The Kiwanis Club of Warsaw, Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce representatives, Winona Lake Park Board and others celebrated the opening of an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant kayak launch at Winona Lake Limitless Park with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, June 30. The Kiwanis Club worked with the park board on the project, paying for it through grants and fundraising. InkFreeNews photos by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — The goal of Winona Lake Limitless Park is for people of all abilities to enjoy recreational activities.

On Thursday, June 30, community members gathered to celebrate one new accessible activity at WLLP: kayaking.

The Kiwanis Club of Warsaw, Winona Lake Park Board, Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce representatives and others marked the opening of an Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant kayak launch with a ribbon-cutting.

The launch allows those in wheelchairs or with other mobility issues to get into a kayak and then use their arms to pull themselves along two handrails out into the water.

It was the work of the Kiwanis Club that helped bring the launch to WLLP. At the club’s meeting held before the ribbon-cutting, the club’s Jim Molebash explained the club wanted to do “a high-impact community project that (it) could use to commemorate (its) 100-plus years of service to this community.”

“When the club officers met to discuss this, I mentioned a kayak launch that I had seen while I was on vacation with Jon Garber (up in Michigan),” he said.

He mentioned the two saw numerous people using it.

“We talked to one fellow who said, ‘I’m 78 years old. I love to kayak, but I couldn’t do it anymore because I couldn’t get into the boat. Now I can, and I’m here every other day,'” said Molebash. “Here was a man who had recovered an activity that he loved that he had lost.”

The club’s Brock Tidball researched the idea and found that the club could accomplish it. Club member Cindy Cates suggested putting it at WLLP.

Molebash reached out to Winona Lake Parks Department Director Holly Hummitch regarding the project. The two met along with Winona Lake Park Board President Kristie Maiers.

“And we were shocked when we found out why Kristie was there. Less than an hour earlier, she and Holly had been on a conference call with AWS Foundation discussing how they could work out funding for an ADA-accessible kayak launch,” said Molebash. “I told Kristie, ‘You’ve got to recognize the hand of God when you see it.'”

Molebash later mentioned that he learned Maiers had helped get funding for the accessible launch in Michigan that he and Garber had seen.

Club member and former Kosciusko County Community Foundation CEO Suzie Light helped the club work on a grant with the state Kiwanis organization for the launch, which the club later received. She and club member Joni Truex presented the project to the Kosciusko County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission and obtained additional funding from it.

Other funds for the project came from the Franklin I. and Irene List Saemann Foundation and the Warsaw club itself.

During the club’s meeting, Molebash honored various people who helped with the project as being “plank owners,” for the launch, presenting each one of them with small decorative planks.

Maiers then mentioned how the park board had hoped to establish an accessible launch at WLLP, but didn’t think it could do it for a number of years.

She thanked involved entities “for helping make the vision for this community come to light in such a short amount of time.”

Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce Member Relations Manager Scott Wiley was the first person to use the launch on Thursday.

Bailey Mullins was the second person to use the launch Thursday.

The Kiwanis formerly presented a check for part of the funding for the launch on Thursday.

Various people were recognized as “plank owners,” for their work in making the launch possible at a Kiwanis meeting held before the ribbon-cutting. The Kiwanis’ Jim Molebash presented them with small decorative planks. From left: Front — Suzie Light, Joni Truex, Robin Brown, Kristie Maiers and Holly Hummitch; back — Jim Smith, Danielle Wilson, John Hall, Bob List, Brock Tidball and Molebash.