Disability and Progess-April 11, 2024-Envision Blind Sports

[00:00:58] Speaker A: And greetings and thank you for joining disability and progress, where we bring you insights into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. I want to remind you that. Pledge time. Pledge time. And my name is Sam. If I didn't say that before, but I think I did. Charlene Dahl is my pr and research person. Hello, Charlene. Good evening, everyone, and want to remind you that you can hear this show on the archives for two weeks after. And my trusty podcaster Aaron is so quick at putting these up for podcasting that you probably can hear it even just a couple hours later. Depends on how he was on vacation for a while. How dare he? But I think he's doing a great job of catching up here. So I believe he will have it on pretty quickly, and then you'll be on. It will be podcasted for hopefully ever. Tonight, we are speaking with Wendy Fagan. Wendy is the executive director and founder of Envision Blind Sports. So. Hello, Wendy. [00:02:14] Speaker B: Hello. How are you? [00:02:16] Speaker A: Good. Thanks so much for being on. I really. Thanks for having me. Yes. So we're going to talk about envision blind sports. But first of all, I want to get a little bit of history on you and your experience and history with people with disabilities and with, you know, sports of any disability type thing. So how did you, how did you even stumble into stuff with disabilities? [00:02:45] Speaker B: Well, you know, I just think I knew when I was a kid, when I was younger, I was always going to be a teacher. I always wanted to be a special education teacher. Went to college, found out that meant staying in a classroom, and I panicked, switched to physical education so I could be outside and just, that was in the eighties and met some really great people that would let me combine my love of working with individuals with disabilities, as well as being in the outdoors and teaching physical education. So that's where I got my jumpstart. And after a couple years of teaching, I went and got my master's degree from Texas women's university in adapted physical education. And at that point, I tried just about every disability sport you could imagine. I was given some really good advice from Claudine Sherrill, who was a professor there and kind of the grandmother of adaptive PE. And she said, try everything and then get passionate about something. And I met the greatest group of guys in Fort Worth, Texas, and we started a goal ball team, and the rest is history. I never looked back. Wow. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Goalball. I haven't done that in so long. I love that sport. [00:03:58] Speaker B: It's a great sport? [00:03:59] Speaker A: Yes, yes. I need a team. Send some women here. I will totally be on it. [00:04:04] Speaker B: There you go. [00:04:06] Speaker A: So let's talk a little bit about what is envision blind sports and what's your mission? [00:04:13] Speaker B: Our mission is to increase opportunities for people that are blind or visually impaired to be physically active so that they can obtain lifelong wellness and just learn the joy of sport. So our goal is very focused in that we provide year round sports and physical activity and recreational activities for people who are blind. [00:04:38] Speaker A: I'm just curious. I know you stumbled into the group of guys and had kind of this instant connection with blind sports, or goalball specifically, I think it sounds like. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Right? Well, no, just blind sports in general, but yeah, Ben, I definitely fell in love with goalball for sure. [00:04:57] Speaker A: But why blind sports? I mean, everything's adapted in all these different sports. Right? [00:05:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:04] Speaker A: What is it that draws you to that? [00:05:07] Speaker B: That's an excellent question, and I think it's the people. I just fell in love. Every activity that we went to, every event that we went to, I just kept meeting really fabulous people that were a blast to work with, and I just was learning a lot. I enjoyed the sports. I love the adaptations for blind sports, and it's really the athletes that keep me going through these years. It's been a lot of up and down, a lot of challenges, and all I have to do if I need to refocus is have an event, go hang out with some kids, and then I'm right back on track. So I think it's people. [00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I understand that. So when you were a kid, how did you learn about adapted sports? What was the first adapted sport you saw and thought, oh, wow, I never thought that could, that could be like that. [00:06:02] Speaker B: Well, you know, it's interesting. I don't know if it was the first adapted sport that I saw that got me, but I just. The fact that I grew up in an environment where with a mom who just considered disability like she considers anybody else, so I grew up that it was just a normal way of life, and we had some really cool experiences growing up. And, you know, in the seventies, that was a little more unusual. But it was just a very matter of fact for thing for my mom to push us out there and get us involved in things and goodness gracious, I don't know, the first disability sport that I saw. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Wow, that's interesting. It just seems to be, it seems like you just, you were always doing it no matter what. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Yes. I just feel like it was always something in our lives and maybe not a sport. But it was just such a normal part of our lives that I didn't even think twice about it. [00:06:55] Speaker A: But clearly, like, you were introduced to people with disabilities at a very young age, because it's not an. I hate using the word normal, but, I mean, it really isn't the norm in general. I can find a lot of people, I think they're full of, you know what? Because they don't realize what a disability is. But I can find a lot of people who said, I've never met anybody with a disability, but I think they just don't think about it. And if they really thought about it, they could remember, oh, yeah, I did. You know, but some people, like my older son, said it, too, when I was always immersed in a group somehow with people with disabilities, and it just became the norm and. [00:07:40] Speaker B: Exactly. You know, and I feel like that's the way it should be. I have four kids of my own. Yeah. And I did the same thing with them. I just wanted it to be the norm, not different, just the same. [00:07:52] Speaker A: Right. And I agree. I don't think we're anywhere near there yet, but I'd like to see that. I'm wondering, what do you think? Because you see the Paralympics, which I know you had a little experience with one year, and you see the Olympics very, you know, one adapted one not, but it's very different with how they are introduced to the public or how they're even broadcasted to the public. It hasn't been long at all. I think, finally, that the Paralympics started getting broadcasted. But it's. It's not at all like the Olympics that they get the hype. [00:08:47] Speaker B: You know, the Paralympics are supposed to be parallel to the Olympics, right? And I've been around a while, so put a few years under my belt, and I can remember back in the nineties and even to the early two thousands, if you get 4 hours of coverage of the Paralympics, that was considered, you know, fantastic. And it was insane, because I don't think people understood. I think they don't understand just what an elite level one that Paralympics are. And number two is, how it's just as fantastic, if not more fantastic than the Olympics, in that the level of sport, the excitement of sport. I mean, the thing that makes the Paralympics really cool, too, is the technology and how we use technology to make sports more accessible. And just then, then even the simplest things, like putting balls in a bell and bells and, you know, a goal ball, so that you can have this elite paralympic sport. But I do think we've come a long way. I think we have a long way to go because I go around and I speak to a lot of different groups, and I'll be like, hey, who knows what? The Paralympics. And you'll be in a room with 30 people, and one person might be like, oh, I think I do. Isn't it the Special Olympics? [00:10:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And that, too, is very, very different. The Special Olympics. There's another. You know, so, yeah, not at all. And people don't realize that these participants or athletes that participate in the Paras work really hard, just as hard as a, quote, athlete that participates in the Olympics. And the Paris people are breaking records all the time. So it is interesting, in my perfect world, there would be two gyms simultaneously broadcasted or two areas, and they really would be in the same place at the same time and broadcasted maybe on different stations, you know, so they could. You could see the same amount of both. That would be if I were king, queen, whatever. [00:10:54] Speaker B: Well, I'll be right there with you because I have this dream that before I leave this earth, the Paralympics and the Olympics could happen simultaneously. So that you could go to track and field, paralympic events, and you can go to track or track and field, traditional Olympics. And people that are there can truly appreciate the beauty of both of those events, right. And see that they truly are the same. Same level of eliteness, same level of excitement. And I think that that day will come. But till then, I think we just. One of our goals, too, is just education, making sure people understand what it is, getting the word out, make sure that they're being exposed. I mean, how many people have you told about goalball? And they're like, what's bull ball? [00:11:39] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Then you have to. You have to try to explain it so that they would get it in their head, you know? [00:11:47] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. So, okay, we'll work on this. We've got a common goal here. [00:11:56] Speaker B: I'm in. I definitely, definitely want to. That's definitely. One of my submissions is to submissions. Not submissions, but get people to understand the paralympic movement and not just the paralympic movement. Because sometimes I think we get caught up in elite sport and we forget the everyday person, you know? Right. Sure. I would have loved to be an Olympian, but I didn't have the skills to be an Olympian, but I had access to all the sports I wanted to once we made it through title IX. So I feel like for our individuals with all the different types of disability, it's not so much about the Paralympics, it's about access to sport for everyone at every level in every community, which. [00:12:37] Speaker A: I will tell you, I think if you look at PE, gym, whatever you want to call it, classes in schools, there is still a long way to go before there's equal access for kids in that class that they're doing the same things that the other students are doing. They often do many of the similar things, but then there's always that thing that happens that isn't made accessible, and they lose out on that. [00:13:12] Speaker B: We have a long way to go. I don't know if you want me to go on this tangent, but it's one of my things. And we just literally got a grant to kind of counter. One of our ways of trying to counter the issues in PE in the public schools is there's still a lot of kids who are not getting the PE that they deserve. They're always in the weight room or they're always on a treadmill, or they're walking in the hallway, and they're not getting the full experience. [00:13:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:35] Speaker B: So we just got a grant from the Hartford and movie nine inch, and we put a bag of equipment designed for blind kiddos that we give in the hands of teachers with visually impaired and orientation mobility instructors to give to physical education teachers to use during recess to teach kids not only about blind sports, but to make the sports that they are playing in the gym more accessible so that the kids that do have vision limits can participate with their peers. And if you think the Paralympics are not where they should be, PE is definitely. [00:14:13] Speaker A: I know it. The other thing is, it would be really cool. These are our wishes. I will get back to your envision blind sports, but that's okay. [00:14:23] Speaker B: Go right ahead. You're doing great. [00:14:24] Speaker A: It would be really cool if there was some kind of almost like a sign out thing. So, like, let's say, as you know, not every school has the same amount of blind kids, and sometimes there'll be none that maybe had three or four previous year or even to the previous year. So it'd be really cool if the. If there was some kind of record of where equipment went so you could call and say, so, are you using this equipment this year? And do you have any kids in your system that could. And if they didn't, then it could be signed out to another school district that had them anyway. [00:15:01] Speaker B: Well, that's what's interesting in our state. The way that we countered that with this grant is we have 50 bags to give away. We've given away about 30 so far. So we still have some to give away, but we are giving them to the tvs and the O and Ms so that they can go where the kids need them. So when a kid's done at an elementary school and there's no more blind kids coming up, then that equipment will go with the TVI and the O and M so they can go to the next school or a different school so it stays where it belongs and doesn't get lost in the bottom of someone's physical education closet, never to be used again. [00:15:36] Speaker A: Yes, that would be my worry, yes. [00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's how we're trying to prevent that is keeping it in the hands of individuals who have access with kids that are blind or visually impaired and not with the PE teachers because they don't always see them. All right. [00:15:53] Speaker A: You are ahead of the game. Excellent. Good job. And you are tuned to KFEI, 90.3 FM, Minneapolis and kfei.org. But I do need to take a minute to let you know this is pledgedrive Charlene. My cohort is with me. We all need you to stand up and put your hands with your money in it. That's right. And you can call 612-375-9030 or you can go to kfii.org. That was kfai, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Because this is how we work. We are 501. We have a very skeleton crew that do all the paper logistics stuff and keep the station running. And then there's us, our volunteers that we do this every week. We volunteer. We look and do research and try to bring you things that will be of interest and on topic for our show and that you might learn and be educated with. So that's that. 612-375-9030 or kfai.org. Thank you. We are speaking with Wendy Fagan. Wendy is the executive director of Envision Blind Sports. And Wendy, I'm glad that we're so, you know, this comes from, I'm a tech teacher, and so this comes from me seeing technology stuff that doesn't always get used and gets put in somebody's closet and then they don't use it. So that's where I come up with this. But tell me more about your programs that you do offer. [00:17:42] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we start in January with our ski program. So we do downhill skiing. We also love to do cross country and snowshoe, but we live in western Pennsylvania and the no does not always cooperate. We did not have a great weekend this year. [00:17:55] Speaker A: Well, I think that's across of many states. [00:17:59] Speaker B: Yeah. But we did squeeze in four days of skiing here in western Pa, and then we went up to Vermont for four days. We even got a little snowstorm. While we're there, we run clinics throughout the year. We have sport clinics where we may have three or four different sports on a Saturday at a different university in the area. Or for instance, our next one coming up like we're doing a marathon and part of a race in May. But then following that, we'll be doing horseback riding, archery and tandem cycling, and we just then will go into a paddle board clinic. So it's a seasonal thing. We do outdoor rec, and we also do indoor sports. We have held two day goalball clinics. We do all different blind soccer, you name it. We just, when we did our unveiling of the grant, we did blind soccer and bowl ball. And so, as we go through the season, but our biggest event of the year is in July. We have a sports camp. We're expecting about 80 kids that are blind or visually impaired from twelve different states to come to Penn State, Baron and Erie, Pa. And in the days they arrive, in the seven days they're there, they will do 25 different sports. [00:19:07] Speaker A: Okay, I'm gonna stop you there just to ask a couple questions. [00:19:11] Speaker B: Sure. [00:19:12] Speaker A: So, first of all, when somebody thinks of a clinic, I mean, there might be a lot of things that they might conjure up. So explain to me what your sports, when you call it a sports clinic, what does that look like? [00:19:26] Speaker B: Sports clinic. They would come perhaps at ten in the morning, get registered and signed in, and then dropped off, and they would stay for about five to 6 hours, and they would rotate through sports sessions. So we did one not too long ago where we did longboarding, goal ball, blind soccer. Oh, my goodness. Another sport, basketball, perhaps, but so they rotate through stations and they get to try each of the sports. And that way our big thing is exposure to sports. We know that we can't provide every kid year round constant sport programming. So what we try to do is expose our kids to sports so that they can go back into their communities and be like, hey, I really like swimming. I should see if I can find a swim team. Or, you know, wrestling was fun, or judo was fun. And a lot of the sports that we teach are available in their community. So a clinic is a chance for athletes to come spend the day, maybe reunite with some of their friends that they only get to see at clinics, because, as you know, oftentimes the kids that are participating, they're the sole blind kid in their school. So it's so fun for them to come to a clinic and get to hang out with some of their friends that they only get to see sporting events. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:38] Speaker B: And that's kind of what a day looks like. Like I said, our next one will have three sports, and the sports rotate with every clinic that we have. [00:20:47] Speaker A: So what ages are we talking here with your programs? [00:20:53] Speaker B: Sure. So traditionally between the ages of five and 18, but depending on it, like. So all our outdoor rec is open to any age. So as old, as young, or as old as you want to be. We had three year olds at one of our little clinics that we did a couple of weeks ago. We did a water park, and we had some little guys we skied with people that are in their sixties or seventies, so it really varies. The only one where there's a strict age limitation is camp, and camp is for seven through 18. [00:21:22] Speaker A: All right. Yeah. One of the things that amazes me, and actually, I like to see you doing that with your programs, and I do understand the camp thing, but I think I get disheartened with even, like, the Ic, a certain sports group that I probably won't name, but they really do a lot of hosting and promoting a Paralympian, people who have paralympic possibilities. But what I see happen is that they scout these people in schools or wherever, wherever they might be, and then they choose them. But what happens to the other poor people? And they want to be active. They're just kind of dropped at once. They get 1819, whatever, and then where do they go? You know? They're kind of left with looking for, gee, I guess I'll go sit on my computer now. So it is nice to have. I wish more people would extend that. There's definitely a place for kids, because I get it. Unfortunately or fortunately, kids are where the money is. Lions clubs and people love to give to kids, but what they don't realize is we all grow up, even those kids, and you want to keep those kids healthy. It does so many things right. It keeps them healthy. It keeps them active. It will keep them. Maybe even they'll be teachers of the sport or they'll be, you know, whoever. And I think that that does a lot of good things to have a later extension on adulthood with sports. [00:23:10] Speaker B: But I agree 100%. And that is somewhere we're trying to grow. So we started as a kid based program, and what happened is our kids would graduate and we're like, wait a minute, what are they going to do now? And then the first step we took was we invite any kid that graduates from the camp is invited back as a counselor, and they can come back and work with camp and give back to camp by working with the younger peers. But somehow when we bring them back for that, then it's like, well, hey, why don't you go skiing with us? Let's go paddle boarding. Why don't you go tandem with us? So it opens the door to say, hey, there's other opportunities. And we became aware of exactly what you just said. We started out with a narrow scope of just focusing on kids and realized, like, this is not enough. We need to open the doors and make sure we're providing opportunities for all age groups. [00:24:02] Speaker A: Well, and it's just like you, like, you sound like an extremely active person, and I don't really know if you have a disability or not. I'm presuming you may not. But if you did, could you imagine being pigeonholed? And then when you're 1819, say bye bye? [00:24:19] Speaker B: That would be horrible. Absolutely horrible. [00:24:22] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I'm really glad to see that you do things like that and hope that you can extend it. I'm curious. It sounds like you're in mostly Pennsylvania, but do you travel at all? Do you do anything in regards to trying to. Like, how do you promote other people to start doing something like this? Because I. And I get it. This is a lot of work, and you can tell me about that stuff, but a 501 c three and running it and knowing what you want to do with it is a lot of work, but how do you promote it and grow it? [00:24:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So that we have tried to be really sensible, and like I said, we started out as just a camp, and then we grew into clinics, and then we originally were a program called VIP Sports, and we realized we needed to become a 501 c three. We started out without a nonprofit status. Then in 2017, we got our nonprofit status, which really turned the tables for us. And that's when we kicked into, all right, let's do some year round programming, because now we have the status to help us write grants and raise money and do some fundraisers and stuff, because, you know, people don't really just want to give to an organization if they don't have some type of nonprofit status. And so we're kind of on the cusp of trying to figure that out. Like, how far do we expand? I have some really strong volunteers that are in different parts of the country. Like, for instance, last year, we went down and did a gold ball clinic in Kentucky. And I just got off the phone today with a group in New York. And not that we actually go to New York, but we're trying to support them, send them some equipment, see if any of their kids want to come to camp. What kind of programs? And I think that is one thing that I would love to see the blind sports community work on is getting more. Quit being a bunch of silos and work together and say, look, what is our number one priority? Number one priority is getting sports sport opportunities into the hands of everyone. And the only way we're going to do that is if we can communicate and find out, well, where are these other pockets? So I had this hour conversation with this group in New York. They didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what they were doing. And this is a great way to be like, well, if I find out that I have kids from camp, I could send them and they could be doing programs there during school year. I think we just, that's one of the, I think probably one of the goals will be if we can continue to grow at the rate we're growing, is to eventually say, well, let's make sure there's like a program in Columbus and a program in Maryland and a program in New York and some subset programs. I do kind of like the idea of the kids being able to come to a camp in the summer and maybe there's something that would be appropriate for adults where they get to come together and meet more people than just in their region because then they get to expand their competition and all of those things. I mean, if you want to, you know how that is in any sport. If you're in a blind sport, you're going to travel all over the country to compete. [00:27:24] Speaker A: So I, we should talk after because I have some ideas for you. [00:27:28] Speaker B: Excellent. [00:27:30] Speaker A: So talk about your camp. How long is it? [00:27:33] Speaker B: And Sunday and leave on a Saturday. [00:27:37] Speaker A: And do you only have one week of it? [00:27:40] Speaker B: One week of camp? Yep. [00:27:42] Speaker A: So sad. [00:27:43] Speaker B: Craziness it is. [00:27:45] Speaker A: So talk about what that looks like. How many? You said about 80 kids. [00:27:50] Speaker B: About 80 kids. We currently have more volunteers than we know what to do with, but it's hard to turn away a volunteer. We have a group counselors. We have coaches. We have just all different levels of volunteers. The kids come in a traditional day. Kids will wake up around seven. We get them ready, get their bags packed with all the supplies they need. They head over to the cafeteria, grab a good, healthy breakfast, and then they do three sport rotations in the morning, grab lunch, do three more sport rotations in the afternoon, and then have yet, and eat dinner and then have another event. And they get back to the dorms around 09:00 pass out at ten, get up the next day and start all over again. [00:28:36] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. Sounds like great exercise. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Yeah, they're very, very busy. And there's a lot of walking, too, because they go from, you know, they might be at a gym, and then they'll be at the tennis courts, and then they'll be at a baseball field, and then they'll be at the track. So they move a lot. And we also travel. Like, we go to an ice hockey rink, we go to a high ropes course, we go to a water park, we go to lakes, we go to a river to kayak. So we also travel and go to some of our events that way, too. [00:29:05] Speaker A: Somebody said something to me once, that vision is becoming more and more. The word curable isn't correct, but more vision. Things are becoming more curable or more preventable. And so now what you see is usually not always. It's harder to find somebody who just has a vision impairment. It's often more than one disability, which I'm sure you see at your camp. So how do you deal with that? Is there. I mean, there may be things that somebody can't participate in because of a different disability, or it may be harder for them? [00:29:44] Speaker B: Well, we cater to that one disability, so we are very selective about who we bring to camp. And I would say there's probably very few kids that have any significant secondary disability. They're just blind or visually impaired. Some may have some minor secondary conditions, and I may have just a few that may have a more significant, but nobody with any significant other disabilities, they have to be able to be independent. They have to be able to, you know, do their daily living skills. You have to be able to be physically fit enough to do all the activities. So we are kind of select, and one of the reasons that we decided that, and hopefully this is something you agree with, is that our kids, when they're in the schools, they're kind of lumped. And because they may be the only blind kid in school, their disability is not really understood. And many times they may be dumped with kids with other disabilities that don't make any sense for their right, like for physical education or even their training. So we want to give them an opportunity where they get to spend a week where the only disability that they're dealing with is other kids that have disabilities just like them. So that I think it's almost that they let their guard down. It's like, geez, I didn't even know there were this many other kids that were blind or visually impaired. We have kids that come to camp at age twelve, and they've never met another blind person. And so for them to come and build those relationships, I don't want to complicate it. Like, I have great respect for all people with disabilities, and I think that all people with disabilities should have access to sport. But we made the decision as a nonprofit that we are focused on one disability. [00:31:30] Speaker A: Gotcha. Well, and you wouldn't be the first that did. [00:31:33] Speaker B: Right? [00:31:34] Speaker A: There's plenty people who only do, you know, wheelchair sports, and so there you go. So I'm curious to know, like, a lot of times there's the core people or staff and then volunteers. And you talked about that. You have a lot of volunteers. Do you have staff? And if so, how big? How many do you have that stay. [00:31:56] Speaker B: With you all the time? We have two part time staff. I have a program director, and then I have my ski coordinator, who also does work with our golf fundraiser. And, you know, a little bit of fundraising, and then we have a communication slash. We just hired this person a month or two ago to help us with kind of administrative communication, social media, just a whole bunch of different, like, a multi purpose person, young adult that's helping us. So currently we have part time staff. [00:32:31] Speaker A: Gotcha. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Well, only a small number, so we run on a lot of volunteer power. [00:32:39] Speaker A: And you're. How long has envision sports been going? [00:32:44] Speaker B: Well, as envision blind Sports 2017, but we started out at 2006 as vip sports. [00:32:51] Speaker A: All right, so you had a little bit of time under your belt, so. [00:32:55] Speaker B: Yeah, but we didn't really take off and, like, take it to the next level until we became a nonprofit in 2017. [00:33:02] Speaker A: Gotcha. So you're. [00:33:03] Speaker B: But we've been doing camp every year since. [00:33:05] Speaker A: Fairly new. Yeah, yeah. All right, so athletes, as far as that goes, do the athletes, adult or child, have to pay for their activities when they come to you? [00:33:21] Speaker B: We never turn a child away due to inability to pay. So if a parent says, hey, I need financial help, we supply them. Like, for instance, at camp, we ask families to pay a registration fee, and 47% of our kids don't pay a dime because their parents are like, I'm sorry if I don't have the ability to pay. And we're like, we don't care. We want your child to come to camp. But for families that can afford to pay, we do charge a registration fee, and traditionally, it's right around 25% of the real cost. [00:33:53] Speaker A: Gotcha. [00:33:53] Speaker B: So if something would cost dollar 200 to do, like, a day of skiing. If it's going to be dollar 200, then we might charge 50 or 40 or something like that. So a fraction of the cost to help take off the sting a little bit. You know, we do a lot of fundraising, a lot of grant writing camps the same way. We ask for a fee, and if we get it, that's great. But the parents portion of our total budget is probably pretty small. Probably less than 20% of our total budget is covered by registration fees. Maybe less than that. [00:34:29] Speaker A: Gotcha. And KFEI, 90.3 FM, Minneapolis and kfei.org dot. We are bringing you disability and progress, and of course, we are bringing you pledge drive. And we would love to see your support. You can support us by calling 612-375-9030 612-375-9030 or by going to kfai.org. And that really is pay what you can. Every bit counts. And we use it to do all sorts of stuff to keep you connected. You know, disability in progress, I will say, has always tried to connect communities. So it's something that we have done do, and will continue hopefully to do that. We connect communities, all communities. Right. Because if the disability community is connected to the languages, other languages communities, then they will find out what their community about people with disabilities and also be able to give people in their community who have disabilities other education on stuff. That's what's going on as you give. If you have an idea for a show, please bring it on. That's true. You can email [email protected]. We do accept any idea pertaining to a disability topic. So there's your goal. 612-375-9030 and kfai.org. We're speaking with Wendy Fagan. Wendy is the executive producer of Envision blind Sports, and we're talking about all sorts of good stuff. Wendy, I presume that both your adults and your kids come from all over many different states. [00:36:24] Speaker B: They do. [00:36:25] Speaker A: Do you count, like, how many different states of kids you see at your camps and how many you know? [00:36:30] Speaker B: Well, I think if we added them all up, it's. Well, it's probably 15 to 17 different states. The furthest anyone comes is we have a little girl that comes from Hawaii every year. [00:36:38] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. You're kidding. [00:36:40] Speaker B: No, no, just a little nugget that comes over there and she's awesome. But yeah, we, you know, obviously a lot of East coast states, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, West Virginia, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana. Yeah, lots of different states. Colorado, a couple further away. But, yeah, it doesn't matter where you're from. You can. You're always welcome. We don't have any limits on where you have to live or what region you're from. That's true for any of our events. When we just went skiing in Vermont, I think we had three different states there, South Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and I believe even maybe Ohio. So we're used to having a lot of different representation at our events. [00:37:29] Speaker A: And I believe you said the skiing was for all ages. [00:37:33] Speaker B: Correct. So all of our outdoor recreation. So skiing, paddle boarding, kayaking, tandem biking, any of those events or for neh. [00:37:42] Speaker A: I love paddle. I just got into paddle boarding, so I'm really excited. [00:37:45] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. It's so fun. [00:37:47] Speaker A: I know. [00:37:47] Speaker B: That's one of my favorites. [00:37:48] Speaker A: And I presume since you have so many volunteers, you have enough volunteers that will also help the adults as well as the kids. [00:37:57] Speaker B: Correct? Correct. Of course. [00:38:00] Speaker A: So how do you. I think this is a problem with. [00:38:06] Speaker B: With. [00:38:06] Speaker A: Or can be a problem, except maybe not for you, because you seem to have an overabundance of them. So I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna steal some from you. How do you find volunteers? Because I think sometimes you can find people who say they'll. They'll do something, but they might just do it for a short period of time. I think the hardest part is keeping the volunteer, and. But finding them can also be hard. So do you want to give some advice of, number one, how you find them, and number two, how do you keep them? [00:38:38] Speaker B: Okay. Sure. So one of the ways we found them prior to, I worked 19 years at a college, and so when I was at the university, that's a great breeding ground for volunteers. And I have an enormous amount of kids that either were in the physical education program or the fitness management program, Rec therapy program, you name it. And we also had a master's degree in APA. So a lot of those kids still are there because they also became poked on blind sports, and they still come and volunteer. The other great resource is TVis and O and Ms. That's because we kind of got into school a lot of them, and then really just a lot of word of mouth. Some of them, we start younger. We have some kids that start in high school and work their way up. When my kids were young, they would recruit their friends, and some of them still work with our program. And when it comes to keeping a volunteer, I think there's a couple things. One is just truly, genuinely appreciating them and knowing how much we value them, and we give them some really cool swag. Like, we make a point, some nice sweatshirts or t shirts, backpacks, anything to let them know that, you know, we might not be able to pay you, but we will make sure that you are feeling loved and appreciated. [00:39:58] Speaker A: Excellent. Excellent. So what is your goal? Like, what do you see for the next five or six years? For envision blind sports? What would you like to do that you're currently not doing? [00:40:18] Speaker B: Wow. Okay. Well, that's a heavy question, and it's kind of funny that you say that, because, literally, that's what we're trying to figure out. So I don't have a great answer for you because I think there's so many ways that we could go, and we've kind of protected ourselves to make sure that we're strong. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Oh, sure. [00:40:36] Speaker B: By being a grassroots. So I think we're literally on the cusp of figuring out, okay, now that we've established this strong grassroots program and we have our feet intact and we're feeling solid, where do we go next? And there's a lot of thoughts. Do we have, you know, like, even within Pennsylvania, like central Pa, there's not a lot going on there. Do we reach out there? Do we reach out to some of our volunteers that are from different areas and say, well, would you like, like, what we did last year? Should we do an event in Kentucky? Should we do an event in certain parts of Ohio or things like that? So I don't have a great answer with you on this one because I feel like we're trying to come up with a solid, strategic plan on what we are going to do for the next five years. So that is a million dollar question that I don't have the answer for yet, but I have a lot of ideas, but nothing written as. [00:41:30] Speaker A: Are there any thoughts of perhaps adding another camp? Do you think you have enough participants that would come to another camp that aren't coming to this one for whatever reason? [00:41:42] Speaker B: You know, there probably is, and one of my fears, and maybe it shouldn't be that way because I have so many, is having as many strong volunteers as I have at camp. So I feel like we could have a second camp within a camp, and because then I would have access to all my coaches and volunteers and we could work that out. That's my biggest fear, into doing more camps. But if I did another camp, it probably be in a different region. I don't know that we would do another camp in western Pennsylvania, but perhaps if we were going to expand, do maybe some pilot camps in some regions where kids aren't getting as much service and it would be closer for them to travel. [00:42:25] Speaker A: Cool. Yeah, that actually is an excellent idea. I do know, and I, in my opinion, I feel like adults don't have enough camps that they clearly have. There's an actually, this is what, there is another camp, which I won't name right now just because this is your time. [00:42:49] Speaker B: Oh, right ahead. [00:42:52] Speaker A: Purely an adult. They have different types of camps. They have a high activity camp for adults. They have a family camp. They have a more laid back camp for adults. They have a senior camp. And what's really cool about them is they probably handle, you know, how you handle your activities. You do what you want to do. You do what you can do and what you're interested in doing. And it's very, very adult driven and, but it's on the west coast, and I'm thinking, wow, you got to go all the way there for that kind of camp where I think it can be very expensive to fly to the west coast. But you could, you know, if you had another camp that you extended out like in the midwest or in the, you know, who knows where else, that would be great that you could find because I think especially, and this goes into the next question I'm going to ask you, but adults still came from that time. If you go older enough that they didn't necessarily have their computers that they sat on for entertainment, they grew up being outside, and their parents, when they got sick of them, said, get out of here, go outside. And now, and this is something I am interested in, in your thoughts is now the kids, they're like, go. Go play on the computer. And it just seems like so many kids are so stuck in virtual reality. So I'm wondering how that equates to, you know, what happens during camp. Do you have a lot of virtual time? Do you allow that? Do you say, nope, this is activity time. This is what we're gonna do. And where do you, where do you hear or what do you hear from kids that are used to sitting on their computer a lot? [00:44:40] Speaker B: Well, they have absolutely zero computer time. [00:44:44] Speaker A: Excellent. [00:44:44] Speaker B: And they're allowed to use their phones at bedtime if they want to call their parents or if they want to say good night or if they want to listen to a book to fall asleep or something like that. But they are not allowed to access their phones until probably after 09:00 p.m. At night. So it's not really an option. And our counselors don't either. The only time our counselors use our phone is if they want to use it as a stopwatch or if they need to call for equipment or things like that. But our counselors only have their phones on them for emergencies and for, you know, getting equipment and things. And our campers can carry their phones with them. We encourage them to leave them in their room, but they're not allowed to use them during meals. They're not allowed to use them. There are no breaks. They have, there is no quiet time at camp. There is no, hey, you get an hour break type of thing. We've often thought about it, and we have yet to do that yet, so. And we probably won't. So the kids move. The only time they're sitting is when they're eating. And so, no, there is absolutely no electronics. And I would prefer, especially I would. We have often thought about having a no phone rule, but parents are not really open to not being able to communicate with their kids. Yeah, we do allow phones, but they sure don't get much access to them. [00:46:08] Speaker A: Well, I'm glad to see that you have a very active camp because I think that's something that gets missed a lot at home when you have kids, even. It doesn't matter if they have disabilities or not. I think I see fewer and fewer kids play outside, and it's often they're online. And so it's really nice to see. And although I know they have in self defense, I know they have their own online communities and stuff like that that they can be a part of, but it's not the same as being outside and running around and, you know, that kind of social interaction. So, anyway, that's, it's nice to see that that's what you're doing. [00:46:46] Speaker B: And I also wanted to go back to something that you said prior to asking the electronic question is, I can tell you that until today, I never really thought about having an adult camp, but it might be a brilliant idea. And I think it's just from not really thinking about it that almost like it would be a different field than a kid camp. But it's definitely something to put out there and think about because it, it could still be sport focused and rep focused, a lot of fun, and maybe like a four day weekend for people that work, it might be like a, you know, a vacation where they don't have to worry about whether things will be adaptable and fit them. [00:47:24] Speaker A: They just would, always would. And they have their meals and whatnot. So I would. And actually, you do enough sports where I would lay money down that you'll have, you would have blind adults or visually impaired adults that had never gotten to do a lot of those sports growing up. [00:47:44] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:47:44] Speaker A: And never gotten. [00:47:46] Speaker B: There's just a nice reason to get away. And I, I mean, they do have adult camps, and it's. It's interesting that you brought that up. So you, you have me intrigued. All right. Definitely would think about that. [00:47:56] Speaker A: We'll be touching base here. And this is KFEI, 90.3 FM, Minneapolis, and kFai.org. And Charlene, there's a amount of time for people to get going to their phones or, hey, that online thing, you know, that works great when you're giving money that I totally support that. So kfai.org. Exactly. And 612-375-9030 and give what you can. We always appreciate the financial support. Try to bring to you things that are interesting to you. You can email [email protected] and if it's too complicated to me, I'll just make Charlene do it. So that's all good. She loves when I do that. Yeah. So anyway, we're speaking with Wendy Fagan. Wendy is the executive director and founder of Envision Blind Sports. And, Wendy, I'm wondering if somebody was interested in starting something like you're doing, which sounds like there's plenty of room to do. [00:49:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:49:04] Speaker A: What kind of advice would you give them? [00:49:11] Speaker B: Start with something manageable and then grow from there. Like don't take on more. Then I would say start small and build. That would be one of my first advice. And get support and be prepared for a lot of little bumps in the road. I think it's something you truly have to be passionate and want to do and love because it's been anything but easy, but absolutely amazing. I would not change it for anything in the world. I mean, besides my kids. I feel like it's one of the greatest things I've ever done. But, yeah, I would say, and get someone to support you. Find someone that believes in what you're doing and go to your local lions clubs to start. That's how I started with support and then grew from there. And hopefully you would have a support system with at least some people to get things started. [00:50:05] Speaker A: And you do a lot of grant writing, don't you? [00:50:08] Speaker B: We do, yes. [00:50:10] Speaker A: Are you the grant writer? [00:50:13] Speaker B: Jillian Stringfellow, who works with me, and I do most of our grants. Ben Fride, who also works as a ski grant, but the majority of the rest of the grants, Jillian and I do. [00:50:24] Speaker A: Gotcha. Well, I need to get advice from you. [00:50:28] Speaker B: It's trial and error. And the nice thing about it, when you have a very focused mission, every grant you write has a similar feel to it. So you start to build up a language that you get really good at writing because you have the same ask. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Right? Right. Well, cool. I just want to thank you for coming on. I really appreciate it. And tell me, like, if you could tell me what doing something like this has done for you personally, what would it be. [00:51:07] Speaker B: Like? [00:51:07] Speaker A: What has it taught you? What has it given you that you would have never had or things that if you would have never done this journey, you would have lost out on blank. [00:51:21] Speaker B: Life? I mean, it's been such a huge part of our family and such a huge part of every aspect. It's been something that has impacted me greatly. I have met some of the most kind and amazing humans and talented humans that I've ever met in my life. I have made amazing friends. I have seen spectacular things. I've been moved by people's ability to step outside their comfort zone. So I wouldn't trade this choice of doing this with anything. And it's been worth every minute. So I just think it's, the impact of this on my life is immeasurable. [00:52:10] Speaker A: Well, wendy, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. And I good luck, and I hope you do think about starting an adult camp. I think that'd be great. And I have lots of thoughts on that. So if you want to pick my brain, you may do so. [00:52:25] Speaker B: I may do that. Thank you so much, sam. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to your audience. [00:52:30] Speaker A: How can people get in touch? How can people get in touch with you and find out more about envision sports? [00:52:36] Speaker B: It's super easy. You can just google envision blind sports. We're at envisionblindsports.org dot. We have a nice website, and on the website there's a way that you can reach out to contact if you have a child or an adult that's interested, if you just, you know, lots of different things that you can do on. You can donate on the website. You can tell us about someone that might be interested in doing camp, or you can also send us an email. The, the envision email is on there. Or they can email me directly. It's pretty easy. Wfaganvisionblindsports.org dot. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Thank you, Wendy. I really appreciate it. [00:53:14] Speaker B: You're welcome. Thank you. [00:53:16] Speaker A: Good luck with everything. All right. And this is KFAi 90.3 FM, minneapolis and kfei.org dot my name is Sam. I've been the host of this show. Charlene Dahl was my research and still is PR person. Erin is my podcast. This is KFAI 90.3 FM, Minneapolis and kfai.org. The views expressed on the show are not necessarily those with KFAI or its board of directors. We've been speaking with Wendy Fagan. Wendy is the executive director and producer or and founder of Envision Blind Sports. Still time to pledge and show some love for a fresh fruit, which is coming up next. Kfei.org. Thanks for for listening. Goodbye.