The tour began at Gossler Park Elementary School, where Amanda Bouchard of Northeast Passage led a Similarity Awareness program with a fourth-grade class, allowing students to explore the similarities all people share regardless of ability through a game involving wheelchairs.

The students were enthusiastic participants and were joined for a portion of the game by several members of the UNH leadership team, including President Dean, Provost Jones and Dean Decelle.

Northeast Passage is a service branch of UNH’s College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) that provides adaptive sports and recreation programs and recreational therapy services to the community.

“The students had a blast. And they got to talk about and see, ‘Could we play together if I was in a chair and you were on your feet?’” Gossler Park Principal Lori Upham says. “They got the message that there are always differences – sometimes it’s language, sometimes it’s behavior, sometimes it’s skin color, and sometimes it’s just being able-bodied vs. someone who may have a disability. They became aware that those differences are just something we all have, but we all have so many more things that are similar that bring us together.”