Argus-Champion Newspaper: NEHSA branching out to offer year-round activities by James Lowe March 24, 2006

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NEWBURY - The New England Handicapped Sports Association is gearing up for the ski season at Mount Sunapee, but it's also preparing to branch out and offer year-round activities - a first for the 33-year-old organization.

Recently the organization hired its first full-time director, Tom Kersey of Newport, himself a longtime volunteer. Kersey and other NEHSA employees and volunteers are now developing programs for the warmer months.

"It's really a student choice, and we'll be polling students throughout the year to see where their interests lie," Kersey said.

In recent years, NEHSA has offered a few off-season activities. This past summer, a number of students and instructors took a canoe trip down the Connecticut River. Kersey said a number of NEHSA students are already involved in other adaptive sports, such as horseback riding.

Beyond adaptive sporting activities, Kersey said he's also looking into arranging trips to museums and aquariums, minor league sports games and adaptive sports equipment expositions.

At its headquarters on Mount Sunapee, NEHSA keeps a full complement of adaptive equipment, ranging from sit-down bi- and mono-skis - essentially bucket seats with skis attached - to adjustable walkers fitted with skis and snow boards with harnesses for students who are unsteady on their feet.

The non-profit group gets most of its equipment through donations, though it does collect membership dues and lesson fees to cover other expenses.

Last year, according to NEHSA co-director Amanda Rucci, 167 NEHSA volunteers gave 903 lessons to 282 students.

"The one thing that's limiting for us disabled skiers is there's not enough volunteers," said Mike Guilbault, of Attleboro, Mass.

A member of NEHSA and the New England Paralyzed Veterans Association, Guilbault said he tries to hit the slopes as often as he can, but that always depends on whether there are enough volunteer instructors to accompany him.

Guilbault was an active downhill skier before he broke his neck in a car accident. When he later got acquainted with adaptive ski equipment, the sit-down bi- and mono-skis, he said he didn¹t really have to re-learn his old skiing habits, so much as apply them in new ways.

"My mental game was that I was as good as I was before I broke my neck," he said. "I was determined to do it and I did it." Cindy Westman of South Hamilton, Mass., was also a skier until her multiple sclerosis made it too difficult. Since then she¹s gotten involved with a number of handicapped sports, including horseback riding, kayaking and golf.

Last year she found out about NEHSA through a neighbor who volunteers and tried the sit-down bi-ski for the first time.

"It's the same sensation as skiing," she said, with one difference: "I didn¹t ski as fast standing up as I do sitting down." Kersey started as a volunteer 14 years ago. He showed up at Mount Sunapee one day after seeing a newspaper ad looking for volunteer ski and snow board instructors. When he learned that his students would be disabled, he wondered if he would be out of his area of expertise.

"I thought, ŒI don¹t have any medical background, how could I possibly fit in?" he said.

But he quickly learned that extensive medical knowledge or experience working with disabled people wasn¹t a requirement. What is required is an open mind and a little bit of creativity.

Teaching students who are wheelchair bound, visually impaired or developmentally delayed may seem like a daunting task, but Kersey said it¹s really just a matter of finding the right tools for the job.

"Everyone needs adaptive equipment to ski," he said. "No one gets out of bed with their fuzzy slippers and goes down the mountain." Each student is usually accompanied by two instructors, who assist as much or as little as the student wants.

Volunteers are given a full training course and usually end up specializing in one type of adaptive equipment or disability. Kersey said volunteers get part of their training by using the adaptive equipment themselves. Or they¹ll smear Vaseline on their goggles to simulate the experience of a visually impaired skier.

"We typically try to give the student instructor a taste of that disability, (have them) walk a mile in those shoes," Kersey said.

Chris Zenaro of Pembroke has been volunteering with NEHSA for five years. He said he keeps coming back because he loves to see the students having a good time. Many students, especially the younger ones, don't have many chances to be active and sometimes "don't do a lot of smiling," he said. But by the time they've finished their first ski run, they're usually grinning from ear to ear.

"If you want recognition with a smile, it¹s the place for you," Zenaro said.

"By the time you get to the bottom of the hill, you know you got through to them somehow." For Guilbault, adaptive skiing has long-term effects too.

"It just builds a person's self-confidence," he said. "You can go out in public and not feel as different." Adaptive skiing programs originated after Vietnam, when groups of disabled war veterans started using newly invented sit-down ski equipment.

NEHSA got its start in 1972, catering to the physically disabled at first.

In 1994, the group expanded its program to offer ski instruction to developmentally disabled individuals as well.

Each year NEHSA offers a week-long program for disabled veterans. This year the program will pair veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with their counterparts from Korea and Vietnam. Kersey said it¹s an effort to lift the younger veterans¹ spirits and get them physically active.

"It's pretty interesting to see those Vietnam vets, that didn't really have that warm welcome home, really pouring their hearts out to the younger veterans," he said.

NEHSA can be contacted by phone at 763-9158 or by e-mail at info@nehsa.org.