GDABVI News Release

Detroit Free Press

A high-wire adventure in Farmington Hills

Blind campers grab the ropes, push past fear

Higher, higher, higher climbs 14-year-old Domonique (DJ) Jones of Detroit, reaching the top of a 50-foot ladder at Boys & Girls Republic on Aug. 14.  Cheers and high fives followed.

For all but seasoned daredevils, the high-ropes course at Boys & Girls Republic in Farmington Hills is a heart-pounding challenge.

Those who've tested their mettle on its tottering wires and narrow steps include teams of employees, school groups and the Republic's own residents -- youthful offenders and neglected children.

But until last week, the course had never been tried by people who can't see, said Gregory Chapman, the institution's chief operating officer.

"It's a great undertaking," Chapman said, as 11 summer campers from the Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Detroit prepared to ascend.

In a forest at the rear of the institution's 80-acre campus, on 9 Mile between Inkster and Middlebelt, teachers and counselors shouted up encouragement and directions for negotiating the narrow steps, small handholds and, ultimately, a steel tightrope strung dozens of feet in the air.

First, there were calming words from majordomo Barry Shapiro, 29, of Novi, who supervises the ropes course, called Adventure Challenge.

"What did we say about falling out here?" Shapiro asked Cheryl Stahl, 14, of Farmington Hills.

"That you can't fall because the rope catches you," she answered, parroting his safety talk while fingering a rope clipped to a harness cinched around her waist.

The rope ran to a pulley high in the trees, then back to Shapiro, who told a visitor, "We try to show them it's not about getting to the top. It's about pushing yourself past the borders you've set for yourself."

With that, Cheryl began the first of several attempts to climb a ladder for the first time in her life. Her first try took her up a single step. Next, she went halfway. On a third try, she inched higher, higher.

"All right, Cheryl! All the way up!" rang out the cries of groundlings, as counselors put the hands of other campers on the ladder, keeping it steady and them involved. Finally, the girl reached the top.

Whew!

She'd stopped short of narrow steel rungs that ran another 20 feet to a perilous high-wire perch. Yet she returned to earth triumphant.

The teen, blind since birth, wore a smile that seemed to be one part pride, one part relief.

Other campers from the group -- some partially sighted but with cognitive and physical deficits -- made their way well above the ladder. One even crossed the tightrope, to more cheering.

Some of the shouted praise came from Mary Beth Kullen, summer-camp coordinator at the agency for the blind and visually impaired.

"I wasn't sure how this would go, but it's been a really neat experience for our kids," she said.

Contact BILL LAITNER at 248-351-3297