Allard USA named recipients of its Dralla Foundation 2024 grant awards: Catalyst Sports, Enriching Skills for Life, Rochester Accessible Adventures, Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England (SPAGNE), and STRIDE Adaptive Sports.
Grant awards will go toward the following events:
- Catalyst Sports will use Dralla funding to host the Southeast Adaptive Climbing Competition, the only major paraclimbing event in the region, in 2024, 2025 and 2026. The legacy award will ensure that para-climbers of all abilities have regional access to high-level competition in this quickly growing international sport. Events will take place in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
- Enhancing Skills for Life will use Dralla funds to provide two scholarships to enable those living with upper-limb amputations the chance to learn to bowl. Events will be held in Texas and Ohio. Scholarships will cover travel costs and fitting of a device. Recipients will be able to keep their devices.
- Rochester Accessible Adventures will take 40 area residents with physical disabilities and their families to Letchworth State Park for a day of whitewater rafting on the Genesee River.
- SPAGNE will give members an opportunity to experience the open ocean on the Impossible Dream, a universally accessible catamaran specifically designed with their needs in mind. The crew, who also have disabilities, will lead trips in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and/or Maine.
STRIDE Adaptive Sports will host the third annual Upstate New York Sled Hockey Invitational, completing the final year of this Dralla legacy award. The only preseason tournament in the Northeast, it offers players of all levels a chance to gauge their readiness for the upcoming season.