Shepard Roeper and Kyle Burnette are giving individuals with disabilities the opportunity to get outdoors and do something interactive and fun with their families and friends.
Shepard Roeper and Kyle Burnette are giving individuals with disabilities the opportunity to get outdoors and do something interactive and fun with their families and friends.
The two outdoor enthusiasts are the co-founders behind Beyond Boundaries, which takes children and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities on outdoor adventures around Richmond.
Roeper and Burnette, along with a group of volunteers, have led groups of people with varying disabilities on hikes and white water rafting trips along the James River since 2015.
“We led a hike around Belle Isle and took about 15 to 20 blind students around there it was our pioneer hiking program which we’d like to build up at the end of this year,” Roeper said.
The business partners and Radford University graduates launched Beyond Boundaries last year, but the idea sparked after the two headed out west to work for Environmental Traveling Companions, a non-profit in California which offers outdoor excursions for people with disabilities. Roeper worked there right before graduating from Radford.
“That played a huge part in the growth and start of Beyond Boundaries,” he said. “I started working for this company and Kyle came out to visit me while I was working there and fell in love with the place and when I left he took over my position.”
They both worked for about a year there and then ended up back in Richmond and one day the idea for a similar business model came up as all good ideas do…over a pint.
“We were at Hardwood having a beer and we said, ‘you know we really miss that environment we miss that friendly supportive community-based program’,” he said. “We want to bring that to Richmond.”
After doing a bit of research, the two found out there were a few places that took people with disabilities, but the area was lacking a group for youth and adults with disabilities to interact with those closest to them, instead of just others with disabilities.
“We don’t have that chance for people with disabilities to go on adventures with the able bodied community, with their friends, with their family, brothers, boyfriends, girlfriends whatever.”
The organization completed two rafting days and one hike last year and this year, the two hope to do eight white water rafting trips between June and August.
“Were going to start to put on time and effort into our hiking program”
Right now, Beyond Boundaries is just a part time venture for Roeper and Burnette. Roeper works as a fitness instructor for Zacharias Ganey Health Institute and Virginia Outside and Burnette is an educator over at the James River Association.
“A lot of our stuff is on the weekends just for availability,” he said.
The trips are a confidence and self esteem builder for participants and a chance for them to build social skills. It’s a chance for them to do something fun with their family or friends and focus on their “abilities” instead of their disabilities.
“One of the main things we really want to do is we want the people with disabilities to be able to grow and see what they’re able to do and step out of their comfort zone,” Roeper said.
Roeper added it also gives their families and friends a chance to see them “for their abilities.”
And he said the response from participants and families has been very positive and supportive.
“From a participant standpoint, we’ve had a people a couple mothers and three kids, just to see them smiling really made their day,” Roeper said. They were emailing us the next week saying, ‘hey when can get on the river again with you?’.”
He also mentioned a deaf man, his brother, and his interpreter that went on a rafting trip.
“He said it was the best birthday present he’s ever had,” he said.
The trips only cost $25, but since it is a startup, Roeper said they are looking into a fundraiser or launching an indiegogo campaign to raise funds so they can expand both programs and offer more trips.
“We really want to grow the youth side of it.,” he said. “There’s a lot of potential there, there’s definitely a need there. We’re trying to find as many days as we both have to run trips this summer.”
If all goes goes as planned, Beyond Boundaries hopes to branch out beyond Richmond.
“Wed love to expand to all sides of Virginia and eventually beyond that,” Roeper said.
