Northwest Association for Blind Athletes (NWABA) will be hosting a 2022 Paralympic Experience in Salem, Oregon on Friday, September 30, 2022. Sixty students from across the state, who are blind and visually impaired, will participate in three paralympic sports including tandem biking, track and field, and goalball. Goalball is a team sport specifically designed for individuals who are blind and visually impaired.) This event will be held at Oregon School for the Deaf (999 Locust St NE, Salem, OR 97301) from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm. This event is open to all K-12 students who are blind or visually impaired in Oregon. Teachers of the visually impaired and parents of children are also welcome.
We are especially excited this year to have several Paralympians leading the various sessions and inspiring our youth. Paralympians Brett Lewis (Spokane, Washington) will be leading the judo session; Asya Miller (Portland, Oregon) will be leading the track and field session; with Eliana Mason and Calahan Young (both from Portland, Oregon) leading our goalball session.
“We are extremely excited to, once again, deliver this Paralympic Experience to local youth who are blind or visually impaired across Oregon. This truly life-changing opportunity will introduce participants to accessible sports and physical activity, and support NWABA’s long-term vision of enhancing and expanding opportunities throughout the Northwest to ensure every person with a visual impairment is receiving services they need to reach their greatest potential in all areas of life,” said NWABA Founder, President & CEO, Billy Henry.
The event will give K-12 students with visual impairments an opportunity to learn the fundamental skills to participate in Goalball (a sport specifically designed for individuals who are blind and visually impaired), tandem bicycling, judo, and beep baseball. For more information on Northwest Association for Blind Athletes, please contact Stacey Gibbins at 1.360.718.2834, or visit www.nwaba.org.
About NWABA:
The mission of Northwest Association for Blind Athletes (NWABA) is to provide life-changing opportunities through sports and physical activity to individuals who are blind and visually impaired. A group of students who were visually impaired formed the association in 2007 to ensure that people who are blind were participating in sports and physical activity. Today, NWABA is a rapidly expanding 501(c)(3) charitable organization that provides more than 1,900 children, youth, adults and military veterans with visual impairments tailored programming which improves self-confidence and self-esteem, promotes independence, creates an inclusive community of supporters, and builds the skills necessary to succeed in all areas of life including school and employment.