Have you heard of the Yellow Ribbon Fund? I hadn’t, until I met some friendly people in Escondido during todays’ Veterans Day Parade.
The Yellow Ribbon Fund, as the above sign indicates, provides free events and programs to eligible disabled post-9/11 veterans and their families. I had to check out their website, which you can also do by clicking here.
I learned the organization enhances the lives of military families facing medical crisis.
As they explain: Yellow Ribbon Fund was one of the first veteran service organizations to recognize the importance of keeping the family together during the critical recuperation phase. Through the creation of our key programs: Crossroads and Keystone, we are able to make an impact on veterans and their families nationwide.
If you’d like to help these good people out, go to their website and explore the possibilities!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
During the next four days, September 4th to 7th, 2025, physically challenged athletes will take to the surf north of the Oceanside Pier and vie for thousands of dollars in prizes in different surfing competition categories. The event is brought to the city of Oceanside by the Stoke for Life Foundation and the U.S. Open ASC Competition Committee.
Last year 96 adaptive athletes from 18 countries from around the world competed, and this year it should be bigger than ever!
You can find more info, plus the U.S. Open Adaptive Surfing Championships daily schedule, by clicking here.
Today during a walk I spotted tents set up on the beach. I missed a special opening parade because I didn’t know about it. Near the pier I noticed workers getting everything ready at the announcer stand.
After walking out on the pier, I observed one of the athletes catching a wave while prone on a surfboard. He was practicing for the competition.
Good luck to everyone!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
I’m fortunate to be fairly healthy and active. I know that if I couldn’t enjoy my sunshine-filled walks, meeting friends–if I had severe mobility difficulties–I would become seriously depressed. That’s the way I’m made.
Knowing this, I was excited to learn about AbleGamers today at San Diego Comic-Con. AbleGamers is an organization that fights social isolation by making it easier for the disabled to participate in gaming. Here’s their website.
AbleGamers has been around for around 20 years. They have helped countless numbers of people find more joy and connection in their lives.
Their mission:
Creating opportunities that enable play in order to combat social isolation, foster inclusive communities, and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
With your help, we are working every day to make sure people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else for positive experiences through play. With our two decades as pioneers in inclusive play, thousands of hours working with people with disabilities, leading developers and engineers we create opportunities for players to find inclusive places to play and connect with family and friends.
AbleGamers partners with various organizations, including hospitals and rehabilitation centers, to reach more people with disabilities and provide them with a nearby location to assist in setup to enter the world of gaming.
No matter how severe the disability, today’s technology allows anyone to fully connect with other gamers. Gaming controls are made in such a way that even those without use of their hands can join the online community, having fun. Many of the major video game developers work with AbleGamers to make play more accessible.
I hope you are as inspired as I am. Please check out The AbleGamers website and perhaps help these good people in their mission.
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
An important presentation was made this evening in San Diego’s Balboa Park. A thoughtful audience, assembled inside the World Design Capital’s Exchange Pavilion, learned how the organization Tijuana Access is working to make Tijuana and Mexico more accessible for the disabled.
Eduardo Lopez Ruiz explained how Tijuana Access is raising awareness and lobbying for greater accessibility south of the border. He explained that our neighbors to the south are a bit behind the United States when it comes to making buildings, streets and city facilities more friendly for those who have difficulty functioning in a world full of potential obstacles.
Working to make our world more accessible, Eduardo affirmed, is a matter of compassion. Not only are a significant number of people born with or develop a disability, but most of us become elderly–right?
There are all sorts of ways to make a city more accessible. Automatic doors, ramps, lifts, slip resistant materials and tactile paving can be adapted to enhance mobility. Handrails, rest furniture, properly placed buttons and switches, Braille printing and other changes can make life much easier and safer for many.
The presentation was mostly in Spanish with an interpreter helping us English speakers. I asked how I could link to Tijuana Access with my blog, because readers might like to help in some way. The Tijuana Access Instagram page is here. Their Facebook page is here.
To my readers in Mexico, perhaps this is a cause you’d like to support. Or simply spread the word to help to raise awareness!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Lots of athletes were out in the sunshine today playing Over-the-Line!
OTL is a unique, baseball-like beach game, created in the 1950s by the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club. This signature San Diego sport was being played by teams competing at OMBAC’s 41st Annual Wheelchair Over-the-Line Tournament.
Food was abundant, a rock band was playing live music, and scores were being kept as screaming line drives were batted into the outfield. The field of play was the parking lot of the old Toys “R” Us store on West Morena Boulevard.
To learn more about OMBAC’s Adaptive sports activities, and how anyone can become involved, visit their website here!
Very cool!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Today I learned of two ways to thank military heroes who sacrificed part or all of their life in service to country.
I was walking through the Mustang Club of San Diego’s outdoor car show, checking out some of the displays, when I paused to speak to individuals representing two non-profit organizations: Homes For Our Troops and Final Honor.
Homes For Our Troops builds specially adapted custom homes for severely injured post-9/11 Veterans, enabling them to rebuild their lives. The specially designed homes contain features that assist heroes who have multiple limb amputations, partial or full paralysis, and/or traumatic brain injury.
There are 100 severely injured Veterans awaiting entry into their program. To learn more and perhaps make a donation, click here.
Final Honor provides a complimentary horse-drawn funeral carriage at Miramar National Cemetery. The dignified carriage is available for any Veteran, regardless of rank, whose family would like to enhance the memorial service for their loved one at no cost.
This beautiful, completely free service is made possible through private donations. To learn more and perhaps provide a helping financial hand, click here.
These guys with The Miracle League of San Diego help make dreams come true for special needs kids who love baseball!
I met some inspirational people today.
During my visit to the 22nd Annual Lemon Festival in Chula Vista, as I walked down Third Avenue past dozens of booths, my eye was caught by a banner with the words Miracle League. When I asked what that meant, four friendly guys explained how their organization, called The Miracle League of San Diego, provides special needs kids around San Diego County with the opportunity to play baseball!
How cool is this?
Special needs players, with the assistance of volunteer buddies, play on special rubberized baseball fields at Engel Family Field in Del Mar and at Bell Middle School. The unique playing fields accommodate wheelchairs, walkers and the sight-impaired. Players and buddies are matched for an entire Spring or Fall season, and every player scores in fun two inning games that end in a tie. Players are ages five and up. Buddies are kind, patient community volunteers!
According to The Miracle League of San Diego website, announcers are provided with index cards about each player so they have ample material to highlight every at bat. Special needs kids become baseball superstars!
Do you know a special needs kid who’d love to play baseball? Would you like to be a volunteer buddy? Do you want to learn more?
Today I watched some of the world’s best athletes compete. I headed up to Balboa Park to experience the 28th Annual Best of the West Quad Rugby Tournament in the Municipal Gymnasium. Most people know the sport as wheelchair rugby, or murderball. That last name sounds rather tough, but it’s for a good reason.
The quad rugby players that participated in this tournament are among the best in the world. Some have competed in the Paralympic Games. There were teams from California, Arizona, Texas and Minnesota, and even from London and Australia. The amazing team from Australia was this year’s Best of the West champion.
At the very top level, wheelchair rugby players are unbelievable athletes. They are strong, fast, agile, and can turn and accelerate on a dime. To block opposing players, trap them defensively, or upset an unfolding strategy, players will literally smash their chairs into one another. As if in some sort of crazy demolition derby, the bashing wheelchairs sometimes tip sideways, even turn over. And the players don’t seem fazed in the least. Each is an irresistible force, determined to assist their teammates and find a way through the opposition to score, no matter how.
Here are a few photos that capture a bit of the action.
The composition of one photograph turned out to be exceptionally dynamic, but the image was completely unfocused, so I altered it to appear like a cool oil painting.
You really have to see quad rugby in person to appreciate the heart of these players.
Raw human determination can be unstoppable.
Watching quad rugby is inspirational.
For an explanation of quad rugby, click this photo and it will expand for easy reading.
The Australian quad rugby team celebrated their championship by forming a circle, joining hands and rocking the gymnasium with a spirited, victorious shout!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Loving, intelligent guide dogs and their trainers attend a special event in San Diego.
During my walk today I came across a special event taking place at Embarcadero Marina Park North. A local group representing Guide Dogs for the Blind was having a gathering by San Diego Bay!
I was impressed at how loving and intelligent the guide dogs all were. I asked where people could go to learn more about possibly raising a guide dog, and was told to check out this website!
According to a handout I received, Guide Dogs for the Blind was created in 1942 to aid servicemen blinded in World War II. I also learned their services are offered free to people throughout the United States and Canada.
If you know someone who is blind or visually impaired, tell them about Guide Dogs for the Blind! Or check out their puppy raising program!
Guide Dogs for the Blind had a special gathering today at Embarcadero Marina Park North.
You see a puppy, a person who is blind sees the world.
This best friend can make a difficult life much better.
Guide Dogs for the Blind. Raise a puppy. Change a life.
Wheelchairs are welcome on the beautiful Jas Arnold Trail For All People in Black Mountain Open Space Park.
A hiking trail that welcomes wheelchairs recently opened in San Diego’s North County. It’s called the Jas Arnold Trail For All People, and it’s located in the Black Mountain Open Space Park.
This morning I walked the short loop for the first time.
What a wonderful place. Peaceful, a bit meandering, easily accessible, with pleasant views into the sunlit distance, fresh air, the scent of sage, the sound of birds–it’s a fine place that one can explore at a easy pace and just relax–a place to feel energized, spiritually whole and free.
Here are some photographs. To read the signs, click the images and they will enlarge. This morning I spotted a shy rabbit, a curious scrub jay and a cheerful young mockingbird. And a bunch of small flitting birds that I couldn’t identify.
The Trail For All People is a 1076 feet long, nearly level loop. The elevation runs between 777 and 792 feet. The five foot wide hiking trail’s decomposed granite surface is very easily navigated on wheels or by foot. Those in a wheelchair who love nature and the outdoors should definitely check it out!
To reach the Trail For All People’s trailhead, drive up Carmel Valley Road and watch for the Black Mountain Open Space Park sign that mentions Miner’s Ridge Loop. You’ll spot it just south of the Valle Del Sur Court traffic light. Turn in to the narrow entrance and head up a slightly rough and winding paved road for about a half mile until you reach the trailhead parking lot. Once parked, it’s easy to spot the Trail For All People. (You might also see trailheads for the Miner’s Ridge Loop and Lilac Canyon Trail.)
On warm days, make sure to bring water! Enjoy!
To find the trailhead for the Trail For All People, turn off of Carmel Valley Road at this sign, just south of the traffic light at Valle Del Sur Court.
Early morning walker with dog on the Miner’s Ridge Loop Trail, across a parking lot from the Trail For All People.
The Jas Arnold Trail For All People is an ADA Accessible loop composed of wheelchair-friendly decomposed granite. Four small shelters provide shade for those enjoying the views.
Native plants along the trail include Black Sage, Coastal Prickly Pear, California Sagebrush, Laurel Sumac, Chamise, Lemonadeberry and Flat-top Buckwheat.
Animals one might spot along the trail include rattlesnakes, Red-tailed Hawks, California Quail, Greater Roadrunners, Desert Cottontails, Bobcats and Coyotes.
Here I’m hiking down the easy Jas Arnold Trail For All People on Black Mountain early one Saturday morning. The sun had just risen and very few people were about.
One of the benches and shelters along the Trail For All People. Views to the north include mountains and nearby 4S Ranch.
Looking southeast toward the chaparral-covered slopes of Black Mountain in north San Diego County.
A topographical map shows the position of the Trail For All People in relation to its surroundings.
The Jas Arnold Trail For All People was built on a small plateau in the Black Mountain Ranch Open Space Park.
Another sign along the trail provides detailed information about some of the wildlife one might see.
Another section of the relatively level Trail For All People. The easy loop is ideal for the mobility challenged and families with very small children. On warm days, bring water!
One of many fascinating signs along the trail. The smell of sage adds a pleasant element to one’s invigorating journey through fresh open air.
A pleasant view from the Jas Arnold Trail For All People on Black Mountain.
The natural beauty, open spaces and sunlight make one feel happy and alive.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
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