The house on Cedar Cove Drive was quiet, except for the rustle of paper as one filled page turned into two and two into fourteen. By 6 a.m., Kirk Thomas had finished the first chapter of the book that would become Wheelin' Sportsmen.

He had been writing about a concept that came to him in fitful sleep. Worried that the words might leave him, Thomas rolled his wheelchair to the kitchen table, still in his boxers and wrote:

"Wheelin' Sportsmen is a new organization with new ideas and an exciting new concept. We will work to promote disability awareness through the outdoors. We will introduce the able-bodied to the disabled, and they will hunt and fish together. Neither might not bag a buck or catch a bass, but their new respect for each other will be reward enough."

Thomas still has the notes he wrote that Sunday. The pages are slightly worn and some of the ink is now smeared, but the meaning of the words has not changed. They are the foundation of every Wheelin' Sportsmen event, and the program is going strong eight years after Thomas developed his idea for it. In fact, it has spread throughout most of the country since its modest beginnings in rural Alabama and is gaining ground in metropolitan America.

"God was writing those words that morning; I was simply holding the pen," Thomas said.

Statistics show that 250,000 people each year stop participating in hunting or shooting because illnesses such as diabetes, cancer and arthritis force them from the game. And that number will only increase as baby boomers age.

There is no way he could have guessed at the outset that his program would have a following in 43 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces.