It’s a pretty special moment when a donor approaches an organization offering to make a special gift that will enhance mobility for individuals who want to fully experience our beautiful state parks.  Through this donor’s generosity, Family Hope Foundation is able to gift two Action Trackchairs to Holland’s State Park. This means any individual who uses a wheelchair will be able to experience all aspects of the park from the deep sand, to the trails and to the water’s edge.

Says Sean Mulligan, Supervisor at the Holland State Park, “We are very excited to have two Action Trackchairs at the Park because they will open the door for access to not just the beach but also the trail system behind our campground. We’re really looking forward to seeing how this increased accessibility opens up our facility to the full community. We have a great park and it’s pretty great to know this gift will eliminate barriers, allowing more people to experience its beauty.”

The Louis and Helen Padnos Foundation generously funded a Freedom Trax chair which Family Hope Foundation is donating to the Muskegon Winter Sports Complex, located inside the Muskegon State Park. Freedom Trax is a unique mobility device that attaches to most manual wheelchairs allowing them to go through sand, snow, mud, gravel, and deep grass, making it a perfect fit for the Sports Complex. The Freedom Trax chair will enhance the park’s adaptive equipment allowing visitors with varying disabilities to experience everything from the luge to the zipline and so much more.

“We are very thankful for our community partnership with Family Hope Foundation in securing a Freedom Trax chair to improve access to the great outdoors for our park visitors. This generous gift further supports our organization’s commitment to universal accessibility in the outdoor environments and will enable visitors who use wheelchairs increased access to our trails year-round. This gift is yet another testament to our facility credo that we are a facility built by the community for the community.”   – Jim Rudicil, Executive Director of the Muskegon Luge Adventure Sports Park.

These gifts are a generous and wonderful addition to our West Michigan community. We look forward to the joy they will bring to both the Holland State Park and the Muskegon Winter Sports Complex for years to come.