Climbers aim to break down barriers by building walls
The climbers hope the College Park wall will draw new climbers from the local community.
COLLEGE PARK, Ga. - Walk into College Park’s Tracey Wyatt Recreation Center, and the new addition is impossible to miss: a big indoor rock climbing wall. But the story behind the new attraction is even bigger than the wall itself.
Professional climbers Kai Lightner and Kevin Jorgenson led the way for the new climbing wall, which officially opened to the public late last month. Lightner is the founder of Climbing for Change, an organization dedicated to making the outdoor industry more diverse and inclusive, and Jorgenson is the founder of 1Climb, which has a mission of introducing 100,000 kids to the sport of climbing. With funding from Adidas, the climbers hope the College Park wall will draw new climbers from the local community — especially area youth.