Roof-Top Beehives Sweeten DC Hotel Offerings

18 September 2011

High up on the rooftop of the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC, executive sous chef Ian Bens and executive pastry chef Aron Weber tend to honeybees.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Shirley Griffith.

MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter. This week on our program, we meet a man who shares his love of surfing with people with disabilities. We also learn where two chefs in Washington are getting fresh honey for their restaurant. And we look at the growing popularity of webcomics.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Dana Cummings lost his left leg in a car accident. Later he learned how to surf. Now, he teaches other people with disabilities how to ride the waves.

Dana Cummings started an organization in two thousand three called AmpSurf. AmpSurf is based in California. It offers free surfing classes to amputees and people with other disabilities. The group gets help from private donors and volunteers.

This year, Ampsurf took its services to the East Coast for the first time.

AmpSurf founder Dana Cummings commands the beach with his megaphone as he welcomes participants to a surfing class in Maine.

(SOUND)

MARIO RITTER: Dana Cummings has come to a beach on the Atlantic coast in the northeastern state of Maine. He is teaching Matthew Fish. Matthew is twenty-seven years old and visually impaired.