Blind Take a Plunge--Into Adventure

Before 15-year-old Darren Gresham, a blind Braille Institute student from Los Angeles, strapped on a safety harness this week and climbed a ladder eight times his height, he first had to put his faith in another pair of eyes.

As part of an Outward Bound program at Red Rock Canyon State Park, Gresham and Paola Valenzuela, a sighted Franklin High School student, ascended a contraption called the Giant’s Ladder, teaming their skills--and their courage--to reach the top.

The exercise, part of a special Outward Bound wilderness program focused on educating Los Angeles inner-city youngsters, was the culmination of a six-day adventure that challenged 16 teen-agers to build their confidence and self-esteem by pushing beyond their physical and mental limits.

By creating a buddy system, instructors aimed to foster teamwork and debunk stereotypes about the visually impaired.

From the first day of the course--which began in the Santa Monica Mountains and included desert treks into Joshua Tree National Monument--each pair of buddies had to travel everywhere together.

“We asked the groups to be responsible for each other, to support and help each other learn,” said Nehama Weininger, the program’s chief instructor.

Given the dizzying heights of the high ropes course, participants shared one overriding thing: fear. To master the Eagle’s Perch, for example, the students had to climb a 24-foot pole, stand on its top and leap into the air, reaching to catch a trapeze-like bar.

The students were brought together by the On Belay program, or Outward Bound Educating Los Angeles Youth, and was funded in part by a grant from a fund established by former Dodgers first baseman Eddie Murray.

Founded in 1941, Outward Bound USA,is the nation’s largest and oldest adventure-based educational organizationn. The nonprofit group is dedicated to inspiring self-reliance and concern for others and for the environment.