Through surfing, persons with disabilities conquer limitations
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Oceans of Hope Foundation, a non-profit organization from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, aims to help people with disabilities to conquer their limitations through what it calls adaptive ocean access.
The foundation provides individuals with limited or no mobility unique experiences to help them overcome physical limitations due to their condition. Persons with disabilities are offered surfing programs, customized surfboards and specialized wheelchairs.
“I see the families and the families are just like, ‘You know, my child or my sibling or whoever is that can do stuff,’” Danny Paltjon, one of the organization’s founders, told Stitch via NBC-affiliate WESH2 on June 8. “It opened so many doors.”
One of the surfers present in one of the foundation’s recent events was Treston Armand, a boy diagnosed with autism. According to his mother Michaela, the foundation has given her son the confidence to face his disability.
“That is the best experience for us, it is just amazing what these people do for him,” Michaela said in the report. “I am so surprised that [my son] is even doing it.” Hannah Mallorca/JB
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