Lake dreams

Trevor, 5, used to be scared of the water. Now, as he sits on a paddleboard as a volunteer takes him out on Whitefish Lake, Trevor dips his feet in with a smile.

Trying new things isn’t easy for Trevor, who is autistic. But after Niki Wolford took him to an adaptive skiing event at Whitefish Mountain Resort, the process has been easier. Niki and Trevor arrived at City Beach late Friday morning for DREAM Adaptive Recreation’s first paddleboard event at Whitefish Lake, and Trevor seemed pretty comfortable in the water.

“He used to fear water. Now, just having that reassurance that water is OK from doing these activities really helps him grow as an individual,” Wolford said.

DREAM, which stands for Disabled Recreation Environmental Access Movement, has been in the Flathead Valley for more than 30 years and has a well-established adaptive skiing program at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

“DREAM is about breaking down the barriers to inclusive outdoor adaptive recreation for people with disabilities,” executive director Cheri DuBeau-Carlson said.

The program is in its second year of hosting paddleboard events for people with disabilities. When DuBeau-Carlson took up paddleboarding as a hobby, she was told about wheelchair accessible boards.

“It makes [paddleboarding] accessible for a lot of different people,” she said.

Last summer, DREAM held four paddleboard days in the valley, starting out with just a few participants at the first events. This summer they’re doing six days and have seen more than a dozen people show up. Trevor was one of 10 participants in Friday’s event, along with nine volunteers. DREAM owns three wheelchair-accessible paddleboards and five stand-up paddleboards, some of which were obtained through grants.

“[I enjoy] seeing people get out there and enjoy their lives, no matter what their situation is, knowing that they don’t have to be limited. They can get out and do the same thing as everybody else and it really improves their quality of life overall. It raises their confidence, it builds their self esteem, it just gives them a whole new outlook on life,” DuBeau-Carlson said. “They say, ‘I can do it,’ and it’s really cool.’”

“A lot of our volunteers say they get more out of volunteering and helping people do these things than what our participants get out of it,” she added.

In addition to paddleboarding, DREAM also hosts sit water skiing, wakeboarding, kayaking, tubing, swimming and boating events in the summer. In the future, they’d like to add hand cycling, mountain biking and road biking programs, DuBeau-Carlson said.

DREAM is part of this year’s Great Fish Community Challenge. There is one more paddle board event at Whitefish Lake this summer on Saturday, Aug. 20. For more information visit http://www.dreamadaptive.org.