Doo Dah Parade | Parkinson's can't keep 'Batman' out of uniform

By Ken Gordon
July 4, 2016

Jim Volkert, again dressed as Batman in preparation for the Doo Dah Parade

Spectators who see Batman today in the Doo Dah Parade will learn how he regained his superpowers.

For about 15 years, long enough to become a beloved Doo Dah tradition, Jim Volkert donned a full Batman suit, turned his black Trans-Am into a “Batmobile” and delighted parade-goers.

Then, in 2012, he went missing.      

Jim Volkert, who has struggled with
Parkinson's disease.

His body failed him.

“I was marching in a parade with the Ohio State alumni band in Upper Arlington,” said Volkert, who played fluegelhorn at OSU.

“And I was struggling. My feet didn’t move right; I was falling down. By midmorning, I was bent over and totally shut down.”

A friend who saw him soon afterward encouraged him to see a doctor.

He’ll never forget struggling to walk down the hall to the examination room.

“I’ve known this guy forever,” said Volkert, 58, “and, as I was walking, I could see he had a tear in his eye. That ain’t a good sign when your doctor is that upset.”

The diagnosis: Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement and is often characterized by tremors.

Volkert was soon unemployed, broke and homeless, living with a friend.

“Depression set in,” he said. “You wonder if you will ever work again or ever have your life back.”

In 2013, he received a call out of the blue from a friend of a friend: Jenny Arrigo told him she also had Parkinson’s and invited him to try a program, Delay the Disease, that had worked wonders for her.

The effort, founded 11 years ago in Columbus by David Zid and Jackie Russell, features exercise classes specifically designed for people with Parkinson’s.

“Our folks want to go tell other Parkinson’s patients because they’ve seen good results,” said Zid, director of movement disorders for OhioHealth, which bought Delay the Disease several years ago.

“It happens all the time, but Jenny is a bit special: She wanted to reach out to more people."

The results were life-changing for Volkert.

Upon beginning the program in March 2013, he noticed immediate improvement — although he needed about a year and a half, he said, to have a sense of normal movement.

He returned last year to the Doo Dah Parade but without his old Batmobile and with only a partial Batman costume.

Still, when Zid saw Volkert jump out of his (rented) car and heard the crowd cheer for him, “I was so excited for him; I didn’t realize this was such a big deal.”

Volkert is getting his life back together: A former political operative, he has found some consulting work and his own place to live.

“I get tears in my eyes when I see him now,” Arrigo said.

For the 2016 parade, having made plans to rent a proper Batmobile (perhaps a two-door black Ford Mustang), he has his full costume back.

More important, he said: He will be trailed by a vehicle in which Zid will ride with other Delay the Disease proponents.

Zid hopes to pass out informational fliers along the parade route.

“I’ve heard a lot of remarks the past few years,” Volkert said, “from people who don’t know I was Batman in the parade. They were saying, ‘I didn’t see Batman; is he gone?’

“No, Batman got Parkinson’s. But he beat it with the help of his superhero friends at Delay the Disease.”

kgordon@dispatch.com

http://health.einnews.com/article/334012439/xAxb6BWtPUOUEUyR