Getting stuck in the sand at Miami Beach motivated Sabrina Cohen to shift her focus from SCI cure research to quality of life. A decade later she is on the precipice of changing the face of Florida beach access.
Life’s a Beach
In 2012, Sabrina Cohen was promoting her foundation, The Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research, and traveling the country speaking about the virtues of stem cell research as the director of public relations for The Genetics Policy Institute. A broken foot took Cohen, a C6-7 quadriplegic, off the road while she was dealing with several donors who didn’t fulfill their promises to her foundation.
Cohen and a colleague were discussing what to do with the foundation when she rolled her power chair onto Miami Beach to be close to the water and instantly got stuck. “Before that, I never consciously thought about going back to the beach, but I got stuck on that day — it took six guys to get me out — and in that moment I’m like, wow, we could do better,” says Cohen, now 44.
Cohen decided to shift her foundation’s focus from research to quality of life. The first goal? Improve beach access.
Within a week of being stuck in the sand, Cohen and a colleague arranged a meeting at Miami Beach City Hall where the commissioners challenged her to help them figure out how they could do better. That’s how the idea for Sabrina’s Adaptive Beach Days began.
While attending a concert, she bumped into a former high school classmate who ran an adaptive surfing program for children with autism. She shared her vision of bimonthly events that would give people with physical disabilities an accessible beach experience, complete with food. He enthusiastically volunteered to be the program’s director. She recruited volunteers from the local colleges to provide the boots on the ground and secured grants for equipment like beach chairs, tents and roll-out mats.
Cohen envisioned a truly integrated solution that went beyond providing a bunch of accessible equipment. She wanted to address the underlying issues that kept disabled people away from the beach. “How do you transfer people into [chairs]? How do you keep a power chair from getting overheated in the sun, so when people get back in their chairs, they don’t get a burn?” says Cohen. “It was everything. I even have a team who comes out at 8 a.m. and sets up access decks, so there’s a stage over the sand for power chair users or people who don’t want to be in beach chairs to remain independent.”
The results gave attendees options. You didn’t have to use a beach chair if you didn’t want to, and if you wanted to get into the water, there were plenty of people to help. Even with all this work, the beach days weren’t her endgame; they were just a steppingstone to her ultimate goal: building an accessible beachside recreation facility.
“I had to put together all these little details because the city said to me, ‘Sabrina, we love the idea of a building, but create a proof of concept,’” says Cohen.
Holding twice-a-month pop-up beach days for the past six years proved the concept. In October 2017, the city allocated a piece of land needed to build the accessible beachside recreation and fitness center.
The City of Miami Beach Commission awarded The Sabrina Cohen Foundation, renamed in 2016, a $2.5 million matching grant and promised public land to build the center. Designed pro-bono by sustainable architecture firm Kobi Karp, it will be a 27,000-square-foot, three-story, universally-designed fitness center, equipped with fitness and therapy spaces and a rooftop pool, in addition to providing full-service beachside and water activities.
“The intention of the center is to create access to the beach for 365 days, where if someone shows up on a Tuesday, they’re not denied,” she says. “We have everything they need.”
The foundation still needs to raise another $8 million to make her vision a reality, but Cohen is undeterred. “We hope to break ground in the winter of this year and have already raised $4.1 million,” she says. “We’re selling bricks at $500 and $1,000 apiece. Anyone can buy one and name it and literally be a part of the pathway that will lead to the center. It’s called The Pathway to Inclusion and we’re on our way, but we still need more support. I think it’s just a matter of time.”
Crushing It During COVID
Sabrina Cohen explains why the pandemic didn’t slow her progress and how she offered more accessible recreation opportunities despite lockdowns and social distancing.
“In 2020 we had to stop our beach program, but that also gave me the quiet time to put all the pieces together and strategize. Out of COVID, we started a wheelchair tennis program because we were looking for something safe to do outdoors. Plus, literally in March 2020, when we found out we couldn’t host the beach days, I moved to a virtual platform, so now the Sabrina Cohen Foundation provides fitness classes three days a week with an adaptive fitness coach. That’s going strong, and we will never take that away — we have people from all over the country logging in. I’d say, in a weird way, the pandemic actually helped, rather than hindered,
us.“
What are you doing when you’re not running The Sabrina Cohen Foundation?
I’m a realtor specializing in universal design and accessibility, and 60% of my clients are people with disabilities. I also love concerts, comedy shows and being on the water boating.
What’s your ideal date?
On a first date, I like to meet at a restaurant or coffee shop just to break the ice and get to know someone.
Most accessible place you’ve ever been?
Cruising is an accessible way to get around and less hectic than getting on a plane.
Why did you join United Spinal?
Because it’s the thing to do when you have an SCI. You guys are the best organization out there with the most resources.
