1. “Open Road” - In 1999, an occupational therapist, Robert Leith, and a pulpit rabbi, Evan Jaffe, founded an organization called “Open Road.” Their mission, as they saw it, was simple: To bring people with disabilities of all kinds to houses of worship of their choice for religious services and social activities on a regular basis. Over the past six years they have taken significant steps toward fulfilling their mission. Open Road has collaborated with public and private transportation systems in five of New Jersey’s twenty-one counties - Hunterdon, Camden, Middlesex, Somerset and Mercer - to provide transportation to houses of worship on a once a month basis. (They hope to be operational throughout the state on behalf of individuals residing in institutions, group homes, assisted living facilities to homebound elderly, to those who are both ambulatory and non-ambulatory. http://www.fjcc@blast.net.

I. Missions and beliefs.

1. NARE represents a collective of park & recreation specialists, designers and consultants, human services commissions, clergy, professional and non-professional community leaders, proponents and advocates of inclusionary recreation sports playgrounds.

NARE’S mission pursues both long and short term objectives. NARE was organized to educate and advocate for recreation and sports that are inclusionary, that integrate and provide socialization for special populations, including the disabled, the cognitively and physically challenged, wheelchair users, Down Syndrome children and adults and others who are not provided with integrative opportunities in community parks and for whom recreation facilities are exclusionary.

In 1995, Gloucester County N.J.’s Disabled Persons Advisory Commission asked the county to analyze its implementation of Title II of ADA. Human Services Director David Armor began looking to construct facilities for alternative sports that would involve all residents. That year, Armor read an article in American City and County about Bankshot basketball, an ADA-compliant sport that resembles miniature golf.

Reeve Robert Brenner is not your average rabbi. Your average rabbi’s signature is not on his own line of basketballs, as Brenner’s is. And even if it were, your average rabbi probably couldn’t keep one of those balls spinning on his fingertip, as Brenner can. But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that your average rabbi can spin the ball. He surely would never do such a thing in front of the congregation. Brenner did. About a decade ago Brenner, performing at the pulpit of Temple Emanuel in Cherry Hill, N.J., spun a basketball before a couple hundred rather amazed temple goers. No, he’s not your average rabbi.

Rabbi Reeve Brenner of Rockville enjoys mixing art and play. His unconventional and vividly colored sport sculptures are being exhibited at the Boston Children’s Museum.

MANTUA TWP. - People of all ages and abilities took the court for the Bankshot Basketball Tournament Saturday afternoon at Chestnut Branch Park, proving that a disability doesn’t have to limit someone’s freedom.

“Gloucester County is quite proud of what it’s done for the disabled,” said Freeholder Director Stephen Sweeney. “We don’t feel like they should be locked up and just pushed to the side. They should have the same opportunities as everyone else.”

Recently, the Mason Elementary School PTA decided to update and expand their existing playground. As part of the planning, a survey was conducted to gather input from parents, students and planning team members. Ball playing sports was one of the high priorities listed by all parties.

Mason Elementary School is located in an area of town with a large number of children involved in various competitive sports teams, especially basketball. The planning team began looking for something that all children could play regardless of their ability or disabilities. Having seen the Bankshot program on the internet, we ordered video and literature on the program. After reviewing the materials we quickly realized that Bankshot could be a perfect fit towards meeting our goals of providing a safe, age-appropriate and universally accessible playground environment.

It was like something out of a Dali painting - you know the one - with the melting watches and Technicolor dreamscape. Maybe to a child it would look more like a forest of giant brightly colored lollipops.

Either way, Rabbi Reeve Brenner’s museum-worthy designs for the color-splashed, oddly -shaped backboards for the game he developed, Bankshot Basketball, are more than just artfully eye-catching - they’re challenging, they’re totally inclusive and they’re growing in popularity for kids and adults of all ages and abilities.

In 1979, an accident involving Brenner’s cousin, Janice Herman, inspired him to design an athletic game that would allow both he and his wheelchair-bound cousin to play side by side, not in the “separate-but-equal” fashion offered by most games of the day.

The defining words: INCLUSION - INTEGRATION - SOCIALIZATION - now codified into the law of the land, resonated as a constant refrain at the Health and Human Services event launching President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” initiative, led by the Surgeon General Richard Carmona, the event brought together over 50 distinguished disability agencies, including the National Association for Recreational Equality (NARE - “Let’s Play Fair”) as participants in the Department of Health and Human Services event.

NARE, the sponsor of the Bankshot Sports program, received the coveted “Spirit of the ADA” Award (for “The elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities and the achievement of equal access and participation to all persons”). All Bankshot Sports - Bankshot Basketball, Bankshot Tennis, Bankshot Soccer, Bankshot Pitch and Throw - are sports that establish level playing fields that achieve INCLUSION, INTEGRATION AND SOCIALIZATION, not merely access up to the perimeter of a ball field.

Two brothers have a story to tell about growing up together as able-bodied and as differently-abled siblings. They live in Atlanta, GA. Sammy is 10 years old. He uses a wheelchair. His brother Philip is 12 years old and does not.