Abbotsford Special Adventurers

The Special Adventurers in Disneyland June 2008


The Abbotsford Special Adventurers is a non-profit community recreation program for people with disabilities.

    The 4th Abbotsford Special Venturers was founded in 1983 by a gentleman by the name of Mr. Bill Blades. Bill's thought at the time, there was not a program, like this program in scouting or in the community and set out to make it happen. The Special Venturers first objective, now that the idea was rolling was to find a sponsor for the group. Bill was a member of the Abbotsford Kiwanis Club, so he approached the club with the idea of an all handicap scouting group. The next step which was easy, it was to find members, and volunteers. A young high school student by the name of Mike Hammond heard about this group and he went to their first meeting and joined that night. The group grew and Bill Blades moved on, and many other volunteers came and went. In the 1992-93 season Mike took over the reigns of the Chief Advisor for the program. When Mike took over the program had 11 youth members and 4 volunteers, as of November 2006 the groups numbers were standing at 32 Special Adventurers and 18 volunteers. In 2005 Mike and the rest of the groups volunteers walk out from under the scouting umbrella and formed what is now called the Abbotsford Special Adventurers. The Abbotsford Special Adventurers is a non-profit community recreation program for people with disabilities.The group meets once a week during the school year at Colleen and Gordie Howe Middle School for games, crafts and various other activities. The group goes on regular camping trips and does a big day trip at the end of every season. The group has had many special guests over time drop by for a visit, either at their camps or their regular meetings at the school like Randy "Elvis" Friskie, Robbie Hess, Father Christmas, The Grinch, a couple baby lions, a Bengal tiger, a Siberian tiger, several different professional wrestlers, group of teens from Cameo Canada, and many more special guests have visited the group over time. In 2003 the group made dreams comes true for most of the people in the club, by taking 25 special needs people for a four day trip to Disneyland, for most of the members including some of the volunteers the trip was had many firsts time experiences from being on an airplane to being at the Disneyland itself. Special Adventurers went back again to Disneyland in June of 2008. And we look forward to continue these great events for everyone!