Access to Adventure for People with Disabilities

Dear Supporters, 

Thank you for helping to make adventure education accessible to people with disabilities! 

One exciting new program series this summer involved students at the William E. Carter School. This series of programs required more pre-planning than any in Waypoint's history due to the complex medical, physical, and education needs of all the students. 

To bring this program to fruition, a lot of preparation was needed, including, but not limited to the following:

• Two Waypoint staff members presented to Carter School students’ parents at their monthly parent meeting for an hour.
• Eileen met with the Carter School and Snowden International School principals to plan for Snowden International School students volunteer on programs.
• Eileen visited Carter School for a full day to meet with parents, interview teachers, and meet students with the goal of document students’ needs in order to ensure that Waypoint staff and volunteers were prepared to support students during the 3 days of hiking in the Blue Hills Reservation and kayaking adventure at Hale Reservation.
• Waypoint also made special purchases and adaptations to off-road wheelchairs and kayaks for this project to support specific student needs.
• Waypoint scouted new sites to make sure they were accessible for all students, knowing some would be too medically complex to transfer out of their own personal wheelchairs.
• Carter School staff and Waypoint staff collaborated for months to ensure as many students and families had access to these programs as possibly by helping with paperwork and other administrative tasks.
• Waypoint and Carter School staff debriefed in person and then again over the phone after each of the programs to reflect on what worked well and what needed improvement.

At the launch of the Carter School partnership in September, the principal Mark O’Connor stated his professional goal was to have 13 Carter School students participate in a weekend program with Waypoint. Waypoint and Carter School were able to exceed that goal and 18 different Carter School students participated in programming. We set out to run 3 programs and ended up running 4 programs. Our final program was a family celebration that included adaptive kayaking and a community cookout. Our goal was for 50 people to attend, and we ended up with 80 people, representing 15 Carter students and their family members. Waypoint Adventure and Carter School administration are already in discussion for the 2019-2020 school year, and both parties are excited to expand on opportunities for these students. Students were introduced to hiking and kayaking for the first time. Families did not view these activities as possible for their families prior to this experience.

Opportunities like these would not be possible without your support. Thank you for investing! 

Sincerely, 

Dan Minnich, Co-Founder 

Links:

• Case for Support Booklet