Day on the Lake is an annual event that provides opportunities for people with physical disabilities to participate in water activities that normally would not be able to do. This event has been going on for years and I have helped to plan various pieces of it for different agencies I have worked for several times, but have never been able to participate. This year I was able to go. The City of Phoenix went and provided adaptive kayaking. It is always a really neat experience when you can help someone do something that they never thought possible. one gentlemen had only ever been in a pool once in his life prior to this event. He was a quadriplegic whose injury was incredibly high on the spinal cord, so he could barely move anything below his neck. We were able to get him into a kayak and adapt the paddle so he could contribute a little bit to the rowing. It took more than 6 people to get him in the kayak, a "buddy" staff member to do most of the paddling, 2 life jackets in case they tipped, and alot of padding around his joints, but he was able to kayak for about 20 minutes! We limited his time so he wouldn't get any sores or injuries from rubbing on the boat, and we had to sink the kayak to get him out....but for him, it was probably like one of those master card commercials that add up all it took to do something, and say....priceless! I hope it was! Anyways, besides helping people discover that there is usually always a way, and "cant" is a bad word, I got to get paid to kayak. There are definite perks to my line of work!
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