It was a perfect day at Mount Sunapee. Abundant sunshine, deep blue sky, skis flying over sparkling snow as the two instructors and a student finished the run with whoops of joy and enthusiastic high-fives.
Looking at us, other skiers might not know right away that John, our student, is visually impaired. John can barely distinguish light from shadow. He gets down the mountain by listening to our verbal cues. There’s a lot of trust involved. That’s one of the things I love most about the New England Healing Sports Association (NEHSA).
Founded by a group of Vietnam War veterans over 50 years ago, NEHSA has been continuously providing winter sports activities for people with a wide range of disabilities. The organization’s mission statement nicely defines what they are about. NEHSA serves individuals and families through adaptive sports, promoting healing and accomplishment.
Initially, NEHSA helped people with physical disabilities, such as, paraplegia, but as time passed, NEHSA expanded to welcome people of all ages with a wide range of disabilities, including visual impairment, multiple sclerosis, developmental delay, Down syndrome, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and many others. A wide variety of adaptive equipment is provided by NEHSA to enable people to overcome their challenges.
The organization’s original sports activity was adaptive skiing and snowboarding. This is still the main, full-time winter activity, but about 20 years ago they expanded to include kayaking for the summer season, and about three years ago hiking was added. NEHSA provides lessons in these activities and depends upon a large group of trained volunteers to provide a safe and fun atmosphere for all participants.
During the year, there are several thousand hours of lessons conducted. This is especially amazing when one learns that the organization has only three full-time employees. All other help is provided by about 400 volunteers, several of which reside in Andover. In fact, NEHSA is the largest organization of its type in the East.
If you have a chance to witness the activities going on daily throughout the winter, centered at the NEHSA lodge at Mt. Sunapee, you may find out the reason there are so many dedicated volunteers in the group. (Hint: we’re having fun!)
And if you have a chance to see or talk to some of the disabled participants, maybe the veteran with PTSD, or the accident victim paralyzed from the waist down who felt she had nothing left to live for, or the child with cerebral palsy, who rarely feels the thrill of speed and movement, you will hear how NEHSA changes people’s lives.
NEHSA is growing, and we welcome new instructors. Please consider volunteering for our winter snow sports program or our summer paddle sports. If you don’t ski, snowboard, or kayak, you could snowshoe or lead hikes. You can volunteer as much or as little as you like. We promise you will have the time of your life!
For more information: www.nehsa.org, 603 763-9158.