If you read my interview with Kevin Horgan, you already know about the Waterman Challenge. For those of you that didn't, Kevin wanted to raise funds and awareness for his brother's organization, Shake-a-Leg Miami, so he decided that he would paddle for 24 hours around Manhattan Island!!
Coinciding with independence day, and "in the birthplace for countless dreams and incredible accomplishments," Kevin made three laps around the entire island in twenty hours and thirty minutes, breaking a personal record! He also managed to raise $40,000 for Shake-a-Leg, which will help Shake-a-Leg continue to allow thousands of disabled kids and veterans to experience sailing and water sports. Go Kevin!!
Here are some photos!
If one man can make so much of a difference with one challenge, (and NO gas!) just think of what you can do!!!
Volunteering at the No Barriers festival at Shake-a-Leg, I realized that there really are no limits to what we are all are capable of. When your heart is in it, and your spirit is strong, you can make anything happen!
Follow the links below to learn more about fantastic organizations, cool technology, and incredible people:
The 2009 No Barriers Festival at Shake-a-Leg Miami was even more inspiring and exciting than I could have imagined! There were so many wonderful people with incredible stories that I don't even know where to start. It was great to see all these people, companies, and organizations working together to able the disabled, and make their lives more fun!
Through sports (like sailing, kayaking, scuba diving, paddleboarding, handcycling, fencing, rowing, swimming, climbing, and more) people were finding out that they could do more than they thought.
10 year old James is a bubble of happy energy. Even though he is missing both of his legs and an arm, I hardly saw him without a smile on his face. James sailed all by himself thanks to this joystick-controlled electronic dinghy.
His twin sister, Hanna, climbed that wall about fifteen times and kept on trying until she reached the top. No Barriers is for everybody. The message is universal.
Handcycles are totally the new bicycles.
Another friend I made was Lydia, 25, who was in a tragic car accident a few years ago that left her unable to walk. Besides having a blast on the handcycle, she was happy to be around other disabled people her own age. (You also might recognize her as one of the backup dancer's in Rose Falcon's music video, "UP UP UP")
Swimming with the Dolphins! It was almost a sad story because the first day, as everyone was about to get in the pool, it started storming, (hurricane style). Luckily, they rescheduled for the next day, which turned out to be sunny & gorgeous.
As promised, Molly the Pony!! Apparently she loves having lots of kids around her because they are small like she is.
The City of Miami Parks & Recreation Department hosted the adaptive fencing.
There are two tiny eco-islands of the coast of Shake-a-Leg. We took a boat out there and I watched as people swam, kayaked, and paddleboarded. (There was even a dog on a paddleboard!)
(photos by Debbie Attias; To check out more of my pictures from this fantastic event, check out my set on flickr.)
This event went so great thanks to the help and participation of so many people, like the Mayor, who spoke at the opening ceremony. (photo courtesy of Shake-a-Leg)
and 17 year old Lateefah Dooling, who sang at the opening ceremony (photo courtesy of Shake-a-Leg)
Next weekend is No Barriers 2009 at Shake-a-Leg Miami.
I have mentioned Shake-a-Leg before in my story about the camp for ventilatation assisted children and have mentioned the Festival before in my post about it's founder, Erik W., who is also the first blind man to climb all Seven Summits. The No Barriers Festival is finally here!
This is an exciting four-day event which brings together all kinds of people, with and without disabilities, to showcase different ways that people can break down their mental barriers and achieve more than they thought possible. The event brings together scientists showcasing new technologies, athletes who have achieved the 'impossible,' pioneers who are constantly pushing the limits of expectations, and then some.
Activities include sailing, kayaking, adaptive fishing, swimming with dolphins, hand cycling, snorkeling, climbing, art, canoeing, paddling, tai-chi, adaptive yoga, horseback riding, wheelchair fencing, excursions into the everglades, and so much more!
At the heart of all of this will be Innovation Village, at Shake-a-Leg where new equipment and devices will be available for participants to test as well as many of the experts who created them. Participants can share their feedback and input so that both the makers and users can teach and learn from each other.
There will also be exciting speakers like Aimee Mullins, who at the age of one had both of her legs amputated, but went on to set world records in the 100 & 200 meter dash and the long jump in the Paralympics in Atlanta in 1996. Jesse Billauer, a pro surfer who became a quadriplegic early in his career, but continues to surf and started a non-profit called Life Rolls On, dedicated to increasing awareness about spinal chord related injuries. Also speaking is Kelly Perkins, the first heart transplant recipient to reach the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro. There will even be an appearance by Molly the pony!
The amount of incredible and inspiring people that come through, and are involved with Shake-a-Leg Miami never ceases to amaze me.
Guest Post by Harry Horgan, CEO & Founder of Shake-a-Leg
Spotlight: Kerry Gruson
In what Kerry Gruson describes as a life altering true "sea-change," she learned to sail at Shake-A-Leg Miami (SALM)18 years ago, after she became disabled while working as a freelance journalist. In 1974, Kerry was interviewing a Vietnam War Veteran, a Special Forces "Green Beret," taught to kill using his hands as a lethal weapon. He had a flashback, strangled her, and left her for dead. Kerry's resulting diagnosis, "traumatic Parkinsonism," has left her in a wheelchair with very limited mobility.
Three years later, she moved to Miami, where Kerry worked for the Miami-Caribbean bureau of The New York Times untill 2005. However, she credits her involvement with Shake-A-Leg Miami (SALM) from its near-infancy with giving new meaning to her life. Kerry was a member of the very first group of disabled sailors to graduate from the U.S. Sailing Association's (USSA) dinghy instructor's course and went on to spend a year teaching sailing within the Miami-Dade school system for SALM. As part of her reinvention at SALM, Kerry has dubbed herself SALM’s “Ambassador-at-Large.” In this capacity, she works passionately, attending meetings and networking to expand the organization’s reach.
One of the U.S.'s first disabled woman racers to compete at the international level, the "Gruson-Milam trophy" is handed out to the top disabled woman competitor at an international disabled event. For the last three years Kerry has represented SALM at one of the world's oldest (?1821?) and biggest regattas, Cowes Week (+ 1,000 boats, over 8,000 sailors), off England's southern shores. Last year at Cowes, she was awarded the prestigious "Liz Earle Ladies Day Trophy" for her contributions to women sailors by the U.K.'s female sailing icon, Dame Ellen MacArthur. Last year, Kerry further extended her reach, participating in Ireland's premiere biennial event, Cork Week. With Katrina McGirr, her Cowes and Cork crew, who is also responsible for marketing the country's community sailing centers, they traveled from Cork throughout the country. Together they toured a number of commnity sailing centers with differing levels of involvement with disabled populations throughout the country, comparing and contrasting the SALM model.
Having established her relationship with the world on-the-water, last year Kerry fell head -over-ankle weights in love with the world under-water. She helped birth the Shake-A-Leg Miami (SALM)/Diveheart connection, forging a strong bond between the two like-minded organizations.
Kerry serves as a member of the SALM's Board of Directors and is a founding board member of Team Paradise, where she works with sailing Olympian Magnus Liljedahl (see the first issue of Dock Tales). Also a founding member of the U.S.S.A.’s Disabled Sailors’ Council, Gruson is currently serving a term on the Women’s Council of the U.S. S.A. Locally, she has joined a group of equally passionate racer-sailors, who are trying to breathe new life into a venerable if almost moribund Columbus Day Regatta, emphasizing the eco-friendliness and family-fun aspects of sail-boating. Kerry has been charged with developing support for her idea of an award to go to the winning boat helmed by a woman. The first to finish will receive the appropriately named " Santa Maria Trophy." Formerly awarded to the winner of the no longer existant "Dowager Class," it is lying dormant in the Coral Reef Yacht Club's trophy case.
Says Kerry, "being disabled, I have learned that patience is a most neccessary virtue. Everything you do takes ten times longer than anticipated. I repeatedly have to learn that lessson. As a result, I end up frustrating my friends and flailing myself. Otherwise, I feel I have built myself a lovely life with lovely friends and my lovely brightest blue racing sailboat, named "BLEW BaYOU" (a triple pun that, in all honesty, took two years to percolate). Riding her -- in the right conditions -- is purest pleasure and churning anxiety, which I try to heed, in bad weather).
I found an amazing story that Kerry wrote for New York Times Magazine in 1985. Read it here
