POWELL, Ohio — The philosophy at The Adaptive Adventure Sports Coalition (TAASC) is to allow people with disabilities be fully included in the community.

“We don’t want to be that separate place they come to recreate – like ‘regular people go here and special people go there’ – we try to get away from that,” said Joan Arnold, TAASC volunteer.

TAASC is an affiliate of Disabled Sports USA and is an all-volunteer program. TAASC is one of the biggest programs of its kind in the East because it offers year-round programming. Demand for programs there is “just exploding,” Arnold said.

On Tuesdays during the summer disabled people may visit TAASC and kayak with their family and friends. People with disabilities start with a series of three lessons to develop skills and adaptations, said Arnold, who coordinates the kayaking program.

“Then the parents asked, ‘What about us? We’d like to try it,’” she said. “So we started family nights. I can’t tell you how excited they were to have an activity the whole family could do together. It was really fun.”

The TAASC facility is on Lake Powell; six years ago the organization acquired some land there which they lease from the city of Columbus for $1 a year; it a special-purpose park. “We have been developing it at volunteer speed,” Arnold added.

“One of the coolest things is that every year we do a project with The Ohio State University occupational therapy and mechanical engineering students and they create a project here. There is a Honda Innovation Competition. 

Last year those students won second place; this year they won first place.”

The students devised a pneumatic pump and lever for getting people into and out of a kayak, Arnold said. TAASC now has two kayaks that are adapted – they have a wheelchair-like seating system and two pontoons on the back so they can’t tip. They also have two tandems with that wheelchair seating.

Besides kayaking, TAASC enables people with disabilities to bike, sail (the group has a six-person sailboat at Alum Creek Reservoir) fish and go water- and snow-skiing (last year they had 1,000 ski lessons) among other activities.

A 90-year-old woman in hospice wished to ski one more time, Arnold gave as an example. With the help of a TAASC and a standup walker, she made three runs down the slope.

The organization has a Wounded Warrior project, a water sports weekend for military veterans, which has grown into a huge success. On Friday the veterans go kayaking and have dinner. On Saturday and Sunday they can go fishing and water-skiing. This year, 19 veterans took part.

TAASC has an annual membership and charges minimal fees for activities. Its big event/fundraiser is a Ski-a-thon held the first Saturday in February. Snow Trails Resort has supported the group in its activity. Profits from that event were $23,000 this year.

Garnering support for TAASC is an easy sell, Arnold said. The organization is growing quickly; the biggest challenge is getting the word out to people with disabilities. “The potential here is huge and the community support has been great,” she said.

For more information, visit www.taasc.org