New Bremen student athlete swims to the podium finish

When it comes to swimming, New Bremen student athlete Ava DeMarcus had to work harder than most, just to get into the pool. DeMarcus finished third in the 25 meter freestyle at the Special Olympics Ohio Indoor Winter Games state level event held at Bowling Green State University this past March.

“Ava was born with Cerebral Palsy. Her Cerebral

Palsy affected her mobility, which with most kids who have it, it does,” explained Amy Burnett, Intervention Specialist for the CrossCategorical Unit at New Bremen Schools.

DeMarcus is a fifth grader at New Bremen who is preparing to move on to the sixth grade. Burnett said that early on in her school years that DeMarcus had surgery on her legs to help with her mobility, and then in the fall of 2021, she

started something called Spider Therapy.

“They suspended her in the air with straps and made her body move for her without her brain having to do it, and without other factors like gravity,” outlined Burnett. She said that it was in intense process for her Mom, Katy DeMarcus, to get her to and from therapy at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, even on school days. “At