Tag Archive for: watertown

The Yachad Community goes rock climbing

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It was an awesome day of climbing this Sunday at Central Rock Gym in Watertown with Yachad. Yachad, The National Jewish Council for Disabilities is a thriving global organization dedicated to addressing the needs of all Jewish individuals with disabilities and ensuring their inclusion in every aspect of Jewish life. The New England Yachad community is a unique and close-knit group of individuals that support one another and push each other to achieve great things. It’s been a pleasure to partner with this positive team of adults for two adventures this year and Sunday was no exception. A huge thank you to Central Rock for accommodating our big group!

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Big Accomplishments for Brookline Rec

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Brookline’s Therapeutic Recreation department makes an effort to promote positive personal growth and independence in the lives of adults with disabilities. Last week, they met Waypoint at Central Rock Indoor Climbing Gym in Watertown to do just that.

One participant was a familiar face! She was reconnecting with Waypoint after having been on several programs back in 2010 and her mother recounted how the challenges she’s faced on Waypoint programs have made an outstanding impact on who she has grown up to be! We know adventure experiences make a difference when we hear stories like that!

Another young man was excited by the size of the gym and was busy the whole night. He climbed nine different routes and loved every one! There were big accomplishments this night and we look forward to more adventures with such a positive, adventurous group. Thanks Brookline Rec!

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Adventure Learning is Back at Somerville Public Schools

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The Experiential Education model works! Waypoint’s adventure-learning program is back for the second year in a row in the Special Education Department at Somerville Public Schools and the impact is evident in teachers’ reactions after a day of rock climbing at Central Rock Gym: “I’m blown away with how my students participated! We work hard with [Michael] to use complete sentences in the classroom and he was doing that naturally today!” said Ms. Sweeney from the Kennedy School. Students like Michael took on the challenge of putting on a climbing harness, tying into the ropes, climbing the rock wall, and working together as a team to support one another.

It was all set-up during a Teambuilding exercise in their gymnasium a week prior to our climbing adventure. Students got to explore the concepts of supporting one another and working as a team by passing a ball through the group in a certain order as fast as they could. Effective teams take practice and Waypoint is building them in Somerville. We’re thrilled to be back for Year 2 and are looking forward to over 20 more adventures coming up! Click to watch the story of a boy named Matthew from Somerville and gain more insight into how this partnership works.

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Volunteer Training 2016

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From EPIC‘s Ableism Training on Friday night at Central Rock to the docks at Wayland Town Beach on Saturday, Waypoint volunteers surprised us again. This community of adventure-learning enthusiasts is sharp, intentional, passionate, and FUN! Engaging in “real talk” disability topics, playing Human Bingo, getting in and out of boats, and paddling Lake Cochituate was all a blast with this group. Thank you to everyone who came out and for the work behind the scenes that made this possible! Thank you Central Rock Watertown, Mary Snow, Jessica Brodie, and the Town of Wayland. If you couldn’t make Volunteer Training, you can still volunteer! Visit www.waypointadventure.org/volunteering to check out our calendar and email Julia to sign up.

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Rock Climbing with The Kennedy School

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At Central Rock in Watertown, seven middle-school students were on the walls, yet one girl who had difficulty balancing due to her cerebral palsy didn’t have permission from home to climb. She helped belay for her classmates and cheered them on all day eagerly asking teachers every few minutes if home had called yet. Finally, after every student was done climbing, Kara got the call and suited up to try. Our goal for the day had been teamwork and her team rose to the occasion when she needed them the most. Through tears of nervousness, Kara climbed while her teammates encouraged!
“She was a good team member by showing us what she could do,” said one student in our closing circle.
For Kara and many of her classmates, the moment of overcoming fear and taking on a challenge will serve as a reminder of what she is capable of!

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Rock Climbing with Perkins Camp Abilities

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loss of sight is not loss of vision

Believe you can achieve! At Perkins School for the Blind, Camp Abilities’ motto this year is all about taking on challenges and BELIEVING you can overcome! We’re thankful that we got to climb with these stellar groups! It was awesome to see how challenging ourselves and encouraging one another can help us believe that we can achieve! Check out last year’s Camp Abilities video to get a feel for what these nights are like: http://www.perkins.org/get-involved/events/camp-abilities