by Melissa Karen Sances
Published in Northampton Living March 2025

COMMUNITY CORNER SPONSORED BY GREENFIELD SAVINGS BANK

When All Out Adventures (AOA) needed a last-minute fundraiser, Executive Director Karen Foster had an idea:
“I asked our staff if they were willing to jump in the lake with me.”

It was December 2019, the water had frozen over, and diving into it required cutting a hole in the ice.

Everyone wanted in. The plungers had sponsors, and the sponsors’ belief in the nonprofit’s mission – to provide free or low-cost outdoor recreation for people with disabilities – was just the tip of the iceberg. There wasn’t a New Englander in sight who wouldn’t freeze for a good cause.

This month, the fifth annual Plunge for Adventure will take place at DAR State Forest in Goshen on Saturday, March 15, at 11 a.m. Seventy divers will line up behind a rubber runway, waiting their turn to the tune of a brass band. Many will be in costume. Some might gallop on stick horses, only to be thrown into the water. Some might ride their bike into the lake. But everyone will be raising money so that anyone can have an all-out adventure.

Energizing and Equalizing

The moment when a plunger hits the water and the instant when someone with a disability discovers what they’re capable of aren’t so different. When a person with a spinal cord injury, brain injury, limb loss, autism, or mental health issue finds AOA, they are often wary of their body's limitations. But Foster finds “indescribable joy in watching the lightbulb go off” – like a freeze frame – for people introduced to new ways of moving and being.

“We see people with lifelong disabilities who never considered this was possible, and people who’ve had injuries later in life that are reclaiming what they’ve lost.”

Through AOA’s programs, families and friends can also gain awareness about their loved one’s agency. A few years ago, Foster recalls, a woman in her early 20s brought her grandmother in for a bike ride. The woman expected to trot alongside her grandmother, who had never ridden a recumbent trike.

But, Foster says, “the grandmother just took off, and the granddaughter started sprinting!” Breathlessly, the woman told Foster, “I’ll take a trike!”

“A lot of times families or friends are skeptical,” Foster continues, “so this can be a very powerful equalizing experience.”

Agency and Awe for All

All Out Adventures was founded 10 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. In response, Massachusetts State Parks created a program that provided both accessible infrastructure and recreational access to its spaces. Led by Tom McCarthy, the Universal Access Program developed activities like hand cycling and sled skating. In 2001, McCarthy joined with Philippe Galaski, a lifelong disability advocate, and graduates of Greenfield Community College’s Outdoor Leadership Program Kristy Michalek and Elizabeth Smith to start All Out Adventures.

Today, AOA serves 850 individuals per year, about half of whom are people with disabilities, as well as family, friends, and caregivers. Close to 4,000 participants, including repeat visitors, are active in 230 programs including pickleball, kayaking, and snowshoeing.

Agency and awe for all are at the heart of the nonprofit. Foster says that demand is so high it can’t be met in all programs, so waitlists are available and the organization is always seeking volunteers. This year’s Plunge for Adventure welcomes ice lovers, sponsors who prefer dry land, and warm-hearted supporters.

Learn more about AOA at alloutadventures.org.