Lakeville Water wheelchair now available at Clear Pond Park

LAKEVILLE - As a caregiver for the state Department of Developmental Services for many years, Lakeville resident Robin Marques is very familiar with the challenges accessing public facilities faced by people with disabilities. It was for that reason that she undertook a personal challenge of her own nearly 10 years ago... initiating a fundraising effort to buy a "water wheelchair" for Clear Pond Park in Lakeville, a place she and her family have enjoyed for decades.

The campaign was intended as a tribute to fellow Lakeville resident Edith Trott, who was lucky enough to have Marques as a caregiver during her time in a community home in that town. A secondary goal was to raise awareness of the difficulties disabled people have trying to cope with everyday activities, such as enjoying a day at the beach, that most people take for granted, Marques said.

The first step was establishing a fund at Bridgewater Savings Bank to raise money for the Mobi-Chair, a large-wheeled, lightweight wheelchair equipped with floats that can be easily pushed into the water once the user is lifted into the vehicle. Yard sales, plant sales, and a public appeal for donations in the newspaper initially helped raise about $1,500 for the planned purchase, Marques said.

But back then, the water wheelchairs on the market were selling for about $4,000, she noted. When the fundraising effort stalled after a few years, the plan was put on the shelf for a while, but never forgotten, she said.

Two years ago, Marques got involved with the Middleboro Kiwanis' Aktion Club, a subgroup of the service organization that supports activities for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The club agreed to support the revival of the water wheelchair project, and staged a fundraiser at Friendly's to start collecting the remaining funds needed for the purchase.

"The Aktion Club does community service projects... that's what the Kiwanis is all about," Marques noted. The "club" includes some members who use wheelchairs every day to enhance their own mobility, and recognized the importance of providing beach access to local residents, she said.

The Aktion Club's fundraising effort added a few hundred more dollars to the wheelchair fund, but more money was still needed. Then, the club got a lucky break, finding out about the SMILE Mass. organization (www.smilemass.org), dedicated to providing water wheelchair access at beaches throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.

In short order, SMILE Mass. arranged for the recent delivery of a water wheelchair for the Clear Pond beach, in exchange for the donation of the local funds already collected for the project, Marques said. The special wheelchair was delivered in late June, and is now available at the pond for regular use, she reported.

Ten years after starting this accessibility campaign, announced in a Letter to the Editor in August of 2007, Marques wrote to The Gazette again to help spread the word about the new addition to Clear Pond Beach. "We want the publicity so people will know it's available, and take advantage of it," she said.

Access to outdoor activities for people with physical limitations are rare elsewhere in southeastern Massachusetts, Marques wrote in her most recent e-mail to the editor. "The activities that exist are basically passive activities where a person participates by watching rather than doing," she indicated.

"By providing this beach wheelchair locally we want to provide an activity that is fun. We also are hoping that having people using this in public will raise awareness and tolerance for different kinds of people, and cause us to think of how we can include them in every aspect of life," she wrote.

"This mobi-chair can travel across the sand, and float in the water," unlike earlier models which only provided limited access to the water. "They've come a long way since I started this," she explained in a follow-up phone interview.

Unfortunately, without a mechanical lift to help disabled persons get into the chair, the assistance of two strong people is still needed to get aboard, Marques noted. Someday, she would like to see such a device, called a Hoya Lift, added to the Clear Pond facility, she said.

But that is a project for another day, perhaps undertaken after her approaching retirement time arrives. For now, she's satisfied with the small progress made locally to help people with disabilities enjoy one of life's simple pleasures - a day at the beach.