A Need for Speed – Mateo Forero’s accessible adventure with the Rick Hansen Foundation Accessible Outdoors Program
Five-year-old Mateo Forero has a craving for speed.
He grumbles that his mom drives ‘like a grandma’, and his teachers remark how fast he zooms around the school.
But even as a kindergartner, Mateo already knows that he will face many barriers in life.
Mateo has the rare genetic conditions Osteogenesis Imperfecta and vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. He also uses a wheelchair.
“There’s so many things he wants to do, and in his five-year-old mind he knows he can’t,” said Mateo’s mom, Ashlee Forero.
Along with the rest of his family, Mateo loves the outdoors. “He loves being outside. But he gets quite frustrated because a lot of the outdoors aren’t very accessible, including playgrounds and parks. He just started kindergarten, and the toughest hour is outdoor time. It’s so hard for him.”
Mateo is not the only family-member who faces barriers every day. His dad, Jon, has the same genetic conditions, and also held a long-term dream.
“Every single summer, my husband Jon has said ‘the one thing I want to do this year is go fishing’. And between the two of us we try to figure out how to make it possible – we never came across an opportunity that could really work,” said Ashlee. “I never thought it would ever be possible for us as a family.”
But thanks to the Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF) and our fantastic supporters, this summer the Forero family – including Ashlee, Jon, sons Jonathan (8), Mateo (5) and Mason (4), and grandma Jamie – were able to have the experience of a lifetime.
A family trip of a lifetime
They set out from Steveston Harbour on August 25, a sunny, perfectly mild day, aboard the Everyone Everywhere accessible vessel. They were off on an adventure.
“It was breathtaking,” said Ashlee, remembering the experience. “It bypassed my expectations by a thousand.”
“There were absolutely no issues getting on the boat. Even the bull rail (a wooden edging around the dock area) swings out. They’d thought of everything.”
“Normally, I find barriers every time we go out, even at the mall. I would worry about things like their ability to get on the boat, to move around while they’re onboard. My husband and son fracture their bones easily, so safety is a big issue – we would be concerned about safety with getting on and off,” Ashlee added. But the adaptations on the Everyone Everywhere vessel allowed for an expedition that could otherwise seem impossible.
“Everything on the boat was accessible. They could roll right on. The bathroom had a ramp that took you down. My son rolled onto a lift, and it raised him up, so he could look outside at eye-level where they were driving the boat.”
The experience, said Ashlee, was “life-changing for the whole family.”
A fishing dream realized
On the adventure, the Forero family caught six sturgeon – three recaptures, and three which were newly tagged.
“It was a very hands-on experience,” Ashlee explained. “Even Mateo, who’s low muscle-toned, was able to reel in a sturgeon himself. The boat has fishing rods with automatic reeling-in, so even my five-year-old could catch a fish.”
Some sturgeon caused a particular splash: “We caught a six-foot fish – we joked that it was taller than everybody on the boat. They pulled it into a sling and brought it up closer. We were all able to see and touch it. Sometimes the fish would splash around and soak us all.”
Jon’s dream of fishing was able to come to life, thanks to RHF’s commitment to making the outdoors accessible for everyone.
“It was so nice to be able to watch my husband do something he’s always wanted to do with his kid.”
A sense of freedom on ‘the best day ever’
For Mateo, even more exciting was the freedom of the boat itself – and its speed.
“Mateo’s eyes were huge, he was just taking it all in,” Ashlee said. “He had the biggest smile.”
For weeks afterwards, Mateo wouldn’t stop talking about his experience. “He tells everybody – ‘I went on a boat and my wheelchair got to go! I could take my wheelchair everywhere!’.”
Ashlee thinks that everyone deserves the opportunity to experience the beauty of the province and country we live in.
“Going out in nature, on the water – getting out of the house – is very healing, mentally and spiritually. When Mateo is in the hospital, the second we can leave and get fresh air it pulls him from a funk mood in minutes.”
On that sunny day aboard Everyone Everywhere, it was all about Ashlee’s family.
“The whole experience from the very first second until we got off… I don’t even have words. It was an experience of a lifetime.”
And for Mateo, it was the best day ever. A day where he could go as fast as anyone.
“Even at five years old, he’s aware there’s so many things in the world that he’s unable to do. This gave him a sense of belonging, that he’s able to do things like everybody else.”
