Ask Joel Berman what the most valuable component of Adaptive Adventures is to the public and he describes the trailer full of adaptive sports equipment and gear that travels the country to camps and clinics nearly every month of the year.

Press him a bit harder and he says that his people—the expert team of staff and volunteers who keep Adaptive Adventures moving forward—are also vital to the equation. He’s a proven disabled sports leader, but Joel Berman’s formula for success is a bit different than most. He brings outdoor recreation to the disability community: trailer, people, and all.

Bringing Adaptive Sports Programs to Disability Community
“By design, we aren’t a site-based organization,” explains Berman, co-founder and executive director. “Since we’re mobile, we can collaborate and partner with almost anyone. That gives us the flexibility and the opportunity to be something different in the disabled sports marketplace. We work in any number of locations.”

By bringing “programs to people” as opposed to “people to programs,” Adaptive Adventures is a four-season organization that offers individual, outdoor sports to communities all across the country.

Disabled Skiers Partner Up
In 1999, Joel Berman co-founded Adaptive Adventures with fellow disabled skier Matt Feeney to identify, promote, and provide progressive sports and recreation opportunities for children and adults with physical disabilities of all ages and skill levels. The organization focuses primarily on promoting inclusive recreational sports like cycling, canoeing, kayaking, and water and snow skiing from offices in Evergreen, Colorado, and Wilmette, Illinois.

“We believe it’s about giving people more choices,” says Berman. “By being mobile, we can serve people in a variety of locations and enhance the organizations that are operating in fixed locations, too.”

He explains that if a parks and recreation district or rehabilitation hospital calls Adaptive Adventures to inquire about an event (like a water ski clinic or kayaking camp), he has the flexibility and the resources to design a program that uniquely fits their needs and conduct it right in their backyard.

“If we were a site-based organization, the best we would be able to do in those cases is share our existing schedule and invite them to come and join us from wherever they are,” Berman says. “Cost, distance, and resources would limit success.”

“Since park districts, ski areas, and even rehabilitation hospitals don’t want to purchase all the adaptive equipment because of factors like storage and liability, we bring it to them and provide the staff and volunteers to make the events happen," he adds. "The point is that it’s easy for us to facilitate a group because of our structure.”

This coming winter, for example, Adaptive Adventures will be at eight different mountains in Colorado alone, where their trained staff and adaptive sports equipment, such as mono-skis and adaptive snowboards, will afford hundreds of physically challenged athletes the opportunity to get out on the slopes.

Inclusion, Integration and Opportunity
At Adaptive Adventures, integration is not just about people; it’s about sports, too.

“While I have total respect for team sports, I believe that one of the inherent problems is that all too often you do it with others while friends and family just sit and watch," Berman explains. "If you look at sports like skiing, cycling, sailing, canoeing, and kayaking, you can very easily do them with family, friends, and peers in the mainstream. Participation is about integration and inclusion.”

Leading a disabled sports organization is no different than being a Wall Street or Chicago financier, adds Berman.

“Coming from Wall Street and the financial market in Chicago, I’ve learned that business is business,” he offers. “Whether you are looking at derivatives or leading a clinic of novice skiers through fresh powder, it’s still about things like staffing, programming, and developing your product. Starting a disabled sports organization is really no different than starting a restaurant or a leasing company, both of which I did when I was in my 20s. The only difference is that with a charity, happiness isn’t tied to getting rich.”

About Adaptive Adventures and Joel Berman
Adaptive Adventures is a mobile, non-resort based organization that brings programs to people as opposed to bringing people to programs. They offer a full menu of winter and summer programs that are open to people with a host of different disabilities, and they cater to novice, advanced, and expert athletes alike. Their programs, expert staff, and volunteers—many of whom are also physically challenged—serve as valuable resources to physical therapists, rehabilitation hospitals, parks and recreation departments, and peer organizations across the country.

Co-founder and executive director Berman is an amputee who lost his left leg above the knee in a railroad accident in 1981. After three years of rehabilitation, he re-entered the workforce and specialized in derivatives products, arbitrage, and corporate money management for a decade. After relocating to Colorado in 1994, he became more involved with disabled sports and volunteered as a disabled ski and sailing instructor. Berman and his family moved back to Chicago in 2003 to open the Midwestern office of Adaptive Adventures.

For complete information on Adaptive Adventures and a full schedule of programs and activities, please visit www.adaptiveadventures.org.

Photos courtesy of Adaptive Adventures

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