Four applicants will receive funding to purchase and maintain items such as beach access mats, beach wheelchairs, and kayak adaptive equipment.
COSTA MESA, CA – Orange County Coastkeeper (Coastkeeper) has awarded the first four grants for its Beach and Coast Accessibility Program, a statewide initiative reducing barriers to California’s coastline in partnership with the California State Coastal Conservancy (the Conservancy).
Over $65,000 has been dispersed among the following organizations and agencies: NatureTrack Foundation, Inc., Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation, Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program, and Monte Rio Recreation and Park District. This funding will go towards items such as beach access mats, beach wheelchairs, FreedomTrax wheelchair attachments, kayak adaptive equipment, beach walkers, and balloon tire beach walkers.
As a part of the grant agreement, this equipment must be promoted widely and regularly available to the public at no cost. Interested beachgoers should contact each grantee directly for further details on how to reserve equipment. Coastkeeper will provide updated information on equipment availability to the California Coastal Commission for its online public beach wheelchair database.
Coastkeeper and the Conservancy have identified other strong grant applications and are currently working to finalize contracts with these applicants. Coastkeeper expects to disperse the next round of funding before the end of 2024. Visit coastkeeper.org/bcap for the most updated information on funding availability.
Further details for the initial round of funded projects can be found here:
NatureTrack Foundation, Inc. – $28,236
Location: Statewide
NatureTrack Foundation, Inc. will utilize these funds to purchase six Freedom Trax (motorized off-road wheelchair attachments), increasing its inventory to 19 units for its scheduled beach trips and lending program. For more specific location information, visit their website at naturetrack.org.
Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation – $20,000
Location: Spring Lake Regional Park (Santa Rosa) & Doran Regional Park (Bodega Bay)
Sonoma County Regional Parks Foundation will utilize these funds to purchase Freedom Trax, balloon tire walkers, and temporary storage sheds for this equipment.
Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program – $14,000
Location: Bay Area
Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program will utilize these funds to purchase Access Trax (beach mats) and a variety of parts for their adaptive kayaking program such as universal seats, gel padding, wrist and hand adaptations, and outriggers.
Monte Rio Recreation and Park District – $3,000
Location: Monte Rio Beach (Russian River)
Monte Rio Recreation and Park District will utilize these funds to purchase a beach wheelchair and a temporary storage shed to hold the equipment.
