When Kevin and Lorie Johnson welcomed Kirk Williams into their home in 1999, they promised him a full life under their roof.
The Johnsons have made good on that promise.
They've have taken Williams — a U.S. Navy veteran who uses a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis — to Twins games, the Minnesota Zoo, the Dakota Jazz Club, even on two Caribbean cruises.
But their favorite annual ritual has been time spent with Williams on a small patch of paradise called Wilderness Discovery Retreat. The 6.8-acre Canadian resort is located on Lake Shebandowan, west of Thunder Bay, Ontario, about an eight-hour drive from their home.
For 30 years, the fully accessible retreat has offered people with physical challenges a host of summer sweetnesses that many of us take for granted: dock access, pontoon boats, fire pits, the opportunity to be awakened by loons or the soothing sound of water lapping onto a pristine shore.
But after the 2015 summer season, Wilderness Discovery shut down. Handicapped Action Group Inc. (HAGI), a nonprofit agency that leases the land on which the retreat runs, said it could no longer afford the estimated $150,000 to $200,000 annual cost to keep it open.
So Johnson made another promise to his friend: He'd find a way to get it back in business.
"This facility has been one of the few places in all of North America that provides recreational equality to our disabled loved ones," Johnson said. "Why would you not fight to keep it open?"