Break The Barriers

Barriers might seem to come from physical realities, but the greatest barrier often exists in our mind. A facility built specifically to celebrate awareness and victories of all abilities is located in northeast Fresno and exists to break barriers.

It was the brainchild of Deby Hergenrader. Growing up, Deby and her sister Kathy shared a passion for gymnastics. When Special Olympics added gymnastics to its list of offerings, they consulted Deby because her sister Kathy had Down’s Syndrome.

 “When she went on to win in Special Olympics, she was one of the first Special Olympic athletes,” Hergenrader said about her sister Kathy. “There were three from Fresno County that competed, and Kathy was one of the three and back then they only had track, and so she was a track runner, then they added swimming and then she became a swimmer.” 

Kathy’s achievements became the catalyst behind Deby’s life-long mission to create a community made up of different abilities, circumstances, ethnicities and walks of life.

Megan McKeon, who has been with Break the Barriers for ten years, says that she sees everyone there like family. “Break the barriers has really impacted me a lot. It’s made me really look at different disabilities and people in different perspectives. It’s helped me learn how people work with certain disabilities and it’s also helped me learn how to work with people with disabilities.”

“Break the barriers has really impacted me a lot,” McKeon says. “It’s made me really look at different disabilities and people in different perspectives. It’s helped me learn how people work with certain disabilities and it’s also helped me learn how to work with people with disabilities.”

Break the Barriers offers programs such as gymnastics, martial arts, and ballet to name a few.