Jacob's Ladder Fitness

06/02/2026

ATTENTION ALL JACOB’S LADDER BIKE RIDERS 🚴🚵‍♂️🚴🏻‍♀️🚴‍♀️🚴🏻‍♀️🚴‍♀️🚴!!

THANKS to all of you for joining us this coming Sunday, June 7. The ride starts at 9 AM AT BACCI PARK.

Bacci Park is located at 7201 Canal Rd., Cuyahoga Hghts. There is one parking lot right next to Canal Rd. If that gets full, you can pull into the park and drive towards the back of the park. There is a large parking lot next to the field where the Fitness Chalenge will take place.

ALL RIDES WILL START AND END AT BACCI PARK.

Here are ride length suggestions;

** “Easy Riders”; Bacci Park to Rockside Rd and back-4 miles.

** “Pretty Good Riders”; Bacci Park to Brecksville and back- 16 miles. This stop is under the route 82 bridge, where there is a train stop, large parking lot, rest rooms and a riding bridge across the river.

** “The Next Level”- Bacci Park to Peninsula and back-30 miles. Peninsula is very well marked, you can’t miss it, signs on the trail. 

OR, just ride as far as you want and turn around, just make sure you’re back before the fitness challenge starts at noon. 

Brother Dan and I road the trail from Rockside to Peninsula on Monday June 1st. TRAIL IS CLEAR, AND BEAUTIFUL, no construction!!

Will be a great day to ride!! 🚴🏻‍♀️🚵‍♂️🚴‍♀️🚴

05/31/2026

This weekend is the State Special Olympics finals in Columbus. Jake ran in the 50 yd dash on Saturday. He came in 2nd place. The guy to Jake’s left in the picture won by .24 seconds, that is less than 1/4 of a second!! Best time ever for Jake! You are a winner Jake👍🙏❤️🏃‍♂️🏃Afterwards he got a pic with governor DeWine.

05/29/2026

05/29/2026

📣 We want to invite everyone to join us for a Pre-Raffle Fundraiser at 6PM next Friday, June 5th at Mulligan's Strongsville! Come out and join us as we kick-off the weekend of our biggest event of the year—Jacob's Ladder's 7th Annual Fitness Challenge & Bike Ride!

You are going to love and really appreciate our array of baskets this year! Karen D’Orazio, despite recovering from breast cancer and recent surgery, put together another awesome and varied display of raffle baskets! This year Karen was assisted by her sister Nancy.

You will see details of each raffle basket.
These include:
** Four Wine and Dine gift cards valued at up to $150. Restaurants include the Bonefish Grill and Summer Place with its fabulous food and view of Lake Erie! Or, win a Mexican Fiesta including a bottle of Margaritas! 🍷
** $240 Family Fun day package - Swings and Things. ⚾️
** $65 Dunkin Donuts coffee and treats.☕️
** $70 Movie Night 🎥🍿
** $200 worth of Cleveland Guardians Tickets.🧢
** $70 worth of Cleveland Beer. Predicting this basket does well! 🍻

Raffle winners will be announced during lunch at Sainato's on Sunday the 7th.

Thanks for your support!!

10/19/2025

As many of you know, October is Down syndrome awareness month. This is a time to be conscious and maybe reach out to our friends and families in this community with support, recognition and love. There are many great caring and giving organizations locally and nationally who make it their mission to serve this population. But I want to share 2 short stories about “awareness” of people IN the Down syndrome community.

Being aware of others’ needs is of course a major theme in the Bible, demonstrated so wonderfully by Jesus throughout his ministry. He gave the ultimate sacrifice of His life on the cross so that we could enter heaven and be with Him forever!

We are reminded throughout the Bible to serve others. A great verse is 1 Peter 4:10; “ Each one should use whatever gifts he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God‘s grace in its various forms. “

In our many years of doing Fitness with Jacob’s Ladder, I have seen this awareness quality demonstrated by people with Down syndrome and other people in the disability community.

Two of the best examples ever of this gift were recently demonstrated by our son and fitness instructor Jake.

About two months ago, we were doing a fitness/exercise program with a group of people in the disability community. As usual, JAKE was assisting in leading the program. One of the students who was with a caregiver was limited in his ability to participate. He was on his mat on the floor, but he began having some issues. Specifically, he began to get warm and the staff got concerned. So, they called the paramedics. This local team was there quickly, came into the room and kneeled down to closely examine the young man, who began to sweat!

As the paramedic kneeled down to examine the young man, Jake took some action on his own. He went over to another side of the room and found one of those approximately 3‘ x 2‘ lightweight Styrofoam signs. He quickly brought it over to where the young man was, and began fanning him off with the sign to cool him off! 

One of the staff members came over to me and said kindly “Did you tell him to do that?“ I smiled to him and to myself, and to the Good Lord, and said “Nope, that’s what he does.”

Thankfully , the young man turned out to be fine and there were no issues.

If you like that story, wait a few days, I will share the second story, which is even better, as it deals with JAKE and his mom, my wife Karen.

🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍

08/29/2025

Today is Jake’s 25th birthday!!🎂🎂🎂❤️❤️❤️Happy Birthday son!! We love you and are so proud of you!
You are a man of kindness and awareness of others, and you love Jesus, Mom, Dad and family💒… and Rocky!

08/21/2025

Jacob's Ladder Special Needs Fitness is an Inclusive Place. It focuses on serving special needs people through regular exercise, fitness, and healthy lifestyle education. Exercise classes are provided in person and virtually.

Check out Jacob's Ladder in our Online Resource Guide at https://www.cuyahogadd.org/resources/individual-family-resources/online-resource-guide/inclusive-places/sports-recreation-exercise/jacobs-ladder-fitness.



Image description: Bottom, group of young people and instructors in a boxing position. Text above, Online Resource Guide Inclusive Places Jacob's Ladder Special Needs Fitness against a cream background.