Feeling nature's touch
A state program helps people with disabilities experience the great outdoors
Sitting in a kayak, 5-year-old Matteo Contey Faso ran his fingers through the fresh water of Hopkinton State Reservoir and listened to it lapping on the shore.
There was a lot to take in before he set off on this guided kayaking trip. Blind since birth, Matteo has strengthened other senses -- touch and hearing, in particular -- to understand his surroundings.
"He takes in little pieces and tries to put all that together," his mother, Michelle Contey, said recently, recalling her son's trip. On an average warm summer day, hundreds of people rent kayaks, canoes, and sailboats at Outdoor Recreation of Hopkinton, which is on the reservoir's shore. Thanks to a state program, those enjoying nature also include both cognitively and physically disabled people.
The Universal Access Program, or UAP, is run through the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation, and offers discounted or free boating, hiking, cycling, and other outdoor sports at various state parks.
"It's pretty special," said Barry Gold, owner of Outdoor Recreation. "It's just so important to provide access to a population that is so often limited in what they can do."
The UAP was started in Amherst in 1995, said its current director, Tom McCarthy. McCarthy, who uses a wheelchair himself, said outdoor activities for the disabled were often limited before the program began.
"Fifteen years ago, it was very hard to find any of this," McCarthy said. "A lot of people did not consider outdoor recreation as something they could take part of."
Finding those activities for Matteo is vitally important, said Contey, 39, of Stow.
"If he's not exposed to it as a kid, he won't know it exists," she said. "He can't see, and if I don't introduce it to him, he'll never know about it."
Matteo was born with anophthalmia of both eyes, in which the eyes are underdeveloped or missing. He was also born with a cleft lip and palate. Matteo has had three reconstructive surgeries, but still his speech skills have been slow to develop.
"It's very difficult having him interact with peers," Contey said.
With the UAP and other activities for children with disabilities, "you don't have to feel left out," she said. "We don't have to feel like people are looking at us, so it's a little more relaxing for us."
Hopkinton's program is in its third summer, Gold said, and serves anywhere from 10 to 40 people every Wednesday. Last year, the program helped more than 300 disabled people go kayaking, most for the first time.
Outdoor Recreation teams up with Eastern Mountain Sports' Kayak School, which provides certified instructors for the program.
Community centers for the disabled, individuals, or families can make reservations for the program, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays through Aug. 15.
For the UAP, participants pay a flat fee of $5, discounted from the typical $10 to $20 hourly kayak rental rate.
Many of the programs offered through the UAP are free, said Marcy Marchello, UAP program coordinator. As the UAP has expanded, so have the types of programs offered, with sailing on the Charles River and other Boston activities being added this year. The program has boomed in recent years, she said, with 5,500 participating in programs last summer, double the total from the summer before.
The program receives federal, state, and private funding, McCarthy said. Funding can fluctuate from year to year. "We're limited by dollars just like everyone else, so there's only so much we can do," McCarthy said.
Contey said that she and her husband, Matthew Faso, 40, find recreational opportunities for her son through listservs and discussion groups. Matteo has participated in an adaptive ski program offered at Nashoba Valley Ski Area, a gymnastics program in Acton, and swimming in Waltham.
Finding special programs can get expensive after a while, she said, so she appreciates the low cost of the UAP offerings.
Alexandra Landrum, assistant director of the EMS Kayak School, said the program is worth the amount of time and energy it takes to coordinate the events.
"It's such an immediate reward to see this. They get so happy," she said. "You apply the energy and you see the results."
As our culture becomes more "outdoor-oriented," she said, disabled people have shown more enthusiasm for participating in outdoor activities.
Landrum has been working with the disabled for more than a decade and now helps certify other instructors. She was personally inspired to help, she said, because of family members who have disabilities.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, a group of kayakers laughed as they dipped their paddles into the smooth water, exploring the reservoir in their bright red and orange boats.
"Let's do it again," shouted one of the boaters, a cognitively disabled woman, after returning to the shore.
The group was from the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center, a center for cognitively disabled adults in Hopkinton.
They were caught in heavy rain out on the reservoir, but were all smiles as they dried off later in the Outdoor Recreation boathouse.
While the UAP is the smallest of the programs Outdoor Recreation of Hopkinton offers, Gold said, it's "probably the most important thing we do here." 