How A Blind Red Wings Fan Watches Hockey, Says Team Is Her Life
By @GeorgeJFox
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Sports were not something that came naturally to Felicia "Licia" Prehn. Born with cataracts that left her with 2-4 percent vision, she was discouraged from playing any sport.
Despite the odds of her becoming a sports fanatic, she says hockey helped her through some of her life's struggles. "I really love the game. It was there for me. As silly as that sounds," Prehn said with a big smile in one of her videos.
Watching Dylan Larkin score a goal she admits, "I can't actually see the puck." She mostly watches the player movement, but the slowed down and zoomed in replays help. She subscribes to Viaplay where she tunes in online to hear Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond announce the games on Fox Sports Detroit.
Between her 9-5 gig she makes YouTube videos illustrating the challenges of being legally blind. Some of the clips' view count rocket into the tens of thousands when they get shared on Reddit.com. Her hockey video had more than 2,500 positive votes on the NHL corner of the site Tuesday. They love her Mickey Redmond icon there (known as flair), but the moderators didn't oblige her request to have the Belle Tire cartoon mascot next to her user name.
From cooking, to playing video games and building with Lego blocks -- in her videos Prehn describes how her extreme nearsightedness forces her to get within inches of what she's trying to see.
Why The Wings?
An unlikely road led her to being a Detroit Red Wings fan at age 25. Living in Pori, Finland, Prehn works in sales and marketing and coordinates youth events. At 19 living in Pennsylvania, Prehn was introduced to the Wings by a friend she met in a punk rock music forum. She visited him in Dearborn and fell in love with Detroit and its suburbs. "The people were so friendly and I felt at home in the Detroit area," she said.
Then a life-threatening car accident left her questioning everything. "Paramedics told me I was lucky to be alive," she said.
During her recovery, she found herself listening to a 2009 Red Wings playoff game radio broadcast. During the course of the game she got so involved in the action she said to herself, "oh my god. I'm a hockey fan."
Wearing a Lidstrom jersey in her video, she says she'll never get over his retirement, but her favorite player is Ilari Filppula. Brother of former Red Wings' Valtteri Filppula -- Ilari made an impression on Prehn when she saw him play in an AHL All-star game.
NY Girl In Finland?
Growing up in Pennsylvania and having been born in New York, you have to wonder how this American girl settled down in a Nordic country. The explanation: She met a guy in a hockey forum who asked her to move Finland and bravely she did.
Eventually, Prehn said the living situation became dangerous for her when he lost his job, and had a mental breakdown. "I didn't speak Finnish. I didn't have help," she explained. On a night out with his circle of friends, she said they could tell something wasn't right and got her to open up about it.
"They got me out. I was homeless, but that's two and a half years ago. Now I'm fluent in Finnish. I have a job, a family and a network of people that support me," Prehn said. "I turned a negative situation into a positive one," she added.
That experience is a source of motivation to help the youngsters she works with. "I encourage people to talk and be open about their homelife," she said.
Challenges Of Being An Inspiration
Her videos draw hundreds of comments -- sometimes from people with their own devastating vision problems. Prehn struggles to find the right words, "My response might be simple, but I don't know what to say. I'm just some girl from New York who moved to Finland. I appreciate the messages. It's wonderful. I'm sorry for not answering better."
Her motiviation to keep making videos is about breaking stereotypes as well as being a good example, "I want to show the people that it's not the end of the world ... I'm not what the media shows -- a blind person in sunglasses bumping into walls."
Thank You
Prehn hopes if anyone from the team or the announcers learns about her that they know how thankful she is for what they do. "Thanks for consistently performing well. They give me a reason to smile and be happy in the darkest periods of my life. Thanks to Ken and Mickey, people might say they're homers, but I think they're perfect," said Prehn.
