niemann, the program director, said the college has worked with MS Forward for 13 years. The day program is taking that relationship to a new level.
The students, she said, learn about MS in textbooks. But the hands-on work with participants puts a face to the condition, helping students see participants as people, not just as patients with MS.
After 40 minutes of activity, the students gather the participants to discuss the benefits of strengthening exercises. At the end, they hand out guides with exercises they can do at home. Over the course of the program, students also will discuss nutrition, self-care, flexibility and other topics.
“It’s the most mutually beneficial program,” Niemann said.
Others also are helping. Engineering students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska at Omaha have helped build assistive exercise equipment, working with Metal-Tech Partners, which is based in Geneva, Nebraska. Mary Filipi, a researcher, MS nurse and gym supporter, recently received her third award from the International Organization of Multiple Sclerosis Nurses, funded by EMD Serono, the health care business of Merck KGaA in the U.S. and Canada, and donated the monetary award to support the program.
In early August, Kucera got 15 reconditioned pieces of Cybex exercise equipment from the Blair YMCA, delivered and set up by Nova Fitness Equipment in Omaha.
Kyle Hall, a volunteer who works in the telehealth field, helped get a grant to offer the online classes. Now he’s organizing in-person events aimed at bolstering social interactions. He hopes to extend those to virtual participants, too.
“When people get together and start communicating with each other and building each other up … anybody who’s a part of it starts to benefit,” he said.
And there’s plenty of building up to go around. At the end of the day program, one participant praises a young man who has a brain injury for being well-spoken. The young man now is a gym regular.
“And strong, too,” chimed in Kim Kozelichki, the gym’s first member. Kozelichki, 51, recently completed a half marathon, pushed most of the way in an adaptive jogging wheelchair by her care team.
After the session ends, family members and caregivers arrive to pick up their loved ones. Among them is Kim’s husband, Todd Kozelichki.
Those gathered in the entryway talk about the stories that have brought the members to the gym and how life can change in an instant.
“Everybody here’s got incredible stories,” Kozelichki said.
julie.anderson@owh.com, 402-444-1066, twitter.com/julieanderson41
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Julie Anderson is a medical reporter for The World-Herald. She covers health care and health care trends and developments, including hospitals, research and treatments. Follow her on Twitter @JulieAnderson41. Phone: 402-444-1066.
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From left, Patti Hasty, Patricia Kucera, Daryl Kucera, Ann Sorys and LeAnne Denney laugh at MS Forward gym in Omaha. About two decades ago, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Daryl Kucera converted a large part of his gym into an exercise room for people with MS. Now, about 130 people participate in programs at MS Forward.
Daryl Kucera, right, coaches Mike Valentino through an exercise at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Volunteer Kyle Hall, left, holds punching pads for LeAnne Denney, right, as Daryl Kucera cheers her on at the gym in Omaha.
Josh Kucera, left, and volunteer Kyle Hall, right, help LeAnne Denney get into her wheelchair at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Daryl Kucera, left, coaches Mike Valentino through an exercise at MS Forward gym.
Vicky Perlmeter high-fives Daryl Kucera at MS Forward gym.
A stuffed animal sits in Arlene Cooperider’s bag at MS Forward gym.
Daryl Kucera speaks with his son, Josh Kucera, at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Volunteer Ann Sorys, left, pets Daryl Kucera’s dog while Daryl counts down to the start of an exercise at MS Forward gym.
From left, LeAnne Denney, volunteer Ann Sorys and Kim Kozelichki laugh while at MS Forward gym.
Daryl Kucera, left, pats the Rev. Fred Raybourn on the shoulder at MS Forward gym.
Rick Denney, left, speaks with Daryl Kucera at MS Forward gym in Omaha.
Physical therapist assistant Jessica Niemann, right, works with Patti Hasty at MS Forward gym.
Physical therapist assistant student Brennen Smith, right, helps the Rev. Fred Raybourn with an exercise at MS Forward gym.
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