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Middle Schoolers Host Adaptive Sports Event

April 29th, 2024


Sandia Prep partnered with the University of New Mexico P.E. Department and Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation to host an Adaptive Sports event on its campus to help raise awareness for inclusivity for people with disabilities.

On April 25, in Prep’s West Gym and on its fields, students enjoyed wheelchair/sitting basketball, sitting volleyball, beep baseball, four-corner goal ball, and blindfolded sprints with a sighted buddy.

More than two dozen middle school students from Prep’s community service club, Helping Hands, pitched in to coordinate the afternoon of fun and learning.

Local educator and disability advocate Travis Davis also worked with Prep on this event.

Susi Hochrein -- Helping Hands Coordinator and Assistant Head of School for Middle School -- said the idea for the event ignited after Davis came and spoke to the middle school about adaptive sports. “We had several students asking afterward how they could do adaptive sports. So, Travis and I started talking about it, and it evolved into this!”

Hochrein hopes the program will expand to include upper school participants and adaptive athletes.

“We are really hoping to make this an annual event that is schoolwide,” Hochrein said. “We’d also like for this to be a fundraising event to help sponsor adaptive sports teams and events.”

You can read more about the adaptive sports event in this Albuquerque Journal article.