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Spina bifida doesn't slow this active life
By Mary Madewell
The Paris News
Published October 9, 2006
Hunter Hollje has never let a birth defect slow him down.
From playing sports while growing up to hunting and fishing with his dad, Hollje has led an active life while dealing with the affects of myelomeningocele, the most common and serious form of spina bifida.
Spina bifida is a neural tube defect that happens in the first month of pregnancy. The spinal column doesn’t close completely.
The 2003 Paris High School graduate serves as an example of determination and brings hope to others suffering from the lifelong effects of the condition.
“I never did let that get in the way of anything,” Hollje said from his parents' home near Hopewell. He is the son of Keith and Nita Hollje.
The 22-year-old returned a fortnight ago from a deer hunting trip to Michigan, where he shot an eight-point trophy buck weighing about 300 pounds.
Dressed in a camouflage shirt given to him by former Detroit Lion Tony Semple, who sponsored Hollje on the trip to an exclusive hunting lodge near Detroit, Mich., Hollje talked about the trip and living with spina bifida.
“This is the best secret they have ever kept from me,” Hollje said.
His parents knew about his acceptance three weeks before the trip. Hollje was undergoing foot surgery to relieve a pressure sore when his dad applied for a place on the hunting trip. Hollje was one of five young men with disabilities on the trip.
A hunting friend — Mike Ray, owner of Thunderwolf Archery in Blossom — nominated Hollje for the trip and accompanied him.
“I could have shot one the first day out, but I waited for a bigger one,” Hollje said. The trophy is being mounted and will join another deer, a turkey and a hog in a hunting room at the family residence.
“I got my first deer when I was 9 years old,” said Hollje, who is as proficient with a bow as he is with a rifle.
Hollje spoke about other activities he participated in as a youth. He began playing baseball when he was 7 and continued through his sophomore year at PHS. He also served as manager for the Wildcat football team.
“The last year of Pony League, he pitched two innings and struck out five of six batters,” Keith Hollje said proudly of his son.
Paris Breakfast Optimist established an award in his honor —the Hunter Hollje All-Heart Award.
Hunter's dad says he has always told his son that “just because it is not easy doesn’t mean you can’t do it.”
The son says he lives by that motto.
“I don’t let spina bifida get in my way,” he said.
This month is Spina Bifida Month, an awareness campaign supported by the Spina Bifida Association to support research, prevention and to bring encouragement to those with the defect. An estimated 70,000 people in the United States have spina bifida.
Each year about 3,000 pregnancies are affected, according to information from the Spina Bifida Association. Research shows women of childbearing age who take folic acid reduce the chances of having a child with spina bifida by as much as 70 percent.
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