By NICK SOWARDS

Years after Dave Kadleck started providing outdoor adventures for disabled people through a non-profit organization, he met a man who would make a lasting impression on him.

Acting as a lead river guide on a trip in southern Utah, Kadleck met a 42-year-old man named Mike Stewart. According to Kadleck, Stewart went in for surgery at the age of 27 to have corrective rods placed in his back for spina bifida, which causes curvature of the spine. The surgery did not go as planned, and Stewart left the hospital as a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

"When I met him, the guy's spirits were just soaring," Kadleck said. "You'd think he'd be down on life, but he couldn't wait for his next adventure."

On that trip, Kadleck, a 47-year-old Salt Lake native, took Stewart and a small group of physically disabled individuals on a challenging and risky stretch of water in Cataract Canyon, situated in Canyonlands National Park. Before heading into the heavier rapids, Kadleck turned to Stewart and told him he was concerned about taking the group through. Kadleck was surprised when Stewart began to laugh.

"Hey, what could happen to me?" Kadleck recalled Stewart saying. "You're the one that should be worried. I'll be fine - go for the hole."

Kadleck's experiences with Stewart were made possible by a non-profit organization called SPLORE - Special Populations Learning Outdoor Recreation and Education - which aims to provide outdoor adventures for people with physical and mental disabilities and special needs. SPLORE was founded in 1979 by Martha Ham, whose desire to start the organization came from her own experiences growing up.

"I had severe asthma as a kid and was pretty limited as to the outdoors activities in which I could participate," said Ham, who now resides in St. George.

While attending Mercer University in the '70s, Ham took an outdoors survival course where she learned that, despite her asthmatic condition, she could still participate in outdoors sports. Soon after, Ham went on a rafting trip on the Stanislaus River in California with a company similar to SPLORE. Among those on the trip were a quadriplegic man and a man with cerebral palsy. Seeing the two men on the river rafting trip helped Ham realize the importance of making it possible for people of all abilities to participate in outdoors sports.

"I understood that right to risk and that right to persevere, even though others might look at your body and say 'not possible,'" Ham said. "These are intelligent people with some limitations, and their love of the landscape is the same as someone without the same limitations."

The programs that SPLORE offers, which cost more than $200,000 a year to operate, are made possible through several avenues of funding. The organization receives funding from government grants, private donations, river rafting trips and a variety of fundraisers. Past fundraisers have included auctions, casino nights and golf tournaments.

In addition to the fundraisers, SPLORE relies heavily on the efforts of volunteers like Kadleck, who offer their time and expertise in exchange for a rewarding experience. Each year, SPLORE recruits more than 150 volunteers to assist with the outdoors programs. In 2003, volunteers contributed more than 6,000 hours of service - an amount equal to three years of full-time work for the average American.

In the beginning, SPLORE's major focus was the river rafting trips, which take place primarily on the Colorado and the Green River. Over the years, with the aid of grants and donations, the program has been expanded to include rock climbing, canoeing and snow skiing during the winter season.

According to the SPLORE Web site, more than 20,000 people have participated in an outdoors activity with the organization since its inception 25 years ago. Each of the activities are specially adapted to suit either the physical or mental disabilities of participants, who are mostly teenagers and adults. For some, the opportunity to participate in SPLORE activities has become a life-changing experience.

One of those participants is 52-year-old Donna Liebrecht, who has had multiple sclerosis since the age of 18. Liebrecht said before she became involved with SPLORE three years ago, her disability made it difficult for her to participate in any sort of leisure activity.

"One of the main problems is the fatigue issue. We get so tired you'd simply fall asleep where you're sitting," Liebrecht said. "It's actually pretty disabling. You kind of have to find out a way to maneuver through this life."

Before SPLORE, Liebrecht said her life was pretty routine, and it was hard for her to get excited about anything. Since then, she has become heavily involved with the organization and her perspective has completely changed.

"It gives me something to look forward to," she said. "I get really excited about SPLORE. I've been on enough river rafting trips that it's easy to know that each trip is going to be an adventure."

Ham said although the organization was created to serve people with disabilities, those who volunteer have greatly benefited from their interactions with the participants.

"The spirit of SPLORE is that it is very difficult to say who benefits more - the volunteers and how they grow, or the clients with the disabilities," Ham said. "It is a very mutually-benefiting organization."

For Ham, the impact of SPLORE on her own life has been huge.

"It's been a catalyst for personal growth," she said. "Never in a million years did I think I would be able to organize an organization that could make such a difference in peoples' lives."

Last year, Stewart died at age 47. Although Stewart lived a life of relative obscurity because of his disability, his image still burns bright in Kadleck's mind.

Kadleck remembers asking Stewart if he wanted sunscreen on his legs before heading down the river.

"I'm a quadriplegic," Stewart said. "Let me burn!"

Kadleck said his life will never be the same since his interactions with Stewart through SPLORE.

"Seeing a man who is in the worst possible situation in life," Kadleck said, "being completely unaffected by his physical status, it makes it hard for me to whine and complain about anything now."



Copyright Brigham Young University 23 Jun 2004