Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) sports management program, is preparing to host the university’s first ever Adaptive Sports Expo on April 11.

Adaptive sports are sports that have been modified to allow people of all abilities to participate in activities they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

The Paralympics are the largest adaptive sporting event, with the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics grabbing over 12 million viewers worldwide in March 2022.

“To grow our community’s social responsibility in relation to individuals living with disabilities and engaging in active lifestyles. We believe that participating in sporting and recreational activities increases a sense of unity, awareness, and self-esteem that carries into all of our participants to grow intellectually, professionally and personally in their everyday lives,” says the mission statement for Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) Adaptive and Active Lifestyle Exposition, a free event here at CMU. 

Sports management students are putting on the event for the first time ever at Foster Fieldhouse.  The event features several adaptive events, such as wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball and many more.

“There’s not a lot of opportunities for an able bodied person to participate in an adaptive event, and they don’t really know anything about adaptive equipment, or adaptive sports, and how they play.  It’s like if we have a basketball player who’s able bodied, and we put them in a wheelchair, and said ‘OK, now go play your sport,’ it’s harder, and they’d probably never imagine themselves in that position,” said graduate sports management student Iliana Mendoza.

The expo will be a full day of events, starting with registration and chair yoga at 7:00 a.m. To guarantee the event is open to everyone in the greater Grand Junction community and everyone is able to participate, registration will be as accessible as possible and will include sign language interpreters, closed captioning on videos, a braille program book and accessible and nearby parking for each event. This event has been a goal of Mendoza’s for quite some time now, as she has been planning this event for over a year along with the help and guidance of Dr. Sloane Milstein.

“I was helping […] plan this as an undergrad, and she kind of told me, ‘Hey we can actually do this,’ so my role has been the project director, so I’ve been coordinating with administration,” said Mendoza.

The goal of the adaptive sports expo, according to Mendoza, can be summed up in three words: awareness, advocacy and action.  Along with the activities available, the event will also feature keynote speakers to add a level of education to the fun.

A demonstration of both therapy and service dogs will also be taking place, with the help of Angels in the Making Professional Dog Training.  Dogs will be available to pet and the trainers from the company will have information available for people that are interested in a service dog.

Immediately following the demonstration for therapy dogs, a “Roll and Stroll” 5k will take place.  Participants can run, walk or push a wheelchair through the route on campus.

Another interesting activity that isn’t otherwise available for CMU students is a sport called goal ball.  Goal ball is designed for athletes with visual impairments, and has a ball equipped with bells to roll across the court which is the size of a standard indoor volleyball court.  The objective is to roll the ball across the floor into the opposing team’s goal.

“The more people we have involved, whether it’s planning, or participating or volunteering, everyone is getting their experience, everyone is able to say they helped out with this, whether they volunteered, or planned, or actually participated,” said Mendoza.

Sport Management senior Justin Prechodko agreed with Mendoza’s sentiment.

“We’ve been glad to be able to really grasp an understanding of how everyone in our society experiences sporting.  We’ll be able to not only see that, but gain actual experience of how this degree is actually used in the real world,” said Prechodko.

The exhibitor fair, starting at noon, features several organizations from across Colorado that assist with activities for people with disabilities.  Special Olympics Colorado, GJ Adaptive Climbing and the Grand Junction Sports Committee will have tables.  The sports management program hopes that these tables not only provide resources for people with varying abilities, but also help demonstrate how able bodied people can assist in benefiting the lives of people who participate in adaptive activities.

“As many people as we can get to know about, and participate in this event would be great, because we want to build this event yearly,” said Mendoza.

For more information on the expo, including how to register, available accessibility services, event programming and what events are being offered on April 11,  visit the sport management club website at www.coloradomesauniversitysportmanagement.com/events.