Kim Hill Ridley, who was named as the state’s first-ever Chief Disability Officer in 2022, attended the first festival last Saturday and said it was amazing to see people with a variety of disabilities participating in nature the same way as able-bodied people.

Nick Friedman, the founder of Accessible Adirondack Tourism and co-chair of the festival’s planning committee, said Hill Ridley was profusely grateful to be there, which he found odd, because he was profusely grateful to have her there.

Festival founder and planning committee co-chair Helene Gibbens estimated there were around 134 attendees, and Friedman estimated there were around 200 people attending the event, including people who did not enter through the main building.

Gibbens had said they’d be measuring success at the festival in terms of smiles. She said there were plenty during the guided and self-guided walks along the trails at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center, birding sessions, craft workshops, story sharing around a campfire, and around the live music and art from people with disabilities.

An attendee of the first-ever Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities paints a monarch butterfly on Saturday. (Provided photo — Sydney Schmidt)

“It’s only going to grow,” Gibbens said.

She said there are already people making plans for new events at next year’s festival. Gibbens and Friedman thanked their volunteer staff, donors and sponsors for bringing the festival together.

Friedman said an event like this has been a long time coming.

One in five people in New York have a disability according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disabilities can include mobility difficulties, developmental disabilities or mental health disorders. They can be visible or invisible, too.

Friedman said the event was well received, even with the rainy weather.

Attendees of the first-ever Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities take in the forest of the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretative Center on a sensory walk led by festival co-founder Helene Gibbens, left, on Saturday. (Provided photo — Sydney Schmidt)

“The rain didn’t damper a single smile,” he said.

The nature walk started with the largest group Gibbens has led — with around 40 people on the trail. Many of these people had visual impairments, she said, so there was a focus on the other senses — touching the bark of trees, feeling the rain, hearing, the burbling of the waters and smelling the pine.

Afterward, Gibbens said attendees told her they felt at peace and relaxed from the experience.

Gibbens said there is always support and community in nature to be found in the birds and boulders.

“Accessible trails are in extremely short supply,” Friedman said.

From left, Assemblyman Billy Jones, Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities founder and planning committee co-chair Helene Gibbens, state Chief Disability Officer Kim Hill Ridley, former Tri-Lakes Center for Independent Living executive director Bill Miller and TLCIL interim Executive Director Mary Lamica cut the ribbon on the first-ever Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities on Saturday. (Provided photo — Sydney Schmidt)

He could think of five accessible trails in the area.

The VIC only has one wheelchair accessible trail — the Barnum Brook Trail — and it is only accessible if traveled counterclockwise. Gibbens said VIC officials plan to make the trail fully accessible.

Friedman said people ask if the Adirondacks really need more accessible trails. He said they do. He’s excited for Adirondack Land Trust’s plans for accessible trails at its Glenview Preserve tract in Harrietstown and another preserve at the corner of state Route 73 and the Adirondack Loj Road in Lake Placid.

At the festival, Mary Lamica, the interim executive director of Tri-Lakes Center for Independent Living, was awarded the National Council on Independent Living’s 2024 Diana Viets Memorial Award for Excellence for her work advocating for children with disabilities in local schools and helping young adults with disabilities find employment. She was one of two people in the U.S. to get the award this year.

“It hasn’t sunken in,” she said on Monday of receiving the award.

“It was amazing,” she said of the festival. “The smiles said a lot.”

Not everyone can climb a High Peak, but they all deserve the inner peace found in the woods, she said, and the festival is a way to meet people where they’re at.

Bill Miller, the former TLCIL director, presented the award and called Lamica a “deserving advocate and good friend.” Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, presented her with a recognition from the state Assembly. And Isabel Williams from Scotts Florist brought surprise flowers for her, Hill Ridley and Gibbens.

Lamica said she’s been with the TLCIL for six years, after leaving the health care field because of a disability. She said she has team there that goes “above and beyond.”

Around a year ago, Lamica said a number of parents and organizations started calling the center and asking for help. She saw there was a need and had to learn really fast what educational advocacy was.

Friedman said Lamica is “unstoppable.”

Paul Smiths’s College President Dan Kelting said he was honored to help host this event and said everyone should have access to nature’s healing and restorative powers.