Guest Blog: Waypoint Adventure! It's all about access
By 2020
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By Rick Stevenson
Access: (n.) – the ability, right, or permission to approach, enter, speak with, or use; admittance. (www.dictionary.com)
For our friends all around us with various disabilities, it's all about access. It can be about other factors too, of course, but access is often a huge issue. Access to some things can be relatively simple: a home or office… a database… a person's attention… property. But how about a mountain trail… a pristine forest near your home… a wall at a climbing gym… a glassy-calm river in summer? Are these easy for all to gain access? Unfortunately, no, not yet. That's not as simple as adding a new wheelchair ramp or railings, but people and organizations are out there making progress.
Front L to R: Tim and Dew, in sleeping bags and on "sit-skis," on the way down the Tuckerman Ravine Trail with the rest of the team (Rick, Jim, Joel, Dan, Julia, Adam).
Over the past few weeks I've had the privilege to be involved in two events offered by Waypoint Adventure, an eastern Massachusetts-based non-profit organization that provides life-transforming outdoor adventure programs for people with disabilities. One event was a weekend in February at Pinkham Notch, NH (at the base of Mount Washington) when eight of us ascended the Tuckerman Ravine trail toward the floor of the huge bowl. Two of the group had cerebral palsy and rode up in "sit-skis"—modified lightweight chairs mounted on pairs of cross-country skis, with ropes and bars for pulling and restraining. With an afternoon temperature of around 15 degrees F and the wind from the west howling down the trail at us, the trip up and down the famous trail was adrenaline-pumping, hard work, exhilarating and full of joy for all eight participants. Trust was critical, especially on the descent—when anything less than excellent execution would have meant too much risk—and teamwork and communication were superb.
Tim Kunzier tries out the adaptive climbing harness at the Central Rock Gym.
The second event was a Volunteer Appreciation Night held at the Central Rock Climbing Gym in Watertown MA, at which Randy Pierce was guest speaker. About 50 current and/or future Waypoint volunteers packed a room at the gym for a great meal, brief presentations about Waypoint, and expressions of appreciation, as well as Randy's keynote about ability awareness, goals, and how important an engaged, enthusiastic community is to a volunteer-based organization. Afterward, attendees had a chance to try out the walls of the gym and/or take a certification class in belaying.
Waypoint's mission is to "…help youth and adults with disabilities discover their purpose, talents, and strengths through the transforming power of adventure." They believe that all people, regardless of ability, should "…have opportunities for adventure and through them realize their personal value, strengths and abilities. These experiences will help people become stronger individuals and community members."
Access is, almost literally, about leveling a playing field. It's also, thankfully, about pushing the envelope of what was previously thought to be impossible, so that people of all ages with disabilities can keep having new, exciting, stimulating experiences. Problem-solving. Creative thinking. Often that's all that stands between a person with a physical disability and a challenging, thrilling, life-changing adventure, and here's where some of the similarities between Waypoint Adventure and 2020 Vision Quest become most obvious.
Randy Pierce, as an adventurer who happens to be blind, has a need and a strong desire for access. Access to mountain trails, road races, ski slopes, a martial arts gym, a tandem bike. He's solving challenges every day of his life, either in teamwork with his guide dog or human guide or on his own; whether training for a road race, hiking a trail, getting around his house or around Nashua, or running 2020 Vision Quest. And in turn, one of 2020 Vision Quest's many value-adds is helping other vision-impaired people gain access–to whatever is most special in their lives.
Then there's Waypoint Adventure, the creator of the two events mentioned above and pictured here. Run by co-founders Adam Combs and Dan Minnich and program coordinator Julia Spruance, (one of whom, I'm proud to say, is my daughter, but I won't reveal which one), they not only create adventure programs but also invent and fine-tune unique "access methods" that allow individuals with disabilities to enjoy many of the same adventures as others. Methods and tools like the "sit-ski" (photo above left), an off-road wheelchair, an adaptive kayak, or an adaptive rock-climbing harness. You could say they're in the access-creation field.
A final story that helps define and illustrate access: at a 2013 indoor climbing gym event run by Waypoint for teenagers from the Perkins School for the Blind, one of the boys, after some training and a few exhilarating trips up and down the wall, asked a Waypoint volunteer if she worked at the gym. Hearing that no, she was with Waypoint and this was a gym open to the public, he asked, "So is this a gym for blind people?" The volunteer explained that no, there were sighted people there too. Final question: "Then am I climbing on a special wall?" Upon hearing her final answer, that "…no, you've been climbing on the same walls as everyone else," he lit up with a wide grin. His biggest thrill of the day—perhaps the week or month—was realizing that he had been climbing on the very same walls as everyone else. There's that access again. Behold and marvel at the difference it can make!
Learn more about Waypoint Adventure.
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