By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
The Great Garden Gala – hosted by Rim Special Athletes (RSA) on Sept. 13 from 3 to 7 p.m. – is the organization’s annual fundraiser. The funds will support the free sporting activities RSA offers to individuals with different needs due to medical, physical and mental challenges.
Join them in the award-winning Serendipity Gardens in Lake Arrowhead for an afternoon of exploring the gardens, good food and drink and great fun. Tickets are now available at their website, www.rimspecialathletes.org.
The RSA program for veterans teaches them to ski, building skills they can use in every-day life.
The programs offered by RSA range from skiing, snowboarding, sledding and snowshoeing in the winter to aqua cycling, kayaking, standup paddle boarding, swimming and other beach activities in the summer.
Some activities, like yoga, are offered year-round. Numerous times a year they offer special activities including bowling days with pizza, trips to SkyPark and participating in the various parades. None of these activities are competitive; all are cooperative, social activities. These sporting and fun activities help to build individual esteem and skills that can transfer to everyday living skills.
The Rim Special Athletes Foundation is a group of volunteers dedicated to providing activities for individuals with special needs and veterans who have been injured during their service to the country. The RSA objectives and purposes are to provide a recreational experience that is safe and positive for adaptive individuals and veterans.
The RSA winter program for wounded veterans helps them thrive by learning to ski. By learning this new skill, it gives them new confidence and new skills they may not have had before their battlefield injuries and a belief in their future abilities. This program is coordinated through the San Diego Veterans Winter Sport Clinic.
The athletes enjoy bowling – and the pizza afterwards.
RSA offers these skiing classes to help America’s injured veterans recover from injuries such as amputations, brain injuries, PTSD, blindness and other injuries. Some veterans require adaptive equipment, which is supplied by RSA as well as specially trained instructors to enable them to achieve these lofty goals.
Some of the goals of the RSA winter ski or snowboard clinics are to improve the veterans’ endurance, strength, flexibility and balance which will help them be able to do their own self-care, enhance their life management skills and enjoy a new sport, which will assist them in enjoying life again.
RSA is accepting donations on their website, www.RimSpecialAthletes.org, for those who want to support the programs but cannot attend the Great Garden Gala on Sept. 13.
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