Our Mission: To provide outdoor enrichment programs to youth with blindness and low vision
Our Vision: That each child with a visual impairment finds their footing, both outdoors and in
Video by Collective Projects
Why We Do It
There is a shortage of quality programs for students with visual impairments, particularly in the area of outdoor experiential education. Multiple studies have confirmed that students with visual impairments are more likely to be less active, less healthy, and less socially engaged than their sighted peers.
Put another way:
Adults are constantly conspiring to plop kids into the backcountry, and we’re no exception. We do it for all the usual reasons: to build confidence and competence, to encourage teamwork, to improve problem-solving skills. Essential traits for all children, but perhaps more critical for the blind and visually impaired. Our campers grow up in a world that is skeptical of their skill. They hear too many messages of blindness as a disability, and live in a world of overabundant caution, with too many can’ts in the places of cans. Internalize this message, and it becomes all too easy to sit on the sidelines and let the world whirl by unheeded. In hitting the trail, we hope to fight this impulse: to expand possibility, reward curiosity, and nurture the spirit of adventure that beats in every heart. - from “Seeing is Believing” by Jay Hardwig, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine, September 2015
Our Team
JAY HARDWIG (Executive Director) is a certified teacher for the visually impaired who has worked with children with blindness and low vision for more than twenty years. He has taught at public schools throughout Texas and North Carolina, adding a Master’s degree in Special Education and certification as an Orientation & Mobility instructor in 2011. He has directed summer camps for children with vision loss for over 15 years. When not taking blind kids ziplining, he reads, writes, and plays barrelhouse piano with his friends and family in Asheville, North Carolina. You can learn more about Jay, and his middle-grades novel Just Maria, by visiting jayhardwig.com.
NITA SMITH (Lead Teacher) is a certified teacher for the visually impaired who has worked in the field for more than 30 years. She is the director of Blue Ridge Vision Services, LLC, and provides contract VI services to students in districts across western North Carolina. She has worked in camps for kids with blindness and low vision since 1992.
In addition to Jay and Nita, BRAVO hires experienced teachers for the visually impaired, orientation and mobility specialists, and blind and visually impaired adults with outdoor experience to staff our summer camps. Our teachers have worked with us for many years, and bring a wealth of experience to our camps.
Our Board
STACEY HILDENBRAND (Board President) is a Teacher of the Blind & Visually Impaired for Henderson County Public Schools in North Carolina. She has worked in education for nearly 20 years. She is an advocate for students with disabilities, believing that all students have a right to accessible education. Stacey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from Indiana University, Master of Arts in Education from Northern Kentucky University, and Master of Arts in Education specializing in Teacher of the Blind Visually Impaired from the University of Louisville. Stacey lives in Mills River, NC with her husband Jason and two daughters Layla and Natalie. She enjoys being outdoors, hiking, biking, and traveling with her family.
JAKE MORRILL (Treasurer) is founder and president of Generation to Generation Leadership Coaching, which helps family businesses in East Tennessee and Western Carolina get better at managing challenging relationships and decisions. His background includes ministry, family therapy, military chaplaincy, and non-profit management. As a young adult, Jake worked with teens with blindness and visual impairment and is proud to be connected to BRAVO Asheville, helping to make that kind of difference in young lives again.
RICK HART (Member At Large) is a passionate advocate for those living with vision loss, having been diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at the age of eight. His personal experience with visual impairment fuels his dedication to helping others navigate the challenges that come with vision loss. Rick’s professional background includes counseling and assistive technology, fields in which he continues to make a significant impact. Currently, Rick works as a facilitator for Adjustment to Blindness support groups and teaches assistive technology at the Lighthouse of Collier in Naples, Florida. Through these roles, he empowers individuals to adapt to their changing vision and use technology to maintain their independence. In addition to his work, Rick enjoys a wide range of hobbies. He’s an avid sports fan, keeping up with football, baseball, hockey, and the NCAA basketball tournament. He also enjoys staying active and setting new personal goals. His love for books is evident in his frequent use of the Bard Mobile app to enjoy both fiction and nonfiction audiobooks. Rick cherishes his trips to Chicago to visit his grandchildren, and in September 2023, he and his wife, along with their teenage daughter, made the move to Weaverville, North Carolina, marking a new chapter in their lives.
LIZA RUTHERFORD (Secretary) is a choreographer from Dandridge, TN, and is the homeschool mom of two girls, Campbell and Harris, and wife to Mike. Campbell was born blind, and suddenly the Rutherfords were immersed in the deep waters of acquiring an education for a braille reader in a rural Appalachian community. Early in that journey, they settled on homeschooling and found Jay as they searched for resources. His programs, instruction, and networking became a huge part of Campbell's education and contributed directly to her now thriving in Cambridge as an applied mathematics major at Harvard. Liza believes that all blind and visually impaired kids deserve to be challenged and encouraged through resources like BRAVO offers. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, dancing, reading, knitting, cooking, seeing shows, and back-porch-sitting in the hills of East Tennessee.
LAURIE TOWERS (Member at Large) and her husband settled in Asheville 25 years ago after spending a year living in western mountain towns. Vowing to never live in flat lands again, they raised their son Ian here. Laurie has worked as a pediatric Occupational Therapist at Mission Children’s for the last 17 years. While her work doesn’t necessarily include children with visual impairments, she understands the barriers children with disabilities face — including access to natural places. She believes every child should dip their bodies in cold mountain streams, feel dirt and rock beneath their feet, smell balsam fir trees in the morning, and feel the full body thrill of zipping through the forest canopy.