May 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 25

Jennifer French serves as a spokesperson for Greenfields Outdoor Fitness, which
supplied the adaptive gym equipment seen here at Azalea Park in French's hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida.

for the implants, and in 2001, they
moved to St. Petersburg, Florida,
where they currently reside. Nearby
Azalea Park marks a longstanding
stop in her journey toward health,
fitness and increased mobility. There,
an adaptive fitness zone, courtesy of
Greenfields Outdoor Fitness, offers
an array of high-quality gym equipment that French can use from her
wheelchair. " Typically when those of
us in wheelchairs go to a traditional
gym, there isn't much equipment for
us to use, " she says. " Mostly all that
is available I could have at home -
free weights, Thera-Bands, medicine
balls... Accessibility is a huge issue. "
So impressed was French with this
innovative approach to fitness that
she became Greenfields' spokesperson in 2013 (www.gfoutdoorfitness.
com/accessible-products-page.html),
and today she serves on a local volunteer committee to advocate and
raise funding for other accessibility
projects in her city. For Greenfields,
scoring such a perfectly appropriate spokesperson was quite a coup.
" Aside from her fantastic personality,
Jennifer's determination and courage
should serve as an example to every-

one, " says Sam Mendelsohn, president and CEO at Greenfields. " Jen's
accomplishments are an inspiration
to a nationwide community of people with mobility impairments, and
she is a vocal proponent of an active
lifestyle for people with disabilities. "
One of those accomplishments to
which Mendelsohn refers is, of course,
French's part in winning the U.S. a silver medal in sailing at the 2012 London
Paralympics. " It wasn't until I moved
to St. Petersburg that I got introduced
to sailboat racing, but I caught the bug

and now I'm forever a racer, " French
says. " [Competing in the Paralympics
was] the experience of a lifetime. It's
surreal and a fantastic experience to
bring the world together in that way. "
These days, a great deal of French's
time is spent working as executive director and CEO of her company, Neurotech Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving education
about and access to neurotechnology
for people with impairments. She also
devotes much of her spare time to
leading " warrior sailing camps. " " We
bring in wounded, ill, and injured veterans and active-duty military personnel, and take them through a threeday intensive course. They go from
never being on a sailboat to racing in
three days, " French says.
" It's fantastic - we're teaching these
men and women a skill and giving
them a new level of independence and
teamwork. Being on the water is very
therapeutic.... One thing I love about
sailing is we can compensate for my
abilities on boat. Once we're out on the
water, we're all the same. "
Samantha Bartram is the Associate Editor
of Parks & Recreation Magazine (sbartram@
nrpa.org).

Miami's North Trail Park fitness zone also includes adaptive gym equipment manufactured by Greenfields, which allows park visitors of all ability levels to exercise
alongside one another.

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