The Bridge Adaptive Sports and Recreation

Cincinnati Gives Challenge participant; donate here: www.cincinnatigives.org/The-Bridge-Adaptive-Sports-And-Recreation

ESTABLISHED: 2021

MISSION: Our mission is to increase awareness and promote opportunities for individuals to participate in adaptive sports and recreation in order to improve their quality of life.

SERVING OUR COMMUNITY: We aim to be a Bridge from the hospital to community, sedentary to active, unequipped to fully fitted, and so on for individuals with disabilities. We break down barriers to accessing sport and recreation in three primary ways:

1. In conjunction with local and national organizations, we host regular “Try-It” events that allow people to try things like adaptive skiing or adaptive mountain biking at no cost and low commitment.
2. We have a bank of used adaptive sports equipment that we loan out to allow athletes to try a sport before spending thousands of dollars on purchasing their own equipment.
3. We train the community and other providers in adaptive sports to increase the network of people comfortable working with individuals with disabilities.

LEADERSHIP
Board and Officers
Dr. Danny Meyer, PT, DPT, Executive Director, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Dr. Victoria Heasley, MD, President of the Board, University of Cincinnati Medical Center
Dr. Melinda “MeMe” Earnest-Stanley, Director of Operations, University of Cincinnati College of Allied Health Sciences
Jeffrey Daniel, Board Chair
Renee Loftspring, PT, EdD, Board Chair, University of Cincinnati Medical Center
Jacob Counts, BS, Board Chair, Paralympian; Greater Cincinnati Adapted Sports Club
Brent Zeiser, CFP, Treasurer, Altenau Financial Services
Joe Meyer, BS, Director of Fundraising, JTM Food Group

OTHER WAYS TO HELP
Volunteer Opportunities:
1. We partnered with Pig Works last year to create the first ever handcycling event in the 10K of the Flying Pig. We will need runners and cyclists to train with our athletes leading up to the 2024 Flying Pig.
2. We host monthly adaptive gaming evaluations at Velocity E-Sports in Cincinnati and are always looking for passionate gamers to help us connect people with disabilities to the world of gaming.

Donor Needs:
1. Funding to purchase adaptive mountain bikes to officially bring adaptive mountain biking to Cincinnati.
2. Funding to support purchase of handcycles to support training and competing in the Flying Pig
3. Facility space to be able to store, test, and service adaptive sports equipment
4. Funding for purchasing sports wheelchair parts such as wheelchair wheels, axels, and cushions to increase our loanable inventory.

1614 Westmoreland Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45223
(513) 477-2467
www.thebridgeadaptive.org