08/11/2023
Now that’s a precious day at the beach. ❤️🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼
Think about the difficulty of crossing the beach to get to the ocean if you have a disability. With REALTOR® Sabrina Cohen's Accessible Beach Day, a team of qualified volunteers and therapists guide you to enjoy Florida's sun and sea.
“People with disabilities get transferred to beach wheelchairs, which are floating wheelchairs with massive tires that can go over the sand,” explains Cohen, a quadriplegic since 1992 as a result of a car accident. “It takes three to five volunteers to get each person to the water.”
The event, in partnership with the city of Miami Beach, takes place one to two times each month and requires three hours of setup and three hours of teardown for the group of 150 who typically attend. “I have a friend who had a tumor in the spine and has lived in Florida forever, and the beach became off limits,” says Cohen, a past recipient of NAR’s Good Neighbor Award. “She always says, ‘This is the best day of my life!’ It empowers people to feel like they can do things. That’s the message—that everything is possible.”
The nonprofit Sabrina Cohen Foundation is working with the city and Miami-Dade County on a $1.2 million transformation of a park into a fully accessible playground and outdoor fitness space leading right to the beach. After that opens (expected in 2024), work will begin on an indoor fully accessible recreational facility.
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Sabrina Cohen Foundation
Miami Association of Realtors
Florida Realtors
