News

Actions

Norfolk students with disabilities get the chance to go rock climbing

Posted at 2:15 PM, Mar 20, 2013
and last updated 2013-03-21 06:25:50-04
Norfolk, Va. -

 Students with disabilities from Norfolk Public Schools got a chance to do something pretty extraordinary; they had the chance to go rock climbing Wednesday at Old Dominion University!

This is thanks to a partnership between the school division and university to offer Adaptive Physical Education clinics.

Students from several Norfolk Public Schools take part in the program which pairs them with ODU adaptive PE teachers-in-training.

On Wednesday, students from Crossroads School got their chance to take part and they were the first group in the 25-year history of the program to get to use the rock climbing wall at ODU's Recreation Center.

"The thought was let's get outside of doing just throwing skills, kicking skills and let`s do something else and get these kids excited," explained Patrick Doyle who leads the Adaptive Physical Education Department for Norfolk Public Schools.

Brian Van Der Linden is the graduate assistant for ODU's climbing wall and says the students from Crossroads far exceeded his expectations on the wall.

"Absolutely amazing. Just seeing them, hearing them, they were just so excited," Van Der Linden explained.