Under a green canopy of trees laden with Spanish moss on an afternoon in June, David Jones was showing park rangers and staffers at Paynes Prairie State Park how to use the EcoRover — an all-terrain wheelchair — that had just been delivered.
Rangers lined up, eager to take their turns sitting in the track chair. Sounds of laughter filled the warming air as rangers eagerly awaited their turns to maneuver around and perhaps prank their colleagues by pretending to run them over. Some staff, when it was their turn, merely reclined in their seats to “stargaze” into the blue afternoon sky.
For Jones, founder of Sports Ability Alliance, an outdoors association for people with disabilities, this was more than just a demonstration. In addition to distributing the EcoRover that helps people with limited mobility get around, he also speaks from experience — Jones is a customer.
For many people, hunting is an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors. In 1988, Jones was involved in a hunting accident that left him with traumatic brain injury and the inability to walk for at least a year. He said the EcoRover helped him immensely.
“It really opened my eyes and changed my life,” said Jones, adding the positive effects that the track chair “can do for people and their quality of life, as far as getting outdoors, enjoying nature, getting back to living again.”
No taxpayer funds were used to purchase EcoRovers. Friends of Paynes Prairie is currently on a mission to raise $6,000 to cover some of the cost of the park’s new track chair. Other donors include the Florida Blue Foundation (which donated $10,000 to help facilitate it June delivery to Paynes Prairie). Another funder is the Florida State Parks Foundation.
“Access to nature is very, very important,” said Paulo Russo, Florida State Parks Foundation’s program administrator. “But it is also that human component that I know now that I can join in with other people.”
EcoRovers are available in many state parks around Florida.
There is no charge to use the EcoRover, but reservations are required 48-72 hours in advance. A family member, friend or caregiver must also accompany the rider. A volunteer is available to guide them on a three-hour hike.
The chair purchase prices vary, from $12,500 to $14,000 depending on customizations. It is priced $7,000 less than its closest competitor.
The Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT) oversees a different EcoRover program, sharing one chair between several trail locations including the Prairie Creek and the Serenola Forest preserves in Gainesville, the Orange Lake Overlook and the Tuscawilla Preserve in Micanopy and the Fox Pen Preserve in Hawthorne. Those interested can fill out an online form for scheduling.
ACT received grant funding through the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation National Paralysis Resource Center for the track chair.
“We will continue to work to make sure that we are able to incorporate every part of our community into our trails, into our recreation, into our events, into our programming as we balance conservation with accessibility,” said Ema Olmos, ACT events coordinator.
These vehicles are also making the beach more accessible for people with disabilities at such state parks as St. Andrews in Panama City and Topsail Hill Preserve, Grayton Beach and Deer Lake in Santa Rosa Beach.
Cordell ‘Cisco’ Jeter invented the EcoRover out of necessity. Like Jones, he was injured and left needing assistance to get around. But his injuries sustained in an auto accident left him paralyzed from the waist down.
He was a sophomore at Salem University in West Virginia when he and three others were in a vehicle winding their way through the mountain roads of the Appalachians when it plummeted off the edge. Jeter was ejected from the car and found himself pinned beneath it. Emergency responders had to repel down the mountain to save him and the others.
He credits his recovery to ambition and optimism.
“I got discharged from the hospital,” Jeter said. “I saw the Marine Corps Marathon and saw some wheelchair racers competing, and I said, ‘Man, I think I can do something like that.’”
Four years after his accident, he went on to the Barcelona Paralympic Games in 1992, where he brought home a gold and bronze medal.
“I wouldn't even say he's disabled,” Brenda Jeter, Cordell’s mother, said. “He's able to do anything anybody else can do.”
In 2016, Jeter received his first all-terrain track chair. It was funded by family and friends.
Riding the chair “was like Novocain,” Jeter said. “Your body, your heart's pumping, it was electrical, all over.”
He became a salesman for track chairs and was good at it. But he left the company to venture out on his own with the goal of creating a more effective and affordable option for people with impaired mobility to enjoy the outdoors. He created the EcoRover in 2021.
“My vision is great community access,” Jeter said. “I believe this technology should already be located where they need to – beaches, parks, national parks.”
Jeter and his wife, Sandra Dee Jeter, funded their garage project out of pocket, selling one track chair at a time, reinvesting everything repeatedly. ECO Rover is now debt free.
“People don't call me up for life insurance,” Jeter said. “They call me up because they want to go to the beach with their kid. They want to be a part of family union activities.”