History

Courage Center was founded in 1928 as the Minnesota Society for Crippled Children and Adults. The organization was created to meet the changing needs of children and adults with disabilities, with an emphasis on advocacy, adaptive sports and recreation, camping, and rehabilitation. In 1973, the first Golden Valley Courage Center facility was dedicated with additional locations added later. An adaptive sports location opened in the 1980’s in Duluth.

In 2013, through the merger of Courage Center® and Sister Kenny Institute®, Duluth’s Courage program because a part of the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute® owned and operated by Allina Health. Both organizations brought a strong history of service to people with disabilities as well as people with chronic medical conditions. Courage Kenny – Northland continued as the only organization in the Northland to critical adaptive sports and recreation services.

10 years later, in 2023, Duluth-based Miller-Dwan Foundation acquired Courage Kenny–Northland programming from Allina Health renaming and rebranding it Northland Adaptive Recreation (NAR). NAR operates as an LLC under the Miller- Dwan Foundation By operating under the umbrella of Miller-Dwan, NAR has the flexibility it needs to continue delivering outstanding adaptive recreational sports programming directly to the northland communities it serves.