The Rock Club

South East Consortium is reaching new heights at the rock climbing program. With the assistance of volunteer belayers, climbers get together once a month and explore the walls at the New Rock Club.

Rock climbing proves to be an excellent activity for children with special needs. Rock climbing helps develop eye- hand coordination, improves spatial awareness, motor planning, balance and coordination. Rock climbing can also help children set attainable goals and instill self- confidence; this can translate to other arenas of life such as school or social interactions.

The rock walls offer a varying degree of difficulty for our climbers. There is a learning room with 10 foot walls for our first timers or those who want to brush up on their climbing skills. On the main floor the gym boasts a variety of walls to be conquered including 40 ft and 50 ft rock faces.

There was obvious improvement seen in our returning climbers this past weekend. Peter Rice shot straight up his first three walls in no time at all. TJ Neeves scampered up every wall that was presented to him and Adem Dickenson and Shane Ingram buddied up to support each other while they climbed. Kayla Rodriquez got along great with her belayer which helped propel her up several walls at the gym.

We owe a lot of thanks to our wonderful volunteer belayers (the person on the ground giving or taking slack and keeping our climbers safe.) Our assortment of volunteers includes fire fighters, medical students, teachers and parents. One thing they all have in common is their love of climbing and the desire to share that world with our participants.

The sense of accomplishment one feels after ascending a particularly difficult wall is hard to measure. However, the expression on our climbers faces afterwards is easy to read: “I did it!”