Junior Blind Olympics in L.A.

xeno · Post by **xeno** » March 24th, 2006, 12:47 am

Two months ago Aerial Gilbert, a blind master rower, gave me a call and asked me if I were interested in joining the Junior Blind Olympics in Los Angeles. I said "yes". We first met Aerial at our rowing camp in November of 2004. She is a fine single sculler and it was a pleasure to coach her. She has a sweet guide dog called Hedda.

In order for the blind children to row we drove a rower up to Los Angeles the night before the event. Of course, I took a wrong turn and cruised around Inglewood... Some of you may know that Inglewood is not a place you want to get lost in.

The next day after finishing coaching at the Iron Oarsman, my family and I drove up and found the event easily without any wrong turns. We were floored when we saw all the events taking place. You could not tell that all these young adults, who were having so much fun, were visually impaired. When we met up with Aerial she told us that all morning the rowing machine was in use. I saw how easily the kids took to rowing. One fourteen year old, ( big guy) pulled 1500 meters in 6 minutes!

We saw how self confident these children were and how much they enjoyed rowing. There were a couple of parents present and I could sense how immensly thankful they were that their children discovered rowing and enjoyed it. I told them about the slides, which I didn't bring, because I wanted to limit movement around the rower. We enjoyed taking our time to explain how accessible rowing can be for visually impaired people young and old. My wife and I, were very moved how appreciative the parents were for the attention we gave their children.

I was asked whether I would be interested in helping at a summer camp in Malibu, called "the Camp". I said yes sure. The cause is great and the drive up and the area will be great outing for my family.

The school has a nice Gymnasium and deep down in me I felt I wanted to do more. I would like to raise money to buy eight rowing machines with slides. The machines would be used at the campus and for the yearly summer camps. I have no doubt that their could be rowing scholarships given to blind students. The website is: http://www.fjb.org/

Does one of you on the board have the financial fire power to sponsor the equipment?

Thanks for reading about my humbling and very rewarding experience.

Sincerely,

XENO and my family

Ben Rea · Post by **Ben Rea** » March 24th, 2006, 9:47 am

wow, that is an amzing story, that 14 year old needs to get in some races!!!!!!!!!!!! holy smokes! Good luck with 'The Camp' sounds like loads of fun!

ancho · Post by **ancho** » March 27th, 2006, 7:23 am

I had coached blind people about 20 years ago. It's really impressive to see how they get along generally, and how they get the feeling for the boat, the water, orientation...
Lots of things to learn from them about their attitude towards a live with much more obstacles than we are used to.
You won't regret your decision of being there.