Silhouette of rock face with a youth dangling in an adaptive climbing rig against a deep blue sky.

Media Alert


7 Kids Climb Rocks on Tom Thumb’s Trail Saturday as Part of Ability360 Adaptive Sports Program for People with Disabilities, Breaking Barriers

Phoenix, 3/30/17

WHAT

  • 7 kids from 9-14 years will spend Saturday morning climbing and repelling down rock walls on Tom’s Thumb Trail in the McDowell Mountain Preserve as part of Ability360 Sports & Fitness Center’s Breaking Barriers program for kids with disabilities.
  • Breaking Barriers is specifically designed to give youth with disabilities greater access to competitive and noncompetitive sports and outdoor adventures. The program includes indoor and outdoor rock climbing, a swim team and paddling.

WHEN

  • Saturday, April 1 at 9 a.m.

WHERE

  • Tom’s Thumb Trail at the McDowell Mountain Preserve.
  • Tom’s Thumb is about a quarter-mile hike from the trailhead at Pima and Happy Valley Roads in Scottsdale.

WHO

  • Breaking Barriers participants
  • Sponsored by Thunderbirds Charities
  • Gus LaZear, Vice President and General Manager, Ability360 Sports & Fitness Center. LaZear has more than 18 years experience managing major programs and initiatives in rehabilitative medicine, recreational therapy, outdoor adventures and other adaptive programs for people with disabilities.

INFO

Contacts:

  • Loren Worthington, Ability360, (602) 386-4278
  • Steve Carr, The Kur Carr Group, Inc., (602) 317-3040

ABOUT THE ABILITY360 SPORTS & FITNESS CENTER: The Ability360 Sports and Fitness Center is a 45,000-square foot, state-of-the-art facility located in Phoenix, Arizona. Owned and operated by Ability360, the Sports & Fitness Center offers a wide variety of amenities to help you achieve your health and fitness goals including a fitness center with wheelchair accessible weight machines, an aquatic area equipped with lifts and elevators, accessible locker rooms, and more.

ABOUT ABILITY360: Ability360, formerly Arizona Bridge to Independent Living (ABIL), continues a 35-year tradition of empowering programs for people with all disabilities. Ability360 offers and promotes programs to empower people with disabilities to take personal responsibility so that they may achieve or continue independent lifestyles within the community.  The independent living philosophy states that people with disabilities should have the same civil rights, options, and control over choices in their own lives as do people without disabilities. Ability360 is located at 5025 E. Washington St. Ste. 200, Phoenix, AZ 85034, www.ability360.org, 602-256-2245.