There are few things as empowering as learning how to navigate the outdoors as a wheelchair user. After you’ve figured out how to slide down a snowy mountain, traverse a rocky trail or navigate wind-chopped waters, everything in your daily life just seems a little more manageable.
Those kinds of confidence-building experiences are on full display when the Adaptive Outdoor Education Center in Maine hosts its annual Wheel Together Retreat, in partnership with the Wheel With Me Foundation, which brings people with spinal cord injuries together for 3 days of outdoor recreation and whole-body wellness activities in a fun and inclusive environment.
AOEC’s Director, Kayla Lee, says that last year they had a man attend who was only four months out from his SCI. “He came and was a little bit timid, and just to watch him flourish was really beautiful,” she says. “He came back this year, and he was a whole new person. To see how the power of community can really help someone gain confidence and purpose has been amazing.”
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The Wheel Together Retreat is just one of many outdoor and community-focused programs the AOEC hosts across its two campuses. There’s a fully accessible overnight lodge in the Carrabasset Valley that hosts camps and retreats. The New Brunswick Campus offers day programs, including music and nature education, as well as an adaptive gear library and an adaptive trail network. They also partner with other programs in the state to offer individual adaptive sports programs, like alpine skiing, climbing, sailing and water skiing.
“Growth has always been really organic for us,” says Lee. “People came to us and told us what they wanted to see or what there was a big need for. We really like to involve people with lived experiences, hosting and volunteering in the programs that they want to see happen. That lived experience is what makes our programs the best they can be.”
Now, the AOEC has joined United Spinal’s Chapter Network. “Our Wheel Together Retreat is the catalyst for why we want to join United Spinal, says Lee. “We’ve been able to serve people from all over the country who come to our retreat, and becoming a United Spinal chapter is a really awesome way for us to network, learn about different resources, use the amazing resources United Spinal has, and hopefully make a bigger and better impact.”
For more information on all of AOEC’s programs and activities, please visit their website.