Help us Help People with Disabilities

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Although we're woefully behind on our training, our big BORP ride is this weekend. This has been a really difficult year for fundraising. Won't you please help out this excellent organization?

Click here, and then select Lisa Lazar or Robb Bauer

Not sure what all this BORP stuff is about? Here's an excerpt from their website.

Cutting-Edge Programs

BORP offers year-round sports and recreation programs serving a wide variety of ages, interests and abilities.

BORP's Youth Sports Program offers year-round competitive and recreational sports activities for disabled children and youth ages 5-19, including wheelchair basketball, power soccer, track & field, and handcycling. Under the guidance of caring volunteer alumni, coaches and staff, young athletes build confidence, self-esteem and independence while developing lifetime fitness habits. Youth teams have opportunities for travel to local and national tournaments.

The Adult Sports Program offers year-round activities at least three nights a week, including wheelchair basketball, power soccer, and goalball (a unique sport for individuals with visual impairments). Emphasis is on increasing fitness and playing skills, with opportunities for local and regional tournament team participation. This program provides a structured sports environment for our graduating youth program participants, as well as opportunities for disabled adults trying sports for the first time. For many of our participants, our programs are their only opportunity for establishing a regular fitness routine.

The Adventures & Outings Program provides disabled children, adults, and families with access to the many wonderful outdoor and urban attractions that the Bay Area has to offer, in a supportive and integrated environment. Participants get out into nature, explore their communities, get fresh air and exercise, and try new activities that they never thought were possible for themselves. BORP offers weekly urban outings such as theater trips, museum tours, and art festivals as well as more adventurous outdoor excursions including guided walks and nature hikes on local blind and accessible trails, adaptive skiing trips, kayaking, rafting, and whale watching.

The Adaptive Cycling Program is an integrated program serving children, youth, adults and families. Non-disabled and disabled participants with mobility challenges and visual impairments participate together in organized group rides or they can just stop by the cycling center to ride on their own. With the support of our knowledgeable staff and dedicated volunteers, cyclists of all ability levels explore local Bay Area biking trails throughout the year using our large fleet of adaptive cycles, including tandems, hand cycles, recumbents, standard bikes and three-wheelers. Many participants train for BORP's annual fundraising ride, The Revolution, which takes place in the fall in Sonoma wine country.

We are also trying to bring our programs to those who need us most:

Disabled Immigrants & Minorities

About half the Bay Area's 868,000 disabled residents are immigrants or minorities. They are the least served of any disability group. BORP is working to create an innovative, language and culturally appropriate outreach structure to bring in new immigrants and minorities to existing programs. Participants will derive the following benefits: community integration, independence, decreased social isolation, the advantages of fitness and good health, acquisition of skills that aid employment-use of public transport, exposure to working peers, increased social group, access to resources and education. Read more about our efforts.

Including Disabled High School Athletes in Interscholastic Competition

There are at least 12,000 disabled high school students in California. 100 high school-aged kids now take part in community-based sports programs. We estimate that, through this project, 300 new athletes will play interscholastic high school sports during the next three years, and 3,000 within a decade. A three-pronged strategy will accomplish this: 1) Build local support and momentum with students and parents. 2) Collaborate with coaches and local school administrators. 3) Convince the California Interscholastic Federation that, because the law provides for equality, the students want to play, many coaches and officials are willing, and inclusion will not inconvenience any present programs, the time is ripe for them, the CIF, to take over the leadership role in this integration effort. BORP will publish a handbook for recreation programs and school officials describing how integration can be achieved without disrupting present sports programs.