Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes

We had a great time at our bike maintenance workshops getting our tandems ready for tandem season! We replaced a shifter, chains, cables, and bar tape, and adjusted brakes and shifters. Thanks to REI for hosting us and to the foreseeable future foundation for paying for our bike tools! Join us for Thursday and Friday night rides starting on March 12th and our captain training on April 23rd! Also check out our new T-shirts and a photo from the Montreal goalball tournament!

We’re excited for an awesome 2026 with lots of biking, goalball, hiking, yoga, camping, and more! Join us in February for a bike maintenance workshop series where we’ll get our bikes ready for spring and share knowledge with each other! We also have a Bethesda tandem ride, a hike in Prince William Forest, yoga, and goalball!

Thank you for being part of the Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes community and for all the ways you’ve supported inclusion, health, and connection this year. We have a unique opportunity to amplify our impact. A generous donor has pledged $1,000 in matching funds for our current campaign. This means that every dollar you contribute will be doubled. These funds are vital for sustaining and expanding MWABA’s programs, from purchasing adaptive sports equipment to organizing events. Donate at Donate – Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes to support us! MWABA grew and thrived in 2025. Blind and low-vision adults and youth in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia challenged themselves and built community by playing goalball and beep kickball, tandem biking, hiking, camping, kayaking, and doing yoga. We also deepened our partnerships, which expanded our programming and helped us educate the broader community about blind sports!

Here are some highlights:

· The men’s goalball team won silver at Nationals! We expanded our youth programming by hosting a goalball series culminating in a youth goalball tournament, and a White Cane Day family goalball event. We did goalball and beep kickball demonstrations at Sidwell Friends School and Tyndale Christian School.
· We went on our third annual tandem bike camping trip (check out this article: Photographer's Notebook: Biking and camping with blind athletes | WAMU) and our first car camping/hiking trip in Shenandoah National Park! The Foreseeable Future Foundation sponsored our bike maintenance series and bike camping trip.
· We joined Birdability and the DC Bird Alliance for the first annual blind bird-a-thon (check out this article: Blind birders listen, search for birds at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton - The Washington Post) Mason Neck State Park hosted us for a sensory walk, and April Thompson led an edible plants and mushroom walk in Rock Creek Park. We also hiked in Great Falls, Roosevelt Island, Catoctin with Achilles International, and Rock Creek Park.
· We expanded our weekly tandem rides to now be both Thursday and Friday nights. Over 80 cyclists joined us for 72 rides, averaging four tandems per ride. We spoke at the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit and Bikepacking Roots’ Northeast Bikepacking Summit. Nine tandem pairs did the Great Pumpkin and Cider Rides! DC Bike Ride gave us free registrations, and seven tandem pairs enjoyed 20 miles of car-free streets and starting at the front of the ride! DC Bike Party featured us in their September ride and helped us raise money for new helmets and lights.

Donate at Donate – Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes to help us continue to grow in 2026! If you have any questions or want to know more about how your donation will be used, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected]. Thank you for believing in MWABA’s mission and helping make blind and low-vision sports thrive across the Washington region!

MWABA ran a fun beep kickball clinic with students from Tyndale Christian School in Arlington on Monday. Students were given an explanation of this fun, adapted game, then blindfolded. They had to practice listening both for the beeping kickball and for the sound of the chosen bases. Some said it was scary to run without being able to see. Others thought it was a fun experience. The kids had a great time and MWABA enjoyed collaborating with the Tyndale PE teacher and fellow WMABA volunteer, Jackson Glanzer.

MWABA recently celebrated White Cane Day by hosting a family goalball event. We had 6 youth players joined by their family members and a large group of our adult players, coaches, and volunteers turn out for a great day of goalball games. It was a lot of fun for parents and siblings to get to try it out and experience the sport. Participants shared stories about their white canes and guide dogs and enjoyed white cane pretzel treats. White Cane Day is recognized annually on October 15th as a day to celebrate the achievements of people who are blind or visually impaired and to spread community awareness about the white cane as a tool and symbol of independence. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped out with this event!

MWABA enjoyed educational nature walks for our September and October hikes. In September, we learned about mushrooms and edible plants with April Thompson in Rock Creek Park. Our October visit to Mason Neck state park included feeling leaves, tree bark, and acorns, and discussing how to make parks and trails more accessible. Join us for our next hike on November 2nd, meeting at Peirce Mill in Rock Creek Park at 10 a.m.!

MWABA has joined the community for some amazing rides this fall, including the DC Bike Ride, DC Bike Party, and Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) 50 States! It’s been wonderful to see so many different cyclists joining together and riding all sorts of different bikes. Thanks to DC Bike Party and City State for helping us reach our $500 fundraising goal for new lights and helmets! Join us for the last of our 2025 weeknight rides and say hi if you see us at the Pumpkin and Cider Rides!

MWABA recently hosted our 3rd annual Beeping Bake-Off fundraiser. This year’s event was our biggest and best yet! Things got started with the much-anticipated baking contest. We had 6 delicious and widely varying submissions. This year’s winner was the Mexican wedding cookies made by 12-year-old Samaira Aswell. We then played a fun but competitive game of Beep Kickball that was so evenly matched it ended in a tie. MWABA is thankful to everyone who came out and donated and made this such a great day. Check out photos from the event including the winning recipe.