From the Child Left on the Bus to the Guide Who Brings Others Along

Daniel Stark Brilliant, 31, has turned a childhood of disability and exclusion into a job helping children with disabilities complete outdoor hikes. Last month, during a trip in Ramat Hanadiv near Zikhron Ya'akov, he helped 13-year-old Yanai, who has a physical disability, get onto an all-terrain wheelchair and finish the route with the group.

Stark Brilliant, now the head of field hikes for the Israeli nonprofit Etgarim, says he personally checks every trail two or three times before a trip, measuring slopes and choosing the safest path. "It is a huge satisfaction when the group gets onto the all-terrain wheelchair," he said. "It is a safe tool if used correctly."

His own life was transformed after a school-bus rollover when he was eight. The crash killed the driver, left him critically injured, and led to a week-long coma, two clinical deaths, and a prognosis of only 25% survival. He woke in Rambam Hospital after his teacher visited and sang to him. The left side of his brain was badly damaged, affecting the right side of his body, and he spent months relearning how to speak and walk.

His parents told him from the start, "You have a disability and you will beat it, and do whatever you want," and he says that attitude kept him going. As a child he returned to the outdoors through Etgarim, first with kayaking and then tandem cycling, later joining a triathlon and hikes along Israel’s trails. After army service as a volunteer combat supporter in Sayeret Matkal, he spent two years searching for work before Etgarim brought him back to the field, first as a volunteer coordinator and later as a salaried employee while he studied geography and community education. Today he says seeing children with disabilities complete hikes proves that "nothing stands in the way of willpower."