JANUARY 2012
HELPING YOU, HELPING ME.
Early winter I joined Ontario
Track3www.track3.org. An association that for close to forty years has been teaching
physically and mentally challenged children and youth to ski, snowboard and
most importantly, have fun on snow.
After a weekend of
instruction in Collingwood, I was deemed worthy of the task presented. There were about 25 of us newbies, far short
of what the association needs. There are over three hundred kids enrolled in
the program and another two hundred on the waiting list for lack of instructors.
My program involved that
every Thursday night in January and February I skied at Glen Eden in Milton.
There I assisted and almost immediately was joined with my own student,
Kennedy. The program focuses on a
person’s abilities rather than their challenges. Track3 has their own little trailer at the
resort. Picture my first and most every hour before we hit the slopes. A room
filled with about a dozen kids with various levels of mental and physical
problems, yelling, questioning and arguing, a dozen caregivers, prodding,
provoking and pleading their charges to put left boots on left feet, you DO
need mitts! NO helmet, NO snowboarding (I still can’t believe what some of the
instructors did to get some of these kids up on snowboards) and on and on, and
then us instructors trying to assist, keep peace and ourselves out of harms
way. Then by some small miracle, the room emptied and everyone was at varying
degrees on the hill.
Kennedy is a fourteen-year-old
autistic girl. After some introduction through the association and her mother,
we became quite comfortable with each other. She was a willing learner and quick
with a puzzling smile, though we did talked a lot. How much we both understood
was never an issue. I more than once reassured Kennedy (though I lied a little)
that she had kept my record, of only meeting nice people skiing, in tack.
I never once lost sight,
though I tried to explain, how helping her was helping me. In many ways. In being a friend.
One excitement for me, after
trying to impress with my lists of skiing achiements, was a new to me way of
getting up the hill.
Well, you don't know what
We can find
Why don't you come with me little girl
On a magic carpet ride
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| This season I did a lot of skiing like I drive my rental cars. Backwards. Saves on mileage charge. |
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| I wonder if Temple Grandin skis? |
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| End of season Bash! |
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| A man with heart. Brad. Thursday night organizer. |
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| Slip, Sliddin away |
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