Three months later, Bean was seriously injured in an auto accident that nearly claimed her life, left her legs paralyzed and has limited her to use of a wheelchair.
Brenna Bean, center, assistant coach, observes the Frontier Regional High School pole vault team at practice at the Western Massachusetts Track Championships at Westfield State University.
A year ago today, Brenna Bean, of Whately, found a way to raise – and clear – the bar on what had become one of the great accomplishments of her young life.
Bean, then a high school senior at Frontier Regional School, won her second straight pole vault title at the All-Western Mass. High School Track and Field Championships.
Then fate raised the bar.
Three months later, Bean was seriously injured in an auto accident that nearly claimed her life, left her legs paralyzed and has limited her to use of a wheelchair.
“There were two ways to go after something like this – with a happy attitude, looking at it like there is nothing I can’t do, or live a depressed life, with an awful outlook,” Bean said.
A year after her crowning moment at Westfield State University, Bean was again seen smiling near the same pole vault pit at the college’s track Saturday.
“There is nothing sad about it, being back there under different circumstances,” Bean said. “I was planning to come to Westfield State (as a student) and vault for them. It’s just great to still be able to be part of something I love. It (pole vaulting) is something I could do once. Now I can help people do it.”
This time, from her wheelchair, Bean offered support and encouragement as an assistant coach for Frontier.
“Coaching has been therapeutic for her,” Bean’s father Harlan said. “She knows the girls, they know her.”
Frontier senior Mary Shaw, a former teammate who competed Saturday, said Bean is nothing short of an inspiration.
“She’s the same person that she was before (the accident) and she is so nonchalant about her challenges,” Shaw, of Conway, said. “She accepts it. As soon as we knew she’d be OK (out of critical condition), we knew she’d be OK (in life).”
Bean had planned for a physical therapy major at Westfield State, before the accident happened just days prior to enrolling as a freshman. She will begin classes there this fall, now with an interest in recreational therapy.
“Just from being in this situation, I want to work with people like me .¤.¤. it will be great to teach them how to integrate themselves back into society,” Bean said. “When I went through it (recreational therapy), I didn’t even realize it. I don’t want people to say, “I have to go to therapy’ and not want to go.”
Bean’s positive attitude seems to shine above all else.
“If you knew Brenna before all this, she is the same exact person – which is pretty amazing,” Harlan Bean said. “I can’t even imagine dealing with the challenges she’s faced. I don’t think I’d handle it the way she has.”
Frontier Regional assistant track coach Jim Recore of Conway said Bean has “embraced her challenge,” beyond comprehension.
“She has never let down once, never .¤.¤. wouldn’t you, once in a while in the darkness of night say or think, ‘What the heck has happened to my life?’” Recore said. “She has just embraced this.”
Brenna Bean is grateful for all the help she has received, but said she was never one to rely on the help of others.
“The tough part is that when people see me in my chair, they think I need help and (they) want to help,” Bean said. “I like to prove myself, so people who know me know that I will ask for help, if I need it.”
Bean was a passenger in the August accident, one that ejected her from a pickup truck, broke her backbone in 10 spots and resulted in drunken driving charges against others involved.
“Any one of us, you or me .¤.¤. we’d have closed the blinds,” Recore said. “Who wouldn’t have been a bitter, angry person? Not Brenna.”
She has ventured into public speaking – addressing driving school classes, pre-prom high school forums and corporate functions.
“I had never really done it, but I wasn’t afraid of it either,” Bean said of public speaking. “Doing that helps me too, and I like helping other people make smarter decisions with their lives.
“And it probably helps, when they see me at 19. I was in high school a year ago. It probably makes more of an impact than a teacher, who is 50 or 60 years old, telling them what to or not to do.”
At home, Bean uses a Functional Electrical Stimulation bike on a daily basis. Electrical impulses, through electrodes attached to her legs and abdomen, force her muscles to work on their own to pedal the bike. The process helps maintain muscle tone and blood circulation, prevents bone loss and decreases muscle spasticity.
Bean is also hopeful of inventing an apparatus that would allow people in wheelchairs to pole vault.
“All she’s wanted through all this is the chance to pole vault again, somehow .¤.¤. even if she clears two feet,” Recore said.
Bean’s immediate hope is to increase her mobility, in the form of a vehicle specially-equipped for drivers without use of their legs.
“I want to be as mobile as I can be, as soon as I can,” Bean said. “Driving a car will really, really help.”
Help for that will come in a big way next month, when a fund-raiser will be spearheaded from an unlikely source – the owner of a Cambridge restaurant.
During Bean’s stay last fall at Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Boston, one burning interest of Bean’s was to eat at her favorite restaurant – Fire + Ice Family Restaurant.
Harlan Bean sent an email to the nearby Harvard Square restaurant, inquiring about take-out service. Founder and owner John Schall replied with a take-out order and much more.
“Meeting Brenna and her family allowed me to re-live the most important time of my life .¤.¤. when an unspeakable tragedy changed so much,” Schall said. “It was a remarkable feat of human strength, courage and will and I see that with Brenna and her family.”
Schall was living in Northampton as a graduate student at UMass 35 years ago when his younger brother Mike was the victim of a car accident in Iowa. Mike has been in a wheelchair ever since.
“Brenna is a remarkable young woman, with an incredible sense of humor and incredible determination,” John Schall said. “I own her favorite restaurant, she’d make road trips just to eat here. And with all that has happened with our families .¤.¤. I have the means to do something like this.”
During dinner hours on June 14, Schall said “every nickel of tips and sales will go to Friends of Brenna Bean Fund.” The fund helps the Bean family with costs associated with Bean’s accident.
“We can seat 700 people a night, so why not generate something like $25,000 for this,” Schall said. “I know how incredibly important it was to Mike’s life, to have the ability to use a car.
“And a car that she needs is probably in the $35,000 range and with all expenses the family faces, changes to household and things like that – why not take one piece out of it that doesn’t have to come out of their pockets.”
Schall’s brother, who corresponds regularly with Bean, will make the trip from Iowa.
“Mike doesn’t know this but 110 of his co-workers have secretly made donations to Brenna and will give Mike a check before he leaves,” said Schall, who will accept dinner reservations at (617) 547-9007. “Sometimes the worst things bring out the best in people.”
And sometimes they raise the bar.