“Being a quad amputee, I didn’t really have the intention to kayak. But the Summit staff just rigged something up in about 15 minutes with some adaptive equipment. It blew my mind. That’s what No Barriers means to me. Just jumping in and doing it. I think that anybody that’s on the fence as to whether or not they are coming to the next Summit, GET HERE!”
– Kyle Maynard – 2016 No Barriers Summit Emcee & Motivational speaker, author, entrepreneur and athlete. Congenital quad amputee.
No Barriers program helps disabled veterans through Grand Canyon expeditions | Arizona PBS — No Barriers USA is an organization that helps unleash the potential inside young people, every day folks and veterans who are disabled. This year, No Barriers Warriors is taking veterans with various disabilities on a nine day expedition through the Grand Canyon. They are looking for veterans from Arizona and a few other states. Daniel … Read it at Arizona PBS.
Booze, pills and a lack of purpose pushed Ronnie Brower to more than 675 pounds. It took two years, diet and exercise for the Syracuse man to lose 425 pounds. Now he’s decided to help others achieve similar transformations. Read it on the Huffington Post.
No Barriers USA project presented to DAR – In honor of Veterans Day, Command Sgt. Maj. Gretchen Evans U.S. Army (retired) presented the November program to the Joseph McDowell Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Her topic, “No Barriers USA,” offered an insight into an organization that improves the lives of veterans with disabilities through intense physical challenges in natural environments. Read it on the Hendersonville Times.
No Barriers Organization Helps People With (and Without) Disabilities Achieve the Awesome – Erik Weihenmayer first started kayaking when already more than 40 years old, but nonetheless he soon paddled all 277 navigable miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Oh, also he went blind at age 13. His No Barriers Foundation now works to help people with disabilities achieve the awesome. Read it on The Manual.
5 Questions with Erik Weihenmayer, Founder of No Barriers USA – Climber has scaled Mount Everest, climbed El Capitan and kayaked the Grand Canyon. His life of adventure can inspire you in yours. Read it on In The Loop Travel.
Army vet tells Megyn Kelly how her service dog has changed her life — Former Army Command Sgt.-Maj. Gretchen Evans visits Megyn Kelly TODAY along with her service dog, Aura, to talk about America’s VetDogs. Evans, who is deaf due to a service-related injury, explains how Aura helps her… Read it at TODAY.com
Eastern Iowa teen teams up with celebrity to organize a benefit concert — An eastern Iowa 17-year-old has worked for months to organize a benefit concert. Read it at KRCG.com
Blind climber who scaled Mount Everest describes ‘rebirth’ — Erik Weihenmayer was born twice. Once on Sept. 23, 1968. The next was when he first went rock climbing as a teen. Read it in the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Follow My Voice: A Blind Man’s Journey on Kayak — Three decades ago, shortly after he turned 30, doctors told Rob Glass he had retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disorder that causes a breakdown of photoreceptors in the retinas. There is no treatment… Read it in the American Way Magazine.
5 of the Best Outdoor Organizations for Veterans — There can be no doubt that nature is a powerful therapist. Read it at MilitaryOneClick.
A wounded Iowa vet who was lost faced a bear and a mountain and found himself in the process — Eric Johnson of Des Moines faced barriers of bears and steep mountains to overcome the mental and physical barriers left from fighting war. Read it in the Des Moines Register.
Colorado’s Mandy Harvey Breaks Barriers On ‘America’s Got Talent’ — Colorado native Mandy Harvey didn’t imagine herself competing on the NBC show “America’s Got Talent” for a variety of reasons… Read it at KUNC.org
Blind mountain climber brings motivational message to Asheville golf fundraiser | WLOS — A golf tournament held in Asheville helped veterans and others find motivation through outdoor experiences. The No Barriers Outdoor Classic was held at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove on Tuesday.One of the organizers told News 13 veterans often find new life… Read the full story at WLOS.
Four Weld nonprofits selected as finalists for 2017 Community First Award — First National Bank announced the Colorado finalists for the 2017 Community First Awards, four of which are from Weld County, according to a news release from First National Bank. Read the full story at GreeleyTribune.com
Meet the blind adventurer who conquered Mount Everest, Grand Canyon — “Pushing the Limits TODAY,” a new series about remarkable people and their accomplishments, begins with a profile of Erik Weihenmayer, who became the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. But that was just the beginning of the challenges he set himself, including kayaking the Grand Canyon. TODAY’s Natalie Morales spotlights. Read the full story at TODAY.com.
What it means to live a ‘No Barrier’ life — Each year hundreds of people come together to participate in the ‘No Barrier Summit.’ The 3-day trip gives both men and women facing personal barriers to push each other past their limits and break down the walls that have been holding them back. Joe Akmakjian was one of the participants at this year’s summit. Joe has muscular atrophy, but says he’s not letting his condition become a barrier… Read the full story at 7NEWS.
Extreme adventurist inspiring others to live a ‘No Barrier’ life – wptv.com — Weihenmayer is known an extreme adventurist, traveling around the world testing and pushing his limits. His motto in life is ‘No Barriers.’ Weihenmayer says, he will never let his blindness become a barrier in his life. Read the full story at WPTV.com
The 25 Most Adventurous Men of the Past 25 Years — Skydiving. Ice climbing. Kayaking Class V rapids. These are the sports for which you’d think a pair of functioning eyes might be essential. But for the past two decades, 48-year-old Weihenmayer has been proving otherwise. As an infant, he was diagnosed with the degenerative eye condition retinoschisis, leaving him fully blind by the time he was a teenager. Rather than give in to a safe life, he fought to stay active. During high school, a camp sent him rock climbing, and Weihenmayer turned out to be a natural, able to feel his way up the wall. He loved the sport so much that he took it up in earnest, and in 1996 he pulled off his first big climb, the 3,000-foot Nose route on Yosemite’s El Cap… Read the full story on Men’s Journal.
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