This year’s Lakeshore Operation Rise & Conquer began on Thursday

This year’s Lakeshore Operation Rise & Conquer began on Thursday as participants arrived for an extended weekend of adaptive sports and recreation activities. Operation Rise & Conquer is a part of Lakeshore’s Lima Foxtrot program that serves injured servicemen and women. According to lakeshore.org, “Qualifying injuries include but are not limited to spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, vision impairments, amputations, burns and/or disfigurements.” At Operation Rise & Conquer, participants are offered the opportunity to do adaptive activities that they may not have done since their injury or may have never done before.

Participants and Lakeshore staff first meet up at the Lakeshore Foundation for this event, and then travel to Camp ASCCA together by bus. Once everyone arrived, staff and participants met together for orientation before enjoy a dinner provided by the Camp ASCCA Kitchen Staff. After dinner, everyone had the opportunity to participate in a few evening programs like wheelchair basketball, ping-pong, air hockey, Wii games, and much more. By 9:30 p.m., everyone was exhausted from the day.

On Friday, the most fun began as participants and staff went their separate ways to the variety of activities offered over the weekend. The morning schedule consisted of activities like kayaking, cycling, live fire shooting, ziplining, putt-putt, and fishing. At the Ziptower, several participants shared how the rockclimbing wall was comparable to their drills in the military of climbing a ladder made up of very small steps.

After lunch, we mixed things up a little bit and added a few new activities to the list. Several participants made their way to lakefront where water skiing was taking place while others enjoyed the same activities from the morning with the added option of tennis. Before Friday night dinner, the Lakeshore staff setup an opportunity to enjoy meditation and stretching after such a busy day. After dinner, everyone had the chance to enjoy the same evening activities from Thursday night with a campfire and s’mores added to the schedule.

Quiet hours last from 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. the next day, but by morning on Saturday, everyone was ready for a new day of activities. The morning rotations included cycling, archery, scuba, tennis, kayaking, fishing, live fire shooting, and ziplining. Then after lunch and a group photo, the activities picked back up again with waterskiing and the waterslide added to the list. Everyone had a quick few minutes to rest between activities and dinner, but the real fun for the night was karaoke and games at the OutPost followed by more s’mores at the campfire.

Each activity was open for up to four hours, so everyone had the chance to visit their favorite activities as many times as they wanted. By Sunday morning, everyone was thinking the same thing. The weekend was here and gone way too fast. The buses were loaded up quickly after breakfast, and everyone headed home.

We look forward to the Operation Rise & Conquer event with the Lakeshore Foundation every year and love connecting with new and familiar faces at each event. You can learn more about the Lakeshore Foundation by visiting their website here.