“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
-Helen Keller
“It was unbelievable!” Marc Ashton, CEO of Foundation for Blind Children (FBC) said as he described the adventure. The brow raising adventure that Marc speaks of involved a team of blind hikers and sighted guides crossing the Grand Canyon from rim to rim, in a single day. This team, dubbed the Canyon Crawlers, set out with the incredible goal of conquering the canyon while raising vital funds for the FBC’s Infant Program and raising awareness for visual impairments.
On October 10, 2010 the team set out on the trail after camping at the Grand Canyon National Park’s North Rim Campground. With 24 miles of trail ahead of them, the blind hikers began working their trekking poles, focusing on audible signals, and “feeling out” the trail beneath their feet.
The amazing journey has roots in a previous expedition FBC completed in 2009. Team Kili, the FBC’s blind and visually impaired Kilimanjaro climbing team, broke four world records and shattered stereotypes as they summited the 19,340 ft. tall mountain in Africa. After the enormous public support and fantastic fundraising results of the 2009 adventure, FBC, after returning home, began training a new team with a new goal. And so Canyon Crawlers was born.
Once again stereotypes were broken, awareness was raised, and the FBC gained terrific media exposure including stories in the USA Today and appearing on the Today Show. Please visit the Press page for links to Canyon Crawlers media coverage.
Congratulations Canyon Crawlers!
To read more about the journey, please follow the link below to a fantastic story from the AZ Republic.
