Sarasota debuts adaptive rowing

SARASOTA COUNTY — Barry Gradert’s face shined with a constant smile as he pulled out from the dock and rowed himself across the waters at Nathan Benderson Park.

“This is what it’s all about — the look on his face,” said Madeline McGrail, director of adult day training at Community Haven for Adults & Children with Disabilities. “Our goal is to support and encourage our clients to live as independently as possible. Rowing itself gives them the power. There’s something much more involved in that they’re accomplishing something rather than just experiencing something.”

Sarasota County Government and the rowing community partnered to offer the area’s first adaptive rowing event Feb. 25 as a kick-off to the Sarasota Invitational Regatta. The two-day regatta, which featured opportunities to row with U.S. National Team and Olympic rowers from Feb. 26-27 at Nathan Benderson Park, raised funds to start an adaptive rowing program for individuals with mental and physical disabilities in the area.

Adaptive rowing takes rowing equipment and adapts it to accommodate the needs of rowers with disabilities, said coach Joe Dobson, of the Sarasota Rowing Club.

“In this case, we used special pontoons to provide safety (and help stabilize the boat),” Dobson said.

About 10 individuals from Community Haven and Easter Seals, non-profit organizations that work with individuals with disabilities, turned out Friday for the inaugural adaptive rowing program, where each participant took a turn at the oars with veteran rower Alex Alexandru.

“This is like a chance in a lifetime,” said Jeannne Buzbee, services coordinator for Easter Seals. “(The participants who came here today) wanted to do this instead (of going to the big Mardi Gras party we had planned). They’ve been very excited.”

Sarasota County Parks and Recreation Coordinator Andrea King the event served as a sort of “taste test” for what the future may hold. Sarasota Parks and Recreation, the Sarasota Rowing Club and the T-REC Coalition of Sarasota County have partnered together to form a proposed adaptive rowing program that would offer rowing classes to people with vision, mental or developmental impairments, paraplegics, quadriplegics and amputees.

Dobson said he hopes to get the program certified through the U.S. Olympic Committee this year.

The Sarasota Invitational Regatta was sponsored and produced by the Sarasota County Rowing Club, the Sarasota County Commission, Sarasota County Parks and Recreation, the Sarasota and Bradenton area Convention and Visitors Bureaus and Benderson Development. Metlife sponsored the adaptive rowing event as well as a demonstration by Paralympic medalist Laura Schwanger.

For photos from the 2011 Sarasota Invitational Regatta, see our gallery.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

STAR POWER
As part of the weekend’s events, Laura Schwanger, a gold, silver and bronze medalist in track and field in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Paralympic Games and a bronze medalist in rowing in the 2008 Paralympic Games, provided an adaptive rowing demonstration on Feb. 27. Schwanger, a military veteran, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while on active duty.