By Dan Minnich | Executive Director
What a year 2020 has been! Here's a recap of what has been going on.
People with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by the COVID crisis. They have always been at risk of social isolation and are now at elevated risk due to more limited opportunities for engagement in meaningful activities during the COVID pandemic. As the pandemic has persisted, feelings of anxiety, stress, fear, and isolation have been widespread across all demographics, and many people have (re)discovered outdoor adventure as a powerful means to health and enjoyment. However, for those with disabilities, outdoor adventure experiences remain largely inaccessible.
As a result, the Waypoint program staff have adapted and changed our business model to identify new ways to provide much needed support to our community and ensure the organization’s financial stability during this crisis. Most significantly, we have pioneered a private lesson program model. Since people can no longer safely gather in large groups, we now offer private and small group kayaking, hiking, and cycling lessons for family units. Waypoint’s standard fee structure passes through only 1/4 of what is costs to run these programs to the participant, as it is paramount that we remove all barriers to accessing the outdoors. Each lesson is approximately 2.5 hours long, completely customized and adapted to the participant’s needs. This year we have seen more than 65% of participants request a partial to full scholarship to be able to participate in these lessons, higher than we have ever seen in the past.
Prior to COVID the vast majority of programs included a group of 8-15 individual participants, staff from partnering organizations such as teachers and PCAs, as well as Waypoint staff and volunteers. To manage the risks associated with COVID and continue making the outdoors and adventure education accessible, adapting programming to private lessons and small group adventure has enabled Waypoint to continue serving our community.
Private lessons have been running since June 2020 and will continue running as long as it is safe to do so. It is our goal to get as many participants out on programs as possible. As a result of the pandemic we have run only private lessons – however the impact of not being to run group programs did not affect the total number of programs that we’ve run (132 in 2020 compared to 144 in 2019). The impact we saw as a result of the pandemic was the ratio of students to programs drop significantly. In 2019 we had approximately 11.4 students per each program - this year it dropped to 3.7 (and that is inflated because of the prior to March group programs we could run). The need is greater now than ever to get more people out on programs and we are training volunteers and per diem trip leaders to run programs so we can attempt to meet the demand/need.
Thought it was a year frought with many challenges - we are so grateful to still be here, to have ended the year in the black and above all - be able to continue to serve our community. We thank you, our community, for all of your support this past year and can't wait to see what the new year brings.
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