Beautiful Day for Kayaking

image description: street scene vehicles parked, people walking on sidewalk, one person in wheelchair, colorful kayaks horizontally lined up on grass along with one bicycle nearby.

Outdoors Adaptive Escapade (OAE) focuses on highlighting green & blue trails. It celebrates all abilities and showcases the many hidden recreational gems that the Miller community in Gary and neighboring communities have to offer. OAE will feature adaptive vehicles and equipment that will enable individuals with limited mobility to access roads, trails, dunes, and beaches, to participate in activities of all types of terrains and in all kinds of weather.

Dune Buggy pick-up and drop-off route

image description: map shows five bus stops, three at lakefront and two within community with borders of Rt. 12, Lake St. and North Grand Avenue.

Attendees will have the opportunity to explore and experience a wide range of adaptive outdoor recreation equipment including: accessible paths, vehicles, hand and tandem cycles, Action Trackchairs, and Freedom Trax, kayaks and paddle boards.

Zagster Bikeshare and Miller Spotlight’s Take-Bike- the-Streets initiative will be on hand to demonstrate bikes and share information about bike sharing, bike racks, bike repair stations and Build-A-Bike shop initiatives in Gary’s Miller neighborhood.

Special training will be provided for blind and low-vision persons interested in kayaking at Marquette Lagoon by Kayak Kenneth. Adaptive bike riding and paddling events will be led by Adaptive Adventures and NWIPA. Attendees can also learn about ongoing opportunities including weekly NWIPA’s Sunset Paddle at the ADA Paddling Launch at Marquette Park Lagoon, and the NPS’s kayak/paddle and other water recreation activities hosted on Wednesday’s at Marquette Park Beach and on Fridays at West Beach.

The Miller Spotlight group will showcase the initial phases of two accessible community gardens. These gardens will also be a part of the Miller Garden Club’s Secret Garden Walk taking place on the same day.

Activities are in coordination with Adaptive Adventures, Northwest Paddling Association (NWIPA), Barrier Free Beach 2020, City of Gary Parks & Recreation, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, National Park Services, Save the Dunes, Causes for Change, and City of Gary’s Legacy Foundation Neighborhood Spotlight Groups.

Activity Map

Image description:  Within a black border a green white map of community marked in blue diamond showing six areas where activities will take place, nearby bathrooms, and five bus pick-up and drop off shown by bus symbol. Outside of border listed in three columns location and description of activities shown in map. On the right is a symbol of active wheelchair user

2017 AccessMiller Activities OAE

Activities will be taking place at various locations along the lakefront.  The OAE Expo will be set up at the corner of Miller Avenue and Grand, area referred to as the Old Ralph’s Wilco Grocery Store, Dana Evans Corner, Build-a-Bike area.  The Expo will open at 10:00 AM, with an official ribbon cutting celebration at 11:00 AM.

Paddling activities take place at Marquette Park, Calumet Lagoon throughout the day.  These activities will be held at two launches located near each other.  One launch is for persons not requiring any special accommodations, the second  launch designed to ADA specifications. Adaptive Adventures, Northwest Indiana Paddling Association and Kayak Kenneth will be overseeing the paddling activities.  We invite you to contact us and let us know that you wish to paddle.

Geocaching will take place around the Lagoon area.

You are encouraged to take part in the Scavenger Hunt.

Don’t miss it!

SIX OF THE BEST GARDENS IN MILLER INCLUDING LAKE VIEWS AND TEENY TINY TREES IN A SECRET SETTING
17th Annual Secret Gardens Walk “Raise the Roots!” will begin at the Aquatorium in Marquette Park, Miller Beach, Gary IN
Sat July 15 10am to 3pm continues 10am to 3pm Sun July 16
$10 per person
Featuring:
Box Lunches from Marilyn’s yummy yum yum
Vendors 16 vendors — all kinds of neat things, garden related and otherwise
Shuttle Service mini buses with AC and docents telling stories
Free parking in the lot next to Aquatorium
Flowering Plants ready to plunk in your garden
Bike tour on both days 10:30am
Miller Garden Club T-shirts, greeting cards and merchandise

Entertainment
Music Entertainment at the Expo location on Grand and Miller will be provided by Garrett Cope and friends.

Transportation: Persons from out of area may take the train or drive into the City of Gary. Please see the links below for information.  Persons who use wheelchairs who are taking the train into City of Gary,  you are asked to get off at the Ogden Dunes Southshore stop, arrangements have been made with Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to have a small bus known in Miller as the Dune Buggy (no cost to you) to bring you to Miller Beach Community. All other persons may get off at the Miller station and may walk, or get on a Dune Buggy and come to the expo site one of the activity locations.

South Shore Line weekend schedule

City of Gary Bus Line Information

Parking:  There is parking available at Marquette Park Lake Street Beach, Aquatorium and at the Concession on Oak and Montgomery. Cost for parking in $5.00 for residents and$7.00 for out of State. You are advised to adhere to parking signs and respect bike paths.

Thank you for participating in our inaugural event! We welcome your feedback at our website: www.AccessMiller.org or write to: BarrierFreeBeach@Gmail.com Millerspotlight@gmail.com