By James Windell
Over two million people visit South Haven every year. And most of those visitors come to South Haven during the summer months, attracted by the sandy beaches and the blue waters of Lake Michigan.
But an estimated 6 % of Americans have a physical disability that limit their mobility. That means that upwards of 158,000 tourists to South Haven are not able to enjoy all of the wonders of our beaches.
However, thanks to a donation offered by the South Haven Van Buren Convention and Visitors Bureau, that will change this summer. The Visitors Bureau has proposed donating two beach accessible wheelchairs to the city for use at the South Beach.
“This year one of the big things we are prioritizing is accessibility,” Jennifer Sistrunk, Executive Director of the South Haven Van Buren County Convention and Visitors Bureau (SHVB), told the Parks Commission at their regular meeting on February 11, 2025. “We are particularly looking at our beaches. Currently, we are one of the very few beaches in West Michigan that does not have wheelchairs. We thought that this is something we want to tackle first.”
Sistrunk went on to say that, “Basically, what we are proposing is that we have two beach chairs at South Beach to start. We want to donate a mechanical beach wheelchair and a manual beach wheelchair.”
One of the chairs is a motorized beach accessible chair – the ST Action Trackchair, which has a cost of $14,300. The other one is a manual wheelchair with enlarged tires made to roll through the sand easily. This Spinlife manual beach wheelchair has a cost of $5,300. Both devices would be donated to the City and would initially be used at South Beach.
The South Haven Van Buren County Convention and Visitors Bureau is fully funded by visitor dollars and the cost of the beach wheelchairs would come from SHVB and not from the city.
Parks Commission member Scott Reinert said that he and Sistrunk have been very passionate about providing accessibility for visitors. “We think these chairs would be a great start,” Reinert said. “At the end of the season, we can stand back and access what worked and what didn’t work, but we think this will be very well received by the visitors and the city as well.”
Sistrunk explained that Chris Campbell, owner of the SoHa Surf Shop, 518 Phoenix Street in downtown South Haven, has agreed to use their registration system to facilitate the use of the beach wheelchairs at no cost to the city or to anyone using the chairs.
Parks Commission Chair, Melinda Gruber, thanked Sistrunk for the donation of the chairs and also for her commitment to accessibility. “I did not know those facts about the number of visitors [who are disabled], so that is incredible.”
Aaron Priebe, Parks Manager, said that they would work with SHVB to build a storage shed for housing the wheelchairs. “The exact location of the shed would have to be determined,” he said, although agreeing that it would be on the South Beach.
The Parks Commission voted to recommend to the City Council that they accept the donation of the two beach wheelchairs.
