Special wheelchair accessible balloon providing fun for all children
People are taking in the views up high in Cathedral City, as the hot air balloon festival is underway. A special balloon was able to give some kids with disabilities a ride.
“Scary…exciting…and adventurous,” Damian Sanchez said.
That’s how he describes the balloon ride he was able to take Saturday morning, still processing what he was able to see. {“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1063857459616538624″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Some kids with physical disabilities were given the opportunity to fly at the Hot Air Balloon Festival today in &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CathedralCity?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#CathedralCity&#lt;/a&#gt;. Find out what it meant to them coming up tonight on &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; and &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/LocalTwo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@LocalTwo&#lt;/a&#gt;. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/sr8ogJviqu”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/sr8ogJviqu&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/1063857459616538624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;November 17, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″} “Not many people get to do this and for me being able to do this is an honor,” Sanchez said.
He was one of two kids with the Desert Ability Center that got the chance to fly high in a special wheelchair accessible basket. A staff member says the kids enjoyed themselves while in the air.
“They looked excited. They we’re having fun,” Letitia Collins, a board member, said.
She says the balloon ride means so much in a larger context.
“Any time a child is afforded an opportunity to that every able-bodied person is doing, it sparks something within them,” Collins said.
The basket itself is wide enough to accommodate one wheelchair and has ramps for access. The designer of the basket says he developed the idea over two decades ago, helping give free rides to kids with physical disabilities. and says he’s always wanted to something for them.
“People that inspire us are the people in the chairs and the families that help them,” Pat Murphy, the designer with the organization Reach for the Stars Balloon Foundation.
An inspiration allowing kids like Sanchez get a taste of flying high.
