The second-ever Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities is being held at the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center Saturday. Here, Adirondack Riverwalking and Forest Bathing leader Suzanne Weirich, left, takes a walk through the VIC trails with a young woman during an event for people with cerebral palsy. This VIC trail is wheelchair accessible. (Provided photo — Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities)

PAUL SMITHS — The second-annual Adirondack Nature Festival for People with Disabilities is returning to the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center this Saturday. Organizers have doubled the festival’s programming, and are making it more accessible by offering free transportation to and from Saranac Lake and Malone.

The event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. is free, fully accessible and open to all.

Festival founder and planning committee co-chair Helene Gibbens said they started small last year because they had no idea how many people would come. They had a good turnout, with around 150 attendees, coming from all over New York, as well as Vermont and Massachusetts. Gibbens said this sent them a clear message — they should grow.

Nick Friedman, the founder of Accessible Adirondack Tourism and co-chair of the festival’s planning committee, said the sight of all the happy people at the festival last year has stuck with him. He’s looking forward to seeing them again.

People with disabilities are often “overlooked” by society, Friedman said. The festival is a place for them to be visible.

“Everybody knows somebody with a disability,” Friedman said.

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, from birth, from injury or from age.

Transportation to the VIC is important for people to be able to attend the festival. The Franklin County Transportation Department is using buses with wheelchair accommodations to transport people from the Malone and Saranac Lake adult centers.

The bus will pick attendees up at the Malone Adult Center, 14906 state Route 30, at 9 a.m. and return to the adult center from the VIC at 4 p.m.

The bus will pick attendees up at the Saranac Lake Adult Center, 135 Broadway, at 10:30 a.m. and return to the adult center from the VIC at 3 p.m.

The village of Saranac Lake is also providing $50 vouchers from its ride share program for Uber rides for village residents to and from the festival. Vouchers will be delivered via text message to the cell phone number provided on the transportation request form. This form can be filled out at tinyurl.com/bdf59j76.

The feedback Gibbens and Friedman got from last year’s festival was overwhelmingly for more programming and more active programming.

Friedman said the programming is not just about being entertained, but learning, expression, experiencing and finding peace.

There will be guided nature walks, woodpecker and wild edibles excursions, crafts with local artisans, live music, Tai Chi, butterfly tours, basket making, sensory art play with natural materials, painting and storytelling.

The Adirondack Rednecks Special Olympics bocce team will do a demonstration of the sport they compete in, and invite people to give it a try themselves. There will be demos of adaptive hiking gear, mountain bikes, beach wheelchairs, golf clubs, kayaks and gardening tools. Members of Search and Rescue of the Northern Adirondacks will teach camping and outdoor skills. Local musicians will lead a campfire sing-along with s’mores and show how to create percussion instruments with natural materials.

The Capital Region Nordic Alliance will be setting up short courses for adapted orienteering. One, for people with visually impairments, uses phones and audible “pings” along the path to guide hikers. Another, for people with mobility impairments, is set up like a treasure hunt with special markers along the trail.

The event will include speeches from Susan Griskonis, the assistant attorney general in charge of the state Attorney General’s Plattsburgh office, as well as Leah Akins from the state Department of Environmental Conservation statewide Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility coordinator.

Sarah Sheridan, who grew up in Lake Placid and just graduated from SUNY New Paltz will talk about her journey to having a rich and full life after she developed a chronic pain condition when she was 8 years old. Gibbens said community was a huge part of Sheridan’s journey.

Equitable access to nature and community is important, she said.

Gibbens said she’s hearing from groups in Malone, Canton and Plattsburgh who are planning to return to the festival or come for the first time. They’ve been reaching out to veterans, and said the North Country Cerebral Palsy Association is bringing a group.

After last year’s event was held through rain. Friedman said the organizers decided they won’t allow it to rain again this year. Saturday is predicted to be sunny and warm.

More details about the festival can be found at adirondacknaturefestivalforpeoplewithdisabilities.org.