Last summer, the executive director of the NYU Initiative for Women With Disabilities, Judith Goldberg, asked me if Row New York ever provided adaptive rowing programs. I said we never had, but we'd love to. She had a group of young women with physical disabilities who were new to the sport of rowing, but eager to give it a try. I put her in touch with our Director of Programs, Previn Chandraratna, and then left on maternity leave.
Previn, when left to his devices, can figure pretty much anything out, and creating an adaptive rowing day with no funding or appropriate equipment was no exception. He pulled the slides off of ergs so the wheelchairs could be positioned right in front of the flywheels and he recruited Row New York summer leaders (experienced Row New Yorkers entering 11th or 12th grade) to help get the young women into the Stillwater training barges. What resulted was an amazing day for all involved. So amazing, in fact, that they came back for a second row last week.
For more information, check out: http://iwd.med.nyu.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment