Independent Perspective 1752 with Jennifer O'Sullivan on the Get Outdoors and Get Together Day

Host: Welcome to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of Western New York Independent Living (WNYIL). Our guest today is Jennifer O'Sullivan, Director of Communications with the NYS Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). And I am your host, Ernie Churchwell. Welcome to the program, Jennifer.

Guest: Hi Ernie, thanks for having me on the show.

Host: It’s our pleasure. You’re here because of something that I've only been aware of recently called the Get Outdoors and Get Together Day, which is something I hadn't heard of before, but it's intriguing. I understand that OPWDD has at least three partners in this activity. Who are those other state entities?

Guest:  Oh, well, first, let me just say that Get Outdoors and Get Together Day is an inclusive day of fun and it's going to be at select New York State parks and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) sites around the state on June 10, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. OPWDD will have activities and staff on hand at most if not all of the locations and our partners in this are the NYS Parks DEC, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The event will take place at 23 different parks and DEC sites across the state. Now the governors’ Chief Disability Officer Kim Hill has also been a great partner in this, and she joined us last year at Saratoga Spa State Park and this year she’s going to be in attendance at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center as well.   

Host:  Well, that sounds impressive. The thought occurs to me that when most non-disabled people think about how individuals with mobility, visual, physical and mental limitations look for towards recreation, they're probably mainly thinking of indoor activities, table games and so on. What led you to consider getting people outdoors?

Guest: Well, the great thing about the outdoors is anyone can enjoy it. And our state’s parks and DEC sites are really magnificent, many have accessible accommodations, such as accessible boat launches, paved paths for wheelchairs, accessible bathrooms, lots of parking and that kind of thing. So, they're really great places for an event like this.

Host: Don’t even have some additional adaptations like guides for archery and other outdoor activities that can help people with limited limb use?

Guest: Yes, I think most activities can be adapted in some way, right? We've seen at many of these sites, we've had adaptive fishing, archery, kayaking, but also at these events we're going to be offering arts and crafts, yard games and other types of activities, I think that we were also talking about chair yoga, things like that. So, each location is unique and the activities that it will offer. So those activities are I think listed out on each of the sites, at the DEC website, or the parks website.

Host: The announcement that I saw about this did mention that there are ten state parks and 13 Department of Environmental Conservation facilities. But checking online I find that there are over 200 State Parks total in the Empire State. Are there any attempts to expand this sort of thing to additional sites in the future?

Guest: We would love to expand it actually. It's actually growing. So we started in 2019 with just I think it was eight parks. It was only us in the parks at the time. But unfortunately, COVID hit and so we took a bit of a pause until last year, at which point DEC joined us and we turned it from Get Together Day to Get Outdoors and Get Together Day because DEC already had an existing event. So those 23 participating locations are the ones that didn't already have other activities planned. We encourage people to get out to those sites on June 10, but also at any site throughout the summer.

Host: I’m sorry, I believe we're running low on time, I'm sure people will have questions, how can they reach you to get more information like the closest park in their area?

Guest: So, they can look on the website at www.opwdd.ny.gov or they can email us at communications.office@opwdd.ny.gov

Host: Thanks so much for being with us Jennifer.

Guest: Great, thank you so much.

Host: Our pleasure. You've been listening to Independent Perspective, a public affairs presentation of WNYIL. Our guest has been Jennifer O'Sullivan, Director of Communications for the NYS OPWDD, and I’ve been your host, Ernie Churchwell.