Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation, the Western Maine-based non-profit focused on making the outdoors more accessible to people with disabilities, is moving into a new homebase — at Hurricane Island Outward Bound School's basecamp in Newry.
Maine Adaptive's co-executive director, Amy Barron, says the campus includes different kinds of lodging, facilities, gathering spaces, trails, and 375 acres of forest land. That will allow the organization to expand its year-round outdoor recreation programs and provide much-needed space to store their growing fleet of adaptive devices. She says the partnership between the two institutions was a matter of the stars, and their missions, being aligned.
"It's very important to both Outward Bound and Maine Adaptive that this campus remains accessible and also preserved, in the sense of being this beautiful place where people can experience all the best things the wilderness of Maine has to offer," said Barron.
Barron says up until now, Maine Adaptive, which was established in the early 1980s, has been renting office space in Bethel, storing its equipment in trailers, and offering primarily mobile programming. But she says moving into Outward Bound's Newry campus represents a new chapter, and a chance to set down roots.
"While there's a lot of work to do on the campus to truly bring it to a universally accessible design, it has the facilities right away that allow us to bring people here," said Barron. "They can stay, they can enjoy the trails, and we can build community in a more meaningful and grounded way than we ever have before."
Barron says Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation will continue using Sunday River in Bethel as the hub for its winter sports activities.
