April 2026
by Kathryn Allen
My Skydiving Adventure
I’ve wanted to skydive for as long as I can remember but I was “saving” it until I got older… just in case something went wrong (less to lose)…then I was diagnosed with ALS and that dream all but disappeared.
After being diagnosed I contacted multiple skydiving companies asking if they would be willing to take me with a disability and absolutely no one turned me down. They simply did not respond. I even had friends call on my behalf with essentially the same response, a promise to get back to them which never happened.
Enter Team Gleason Adventures. They not only agreed to finance the adventure for me and a friend, they hooked me up with Adaptive Impact in San Diego, an organization that welcomes the disabled to skydive and paraglide!
Next objective was to find a companion willing to jump (not as easy as I expected). After about 8 “no’s” I changed my question to a hypothetical. When my friend Toni said she “might” consider it, that’s all I needed and the next thing Toni knew, she was on a plane to San Diego!
Dana from Adaptive Impact is a force… kind, capable, intuitive, and surrounded by the most enthusiastic and talented team.
When it was time to go up, I was a bundle of smiles and excitement, and Toni leaned a bit more toward apprehensive and terrified.
And that really says it all…since my diagnosis, I’ve been adaptive skiing down the beginner hill and loved it, but I used to go down black diamonds.
I love my adaptive tricycle… but I used to compete in triathlons. When I jumped out of that plane it was the same plane and the same conditions for everyone, disabled or not. A REAL adventure!
By the way, Toni landed safely and is really glad she did it!
I had a few minutes where I had a spectacular adventure independent of my disability. Free of ALS! Thank you, Team Gleason, for making my dream come true!
In addition to helping Kathryn experience skydiving, Adaptive Impact, founded by Dana Hunt, also helped Kathryn experience paragliding. Dana believes a diagnosis or injury should never define what is possible.
After being diagnosed with ALS, adaptive paragliding gave Dana a sense of freedom from her diagnosis, something she now helps others experience.
