We were hoping to visit Flint, Michigan after skydiving because Flint, many people say, is the heart of the Michigan Deaf community. The Michigan School for the Deaf is there, as well as the Michigan Association of the Deaf clubhouse. The only problem was, there was nothing planned in Flint for us to see when we stopped by. We lucked out however, when we were contacted about a weekend camping event hosted by the Michigan Snowmobilers of the Deaf near Springville.Michigan is mostly rugged terrain with endless forests and lakes and it is one of the northernmost states in the United States. Because of that, you can be sure it snows heck of a lot in January. What you’re going to get when you have environment like that is the Michigan Snowmobilers of the Deaf. The club was founded in 1971 and holds approximately 50 members who all share the same passion: Snowmobiling. Since snow falls on the ground just one season a year, the club isn’t really operable during the summer. Instead of sitting around waiting for the next snowflake, the club instead hosts annual camping trips as a source of revenue. They have been doing so annually since 1976 and this year’s camping trip was hosted at W.J. Hayes State Park and more than 48 campers turned out for a weekend of fun and games. We decided to stop by while we were in the area to get an idea of what they were all about.

Robert Cox is the Vice President of the organization and has been a member for two years. He calls himself an avid snowmobiler who loves getting with his friends and racing across the snow. The club’s main goal is to learn from each other and to simply have fun snowmobiling with your friends. While club’s members race together most of the winter, they often participate in many Deaf competitions such as the North American Snowmobilers of the Deaf Competition.

We then met with Rocky Dreyer who is from Flint and has been racing since 1964. His Deaf wife races with him as well and he is proud to say that he owns four snowmobiles and has been racing in the North American Snowmobilers of the Deaf competition for many years. He went on to tell us that more than 125 people often gather for the competition and is strictly limited to Deaf racers. Many of the racers that go are often from Michigan, as they are one of the few states that have an active snowmobiling organization for the Deaf. Racers also come from nearby Canada and it’s always a fun competition for everyone.

I’ve never gone snowmobiling before but after hearing the descriptions from the people I met, it sounds like something that I would love doing. The campground where they were hosting their weekend camp out was unfortunately full since our plan to go there was last minute and there were no available spaces for us to park for the night. So we decided to drive the short one hour trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana and stop for the night on our way back to my hometown of Indianapolis where the United States Association of the Deaf Basketball Olympic training camp was being held. There, 15 of some of the best Deaf basketball players will scrimmage against Butler University’s players to prepare themselves for the upcoming Olympics in Australia.