A Reunion With Danielle Lancelot Watson

On May 20, 2016 the GoHawkeye Crew returned to Moab for a reunion with Danielle Lancelot Watson, the inaugural winner of our contest giveaway and subject of our new short documentary, “Falling Into Place”. One year ago, we were here to present Danielle with a custom ReActive Adaptation off road handcycle and to film her story. An incredible volunteer cast and crew of twenty five people had assembled to help manifest her dream of a multi-day bike ride through the desert. During this 4 day camp out and the rigorous filming schedule, I was impressed daily with Danielle’s quiet determination and cheerful personality. It was exciting to work with her and rewarding to see her grow familiar with the bike over those days.

Now, a year later at this handcycle camp sponsored by the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program, I was just riding along beside her on this beautiful day while negotiating some very challenging terrain of slick rock, sand, boulders, cactus, potholes and brush. I was enjoying my role as her spotter in the frequent tricky areas because these hand cycles can be prone to roll-over. You could tell Danielle had been riding this bike a lot since we last met. She was using her upper body in ways I found impressive for a person with that level of injury and her knowledge of shifting and steering was apparent. I found it very satisfying to be here now, seeing Danielle’s progress, enjoying her company and happy knowing that she will an excellent representative of the GoHawkeye Foundation. There were 6 other experienced hand-cyclists at this 3 day event and you could see Danielle soaking up information and knowledge gained by interacting with these highly motivated individuals.

I came away from this meeting feeling energized about our mission and excited about the next GoHawkeye giveaway contest, our new Grant programs and the progress we have made as a productive non-profit foundation.

Read more about Danielle at her blog.