Article Contributed on: 8/3/2009 10:48:43 AM
Blind Outdoor Adventures, which was started just last year, is seeking sighted guides to accompany blind hikers on its weekly and rapidly growing front-range trail hikes.
"Hiking with the blind can be an eye opening experience," explains BOA Director Steve Rarey, a life-long outdoor adventurer and Foresight Blind Ski Guide, who contributes much of his life to assisting the blind through BOA. "What we discover as a group is that we all have special insights into life; the blind offer a perspective that many people appreciate and enjoy."
He said that the group has about 20 guides and guides in training, with a dedicated core group and people who work volunteering into their schedule either regularly or when they can.
"We have a flexible schedule, but, we do immediately need people interested in occasionally helping and even a couple more people willing to earn certification as a guide," said Rarey. Becoming certified as a BOA trail guide requires six hours of "sleep shade" empathy training.
BOA Trail Guides receive a BOA tee shirt and instruction on how to guide the blind as they hike and enjoy nature; the lead guide then recruits someone along the trail to shoot a BOA adventure group photo. Certified BOA guides receive six hours of sleep shade trail training. "These are the Hollywood movie star sleep shades," explains Rarey. "We use them to simulate blindness, because they block all light and are fairly comfortable."
To the sighted, people in sleep shades may look a little odd. "It may appear to some that we are sleep walking with canes," laughs Rarey. "We're not, we're exploring nature while simulating blindness, so that we can be better trained to teach our blind friends how to hike on their own."
Blind volunteers are also needed to hike and to become certified to lead BOA weekly trail walks.
"People often comment how amazed they are when our group walks by with blind volunteers often in the lead," said Rarey.
Guides, while "sleep shade" blindfolded, walk with a cane, the same type used by blind people to navigate through their daily routines.
"A cane and a guide are about all that is needed for the blind to enter the world of hiking and outdoor adventure," said Rarey. "Then, just about anything becomes possible.
Serving with Rarey on his board of directors is Gavin Atwood, a world-class mountaineer and adventurer who has guided legendary first-time blind Everest ascender Erik Weihenmayer; Bruce Stoddard, a Minnesota long-distance runner and other accomplished blind and sighted adventurers and professionals.
The board of directors is seeking professionals with specific skill sets for board of directors consideration.
Rarey said that what he has discovered during the BOA weekly hikes is that many of the blind participants are attending regularly, while some guides will attend less frequently. "We are trying to achieve a sustainable ratio of hikers and guides," said Rarey. "Right now we are adding hikers just a bit too quickly and we need to step up our trail guide recruiting and certification program through the end of the year.
BOA hikes weekly.
Its schedule changes based on weather conditions and availability of volunteer hikers and guides; members are updated via email, usually every few days.
To learn more about becoming a BOA blind hikers or a guide visit blindoutdoors.org or call Steve Rarey at 303.589.2453.