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| March 2011 |  |
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Paralympic Sport Windham - A program of the Adaptive Sports Foundation Spotlight on ASF Student - Meet Melanie Josif and her family Eric D. Dettenrieder Race Camp and Diana Golden/Mills Cup Level 1 Race at Windham Special Olympics for the first time Wounded Warrior Stephen Valyou finds the thrill of mono-skiing ASF ends the season with the Ralph Hartman Tribute Race
Thank you to our generous supporters:
Affiliations:
Raise funds for ASF through your own personal website We have put together a pretty cool fundraising website that allows you to have a personal web page that you, or someone you know, can use to raise money on behalf of ASF. It is very user-friendly, so it should only take you a few minutes to use, even if you aren't too computer savvy. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3! 1. Visit the ASF Talking Points website. 2. Set up your ASF Talking Points page. 3. Send the page out to your email list and Facebook friends. For examples, please take a look at the fundraising pages ASF staff members Adam, Bob, and Jo have set up. In addition, you can visit our website for some talking points and photos / videos you might want to use on your ASF Talking Points page. If you have any questions or would like some assistance, feel free to email Adam or call him at 518-734-5070. |
Paralympic Sport Windham - A Program of the Adaptive Sports Foundation By Bob Speck The Adaptive Sports Foundation is a Paralympic Sports Club in association with the United States Olympic Committee. As such, one of our interests is to help develop and train potential future Paralympic athletes. Like the Olympics, the Paralympics give elite athletes from around the world an opportunity to compete and represent their country in athletic competition. Many of you know Caitlin Sarubbi, a former ASF student who competed in the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver. Most of you also know of Staci Mannella and her quest to compete as a visually-impaired racer with guide Kim Seevers in the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. At our recent Eric D. Dettenrieder Race Camp featuring US Adaptive Team Coach Eric Leirfallom, we had a number of other athletes training with the hopes and dreams of competing in future Games, including our very own John Eckbold. John has made significant progress in his development as a competitive mono-skiing racer this season. He started his season by attending the Hartford Ski Spectacular in Breckenridge, CO, in December, along with fellow ASF Race Team member Robyn Davis and me. Upon his return, we worked together with John and his family to develop a midweek training program that would support his goals to compete nationally and internationally.
For the last two months, John has trained on snow every Monday through Thursday with a team of ASF volunteer race coaches that have been working together to improve John’s skiing movements and on-hill performance. We thank all of the ASF coaches who volunteered to be race coaches midweek with John. We also formulated an indoor training program for John. We received the local support of Mary Shoepe of Fitness Concepts in Hensonville, who offered John the use of her training facility and periodic personal training. We were also fortunate to receive holistic health coaching from Paul Jensen, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, a certified neuromuscular therapist, and a sports performance coach, in Albany, NY. Paul is one of about three dozen Level IV C.H.E.K. (Corrective Holistic Exercise Kinesiology) practitioners in the world. Paul focused on improving John’s health, wellness and energy, before developing a plan for improving his athletic performance. We thank Mary and Paul for donating their time to get this ASF program off the ground. In addition, Jo Kirsch and I met John on numerous mornings and evenings right here at ASF to practice yoga and to do some fitness-related exercises. It is race season now and many of our ASF Race Team members are competing at various races at Windham and around the Northeast. Good luck to all. Staci and Kim are heading to Alaska for Nationals. John will compete at Mount Sunapee in the Diana Golden Series Finale. It is also time to plan for next season and work on further developing our Paralympic Sport Club race-training program. We are hoping to attract additional racers for our midweek training program. A few of our race camp participants have expressed interest in our midweek program for next season. Some of them have expressed interest in also being future adaptive ski teachers or coaches. As our plans develop, we’ll keep you posted. We’ll look forward to your support. In the meantime, best of luck to all of our racers in the various spring race competitions, and in the various summer dryland and on-snow race training camps! For those racers interested, we’d be happy to discuss summer training options with you.
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Spotlight on ASF student - Meet Melanie Josif and her family "This is the one sport we can do as a family," said Suzette Josif. Suzette and Marvin and their children, Melanie, age 10; Eli, age 8; and Sydney, age 4; ski at Windham just about every weekend all season long.
This is Melanie's third season skiing with the Adaptive Sports Foundation. Melanie, a child on the autism spectrum, is a solid intermediate skier. "She is my favorite family member to ski with these days," said her Dad, "because I'm actually able to spend the morning skiing with her in an activity we can do together." Both Suzette and Marvin feel that the fresh air, exercise and outdoor activity is a huge plus for their daughter. "Children with cognitive disabilities don't get enough physical activity," said Suzette. Marvin and Suzette often ski along with Melanie and her ASF instructor. "We enjoy skiing with Melanie and when we're involved the instructor knows what we're comfortable with and what she can do." The Josifs love Windham's multi-generational family atmosphere and are grateful to have found ASF. "Melanie's experience at ASF is so much more than skiing," said Suzette. "It's about patience, teaching independence and offering assistance. It's an amazing foundation. We're really glad to be a part of it."
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Eric D. Dettenrieder Race Camp and Diana Golden / Mills Cup Level 1 Race at Windham By Bob Speck The Adaptive Sports Foundation hosted racers from throughout the region for the Eric D. Dettenrieder Race Camp and Diana Golden / Mills Cup Level 1 Race, February 23th – 26th, at Windham Mountain. The race camp featured U.S. Adaptive Alpine Team Coach Eric Leirfallom, and included three days of gate training, tactics training and technique coaching. There were also indoor sessions on conditioning and nutrition, video analysis, and yoga.
Camp attendees traveled from New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, and New York. We had groups for sit-down mono-skiers, stand-up skiers, 3 and 4 trackers, and students with congitive disabilities (skiers and snowboarders). We had two days of giant slalom gate training and one shortened day of slalom gate training (it snowed and rained on Friday). The Diana Golden / Mills Cup Race took place on Saturday. We had additional competitors from Massachusetts and Connecticut. The race took place on Lower Wheelchair, home of the Windham NASTAR course. The awards ceremony took place at ASF after lunch. Winners from ASF included: Gold: Robyn Davis, John Eckbold, Amelia Smollens, Zach Elder, Brian Fitzpatrick and Thomas Moran Congratulations to all who participated in ASF’s race week activities.
The Golden Cup Series memorializes US and World Champion skier Diana Golden and is intended to promote the sport of ski racing and snowboarding to athletes with disabilities on the East coast. The Mills Cup division of the race was open to participants with cognitive disabilities. The race camp was sponsored by the Eric D. Dettenrieder Memorial Fund. The EDD Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to providing exciting sports programs to young people with physical and developmental disabilities. EDD has been a generous supporter of ASF racing programs for years and we are truly grateful for their continued support.
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Teens with cancer have fun skiing, snowboarding, tubing, and riding snowcats and snowmobiles at Hunter Mountain On February 9th and 10th, 14 teens who have cancer and are currently in treatment at Tomorrow's Children Institute in Hackensack, N.J., enjoyed two days of fun at Hunter Mountain. 15 ASF volunteer instructors and a few Hunter snowboard instructors took them skiing and snowboarding on the first afternoon.
Later in the day everybody went tubing. Chaos and laughter erupted when ASF board member Russ Huntington almost went off the edge of the course. Tubing was followed by dinner at Hunter.
The teens spent the next day skiing and snowboarding and finished off the trip with snowmobile and snowcat rides. Tired, yet happy, teens slept most of the way back to New Jersey. They'll be back again next year, for sure.
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By Mary Bozzone, ASF Race Team Coach On March 5, 2011, 13 athletes, six coaches, 20 parents and family members, plus our favorite two West Mountain coaches, Ray and Mary, headed to West Mountain for the Special Olympics Regional Games. Everyone had a wonderful time seeing old friends and competing against one another. This was the first Special Olympics for three of our athletes. Everyone made them feel like old friends.
The athletes competed in slalom and giant slalom races and brought home 26 medals (16 golds, seven silvers and three bronzes). For the first time, we had five athletes skiing in the advanced group of skiers. Everyone did very well. Another first for the team was that we had three snowboarders racing this year (a veteran and two rookies), all of whom made us proud. It was another great day for the ASF Race Team. Congratulations to all of the athletes. A special thank you to all of the coaches, parents and all of the people at West Mountain and Special Olympics, who made the day so special for all of our athletes. Special Olympics for the first time By Megan Hopkins, ASF Race Team member On Saturday March 5, 2011, I went to the New York State Special Olympics for the first time. It was awesome. I had so much fun with all of the other team members.
While we were waiting to start the race I met some new skiers and snowboarders. We had a good time throwing snowballs. I had a good time getting hit with snowballs, too.
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Wounded Warrior Stephen Valyou finds the thrill of mono-skiing Stephen Valyou, Explosive Ordinance Disposal, Retired Army, is used to adrenaline. It's no surprise he's taken to mono-skiing. "I like the adrenaline rush. I was an EOD tech. Nothing is going to equal the rush of walking towards an IED and seeing if its going to explode," said Stephen. "I like being outside. I like skiing with my son, Nathaniel. I enjoy that we can do this together and look forward to when I'm independent and we can do this together as a family, along with my wife Melissa." Stephen came up to the Adaptive Sports Foundation to try mono-skiing this January at ASF's Winter Warriors in Motion event. ASF instructors Doug Layman, Jim Foster and I Tai Lu showed patience and expertise as they coached Stephen. And they went the extra mile. "The Warriors in Motion Weekend program was supposed to end at noon on Sunday. My instructors told me they'd stay as long as I wanted to ski," said Stephen. "They took me out Sunday afternoon on their personal time and continued to work with me. It showed me their dedication and willingness to do things for an adaptive skier."
The proper set-up for a mono-skier varies with each individual. ASF staff member Adam DeMuth worked with Stephen to get his set-up just right. "With the set-up I have now it seems like I'm skiing the ski and not fighting each turn. I'm more relaxed," said Stephen. Stephen returned to ASF to ski a number of times this season and he is becoming increasingly independent. He'd like to participate in next winter's Warriors in Motion event at a level where he can assist another individual learning to mono-ski. "I learn best by seeing and watching. I was able to watch I Tai on his mono-ski. Next year I'd like to be able to assist and help a student relate to another mono-skier."
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The 2011 Michael Gray Memorial Race was held at Windham Mountain on March 5, in honor of Michael J. Gray, Jr., a snowboard instructor with the Ski Windham Snow Sports School, who was tragically killed in a car accident.
Once again the Gray family worked hard to put on a fabulous race, held on the Nastar course, followed by a goulash dinner, a chinese auction and a great band. A big thank you goes to the Gray Family who raised over $25,000 for the Adaptive Sports Foundation.
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ASF ends the season with the Ralph Hartman Tribute Race 70 racers and over 160 volunteers made the Hartman Race a spectacular, fun and celebratory final event for the 2010-11 ASF winter season. The fun race was set up on the lower half of Windham Mountain's trail, Whiteway. Competitors ranged from mono-skiers, bi-skiers, and 4 trackers to snowboarders and skiers with cognitive disabilities. A great crowd cheered the racers to the finish ringing cowbells and shouting support. Everyone who raced received a medal. After the race, awards were presented to the top three competitors in each field. Special awards were also presented. The Buff Donnelly Award, presented to the student who demonstrates exceptional courage, determination and love for life, was awarded to Lee Papierowicz and John Hudson Dilgen.
The Stu Smith Magic Man award, given to an adult (over 18) student who best exemplifies Stu's enthusiasm, good cheer, and love of skiing, was awarded to Ed Hart Jr.
The Rookie of the Year award was given to volunteer instructor Jonathan Gross. The Hartman Award was created in memory of Ralph Hartman, an ASF Instructor who lost his life to cancer. Ralph was a dedicated, behind the scenes, caring individual. This year's Hartman Awards, were presented to indoor volunteer Donna Weis, and the outdoor volunteer Marty Higgins. The day concluded with a pasta dinner, music and tons of dancing at the Windham Base Lodge. Everyone laughed and danced the night away exhibiting the love and camaraderie shared by all.
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ASF
Wish List
Newsletter articles are compiled by Jo Kirsch, ASF Special Projects and Event Coordinator, and copyedited by ASF Training Coordinator Bob Speck and ASF Operations Director Kim Seevers. We invite articles by ASF volunteers, participants and staff. Please submit articles to jkirsch@mhcable.com for consideration in future newsletters.
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