NEDS EDGEEdge: sharpened metal strip on the sides of skis & snowboards

Holding an edge is a key to a good turnEdge: a penetrating, incisive quality; e.g., a competitive edge

FEBRUARY 2015

THE

Elle Hotchkiss is a coach from a contrasting world. Almost all NEDS coaches hail from New England, living in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine. However, if you looked closely at the NEDS coach roster, you would find one anomaly. This blip on the map would be centered over Miami, Florida, a place more known for it’s white sand beaches and bikini tans, rather than it’s goggle tans. Elle grew up in New England and has always been drawn to the White Mountains; however, life dealt her different plans. Her marriage relocated her to Miami, but years later when her daughter enrolled at the Holderness School, she could feel the mountains pulling her from Miami. Elle knew she had to be closer to, and wanted to spend more time on, the mountains. This draw, along with a nudge from Dave Micalizzi, brought Elle to

NEDS six seasons ago, with only a one season hiatus as a result of a double foot fracture. Living in Miami brings it’s own challenges to Elle being a ski coach...this is why we might only see Elle on particular weeks around the Harney Center.“It’s the students and the group of coaches that keep bringing me back”, remarks Elle. “I get more than I could ever give.” She added, “I can take those special teaching moments that I experience at NEDS home to my own kids, and through my students, I have learned what is true gratitude.”When asked about what she would tell people who are interested in becoming a NEDS coach she replied, “They recognize immediately that the idea is great, but I let them know the idea is never as great as the actual experience.” She also recommends “take tons of clinics, even if the topic is something you don’t know much

about...stretch yourself to learn about different modules and things unfamiliar to you.”The last, and most remarkable comment from Elle is, “I care for, and feed my own family, but coaching for NEDS is the ONE thing that I do to feed myself.”The entire NEDS organization is in awe of Elle’s commitment. We thank you, Elle, for your incredible dedication.

2015 NEDS COACHES ORIENTATIONAnthony Robles was the honored guest speaker at the 2015 NEDS Volunteer Coach Orientation. The recipient of the 2011 Jimmy V Award at the ESPY's, Anthony has inspired thousands of people through his determination and skills in the sport of wrestling. Born without a leg and undeterred by his disability, Anthony rose to the top of his game by winning the NCAA National Wrestling Championships in 2011, competing against only able bodied athletes throughout his stellar career. Anthony’s motivating talk was but a small segment of two days of intense training, undertaken by “the heart” of the New England Disabled Sports organization, our 261 volunteer coaches. Coaches Orientation weekend each year leads off five days of required training for the individuals who work with our student-athletes to “break barriers” all winter. Thank you Anthony for sharing your inspirational story with our NEDS community and showing us the success one can have when they focus on their ability not their disability.

THE COACH FROM A CONTRASTING WORLDIN THIS ISSUE

2015 NEDS Orientation

The Coach from A Contrasting World

Snow Sports Desk

Fundraising Explosion

The 411 from the Executive Director

Celtic Great to Host Winter Challenge Dinner

Physics of Skiing

Student Highlight

Bretton Woods Hosts the Diana Golden & Mills

Cup Race Series

See What Our Families Are Saying

“The Three Sally’s” with Anthony

Logan Anketell with Anthony

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

Through “Peer to Peer” fundraising initiated this year and spearheaded by our amazing NEDS interns, we are achieving fundraising goals which will take our organization to new heights. Join our fundraising challenge & help us achieve record-breaking goals!

DISABLED SKIING HALL OF FAME

You may have noticed that the Hall of Fame wall in the Harney Center has been rather bare lately. The national office of Disabled Sports USA has granted money to bring the Hall of Fame into the 21st century. With the help of several NEDS volunteers and friends that process is nearly complete! Please join us at the Harney Adaptive Center on Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 5:00pm to celebrate the 2014 Hall of Fame inductees, Candace Cable and Katherine Rodrigues. Pizza and salad to follow!We will also pay tribute to our very own Tom Trevithick, the 2014 recipient of the Jim Winthers Memorial Award. And, with luck, the new Hall of Fame will be ready for its unveiling at that time.Hope to see you there.

BE HAPPY!

HAPPY ADJECTIVE[ ‘hapē ] feeling or showing pleasure or contentment: “Melissa came in looking happy and excited”

Don’t miss the new NEDS website...be sure to go to www.nedisabledsports.org and check it out. Our Happy message is the central theme and our website’s message of BE....JOIN...CREATE...HAPPY is already drawing donations from first-time supporters who see it and like our story. Be sure to check it out & let us know what you think.

FUNDRAISING EXPLOSION!This year’s Winter Challenge fundraising goal is an unprecedented $305,000! And, four weeks into a nine week fundraising program we are more than 43% of the way to achieving our goal. To date so far, 84 of our volunteer coaches are actively fundraising and have exceeded $132,000 in donations!! It’s not too late to get involved...it’s easy, secure, rewarding and it gives you the opportunity to educate your friends and family on the NEDS story and help CREATE HAPPY! Contact Andrea, Caitlin, Cam, Kaliee, Lindsay or Risa, our very talented and motivated NEDS interns for help getting your fundraising page set up and help you share your message to friends and family through emails and social media.

SNOW SPORTS DESK Ryan Latham, Sports Programming DirectorIt has been a busy 2014/15 season marked with TONS of snow! This season we are seeing growth in our lesson numbers, which is a true testament to the dedication of our volunteer coaches and the quality of lessons. Our diverse group of students come from all over the world to spend time with, and to learn from, our dedicated coaches.Speaking of dedicated coaches...

DID YOU KNOW THAT MANY OF OUR COACHES HAVE STUDIED, WORKED AND ACHIEVED THEIR LEVEL I PSIA THIS YEAR ALONG WITH OTHERS ACHIEVING THEIR LEVEL II PSIA?

Special congratulations go out this season to Chris Baylow, Sally Elshout and Melisa Myles who earned their Mono- and Bi-ski Level I certifications; and, to Mike Kneeland, Harrison Keyes, Sue Ross, Tom O’Donnell and Diane McMorrow who achieved Children’s Specialist I certifications from PSIA.

We applaud everyone’s training efforts and achievements because this only strengthens and improves our NEDS community of volunteer coaches and the organization’s reputation as one of the premiere adaptive snowsports schools in the region. KUDOS to ALL!

Friends:

We hope you enjoy the inaugural edition of The NEDS Edge, the successor to the legacy of The Blue Room News. We updated the name to reflect our ever-growing organization, including donors, sponsors, and, especially, the addition of our students and coaches at NEDS Bretton Woods. But, we would be remiss not to acknowledge and send accolades and appreciation to Heather Krill who wrote and edited The Blue Room News for many years. We hope to publish The Edge three times during the ski season and every three months in the off-season. Please feel free to send comments and suggestions for future editions to any member of the NEDS staff.

We’ve seen record-breaking numbers in lessons taught this year over last, at both our Loon and Bretton Woods venues, which speaks volumes about the dedication of our volunteer coaches and our extraordinary staff. This week, NEDS at Bretton Woods will match last year’s number of lessons – with six weeks to go in the ski season. Congratulations to Nicole Marx, Associate Sports Program Director and our dedicated NEDS at Bretton Woods volunteer coaches. At Loon, student lessons are up more than 8% over last year...KUDOS to our entire community, you should all be very proud of your commitment to “touching more lives.”

This has been an eventful winter season to say the least...we’ve seen many changes at NEDS: new staff, physical changes, some important policy changes and, most impactful, changes in the required commitment level for volunteer coaches at Loon Mountain. Our partners at Loon have rightfully requested strict, verified, records from our administrative staff to validate those volunteer coaches who earn benefits. To be eligible for a pass this winter season, and in the future, coaches must teach 17 full days, in addition to the five days of training as required by NEDS. Also, upon achieving five teaching days, a volunteer with benefits can request a voucher from Terry MacDonald, Director of Administration who, in turn, requests it from the Loon Mountain staff, after providing the required verification paperwork to the mountain’s administrative office. Volunteers should please allow 3-5 business days for Loon to issue the voucher.

We’re proud to report that we have assigned more coaches per lesson (2.56) this season than last (2.17) and our student retention from last season is already 68% as compared to 57% all of last year. Our coaches have taught over 1,900 lessons to over 443 students. Both statistics show a substantial increases over this point last season. And, we want to thank 27 NEDS volunteer coaches based out of Loon who have taught lessons at Bretton Woods to help us address the explosive growth in adaptive lessons at that mountain. Our coaches’ commitment to both mountains allows NEDS to ‘touch more lives.’ Thank you all for the tremendous support of our NEDS at Bretton Woods team!

Also this season, students and coaches have experienced our new computerized system, designed by Salesforce.com, which allows our coaches, volunteers, students, parents and caregivers to register, schedule and pay for lessons online, dramatically reducing our famous (or, infamous) “organized chaos” on lesson days. Volunteers, parents and caregivers can update their profiles, highlight availability, and receive lesson confirmations, all in advance, on phones, tablets and computers. Administratively, for the first time in our history, the NEDS staff is managing our donor database, to help us communicate with our remarkable community of supporters.

Finally, if you haven’t already, please take part in our Peer-to-Peer fundraising efforts. It’s open to all students, their families and NEDS volunteers. Each of our six NEDS interns is assigned to a team of fundraisers, and will help you set up fundraising pages and send out your messages. The intern whose team of volunteers has the most supporters, and the one whose team raises the most donations will each be awarded a scholarship to be applied to their studies. Please help NEDS break its fundraising goal; help an intern earn an educational scholarship; educate your friends and family on the NEDS story and, help CREATE HAPPY!

As always, we have a hard time adequately expressing our thanks to the wonderful community of students, families, volunteers and supporters who help NEDS touch lives affected by disabilities every day!

THE 411 FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR...

RALPH E. NELSON, JR.EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Ralph

WELCOME NEDS INTERNSNEDS is HAPPY to welcome six new college interns to the 2015 Winter ski program...

Please extend a warm welcome to these accomplished young professionals who are working to help us fundraise, teach lessons and participate in clinics this winter season. Andrea, Caitlin, Kaliee, Lindsay and Risa are all graduate students in the Occupational Therapy program at the University of New Hampshire and will be continuing their education at NEDS through the tutelage of Rina Drake, Barb White, Kaitlyn Smith and MacKenzie Ewing. Cam Rodrigues, is our administrative intern from Plymouth State where he is a senior in their Sports Management program.

Andrea Blodgett Caitlin HubbardCam Rodrigues

Kaliee CollinsLindsay St. CyrRisa LaPera

CELTIC GREAT M.L. CARR TO HOST WINTER CHALLENGE DINNER MARCH 14, 2015 NEDS is excited to announce that two-time NBA Champion, former Celtic player and coach, M.L. Carr will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the 26th Annual Kostick Kup Race and Winter Challenge Dinner. M.L. will be step-ping in for long-time emcee, Andy Novick, who, sadly, has a personal conflict preventing his attendance this year. Under the ‘big top’ tent, we will have amazing auction items, cocktails and a delicious dinner by our sponsor The Common Man, DJ and dancing, awards and fun for the whole family.Our heartfelt thanks to Bob Brait of Brait Builders who has graciously and supportively offered a heating system that will keep our winter tent toasty warm this year along with an insulated flooring to ensure there will be no cold feet! THANK YOU BOB BRAIT!And our thanks to Peg & Rick Golden who secured our very special guest to lead the program and lend his celebrity to help us earn big money for our special large item auction. Don’t miss out on the family fun this special night offers the NEDS community. Be sure to go online at www. NEDisabledSports.org and reserve your seating today!

REGISTRATION8AM – 9:30AM

Register at the Dr. Bob Harney Sports Center at Loon Mountain

KOSTICK KUP RACE 10AM

DINNER AND AWARDS CEREMONY AT THE WHALE’S

TALE WATER PARK5PM

HELP THE CAUSE...Many of our volunteers have friends and businesses they frequent who might be interested in donating a gift card or item to our silent auction table. We appreciate any silent auction item or, an item we can package with other donated items for the live auction. NEDS is happy to provide your vendor with a donation request letter with our tax ID number so the vendor can receive the proper documentation for tax credit. Thanks in advance to any volunteer helping us to collect donations! Auction items can easily be donated by sending an email to auction@nedisabledsports.org and a member of our staff will contact you or the vendor for details.

RUN THE RACEShred the mountain at the 26th annual Kostick Kup Race on Saturday, March 14th. The race begins at 10am and registration at the Dr. Bob Harney Adaptive Sports Center opens at 8am. Register your team of 5 (including one disabled skier) today at www.NEDisabledSports.org. Costumes or creative ski attire is encouraged and awards will be given to the most creative team, among other awards. Join the fun and enjoy a day of racing!

Brought to you by

To understand how to teach skiing, one must first understand how a ski, snowboard, or tool interacts with the snow. There are many factors to consider relevant to this interaction, including the design of the ski/snowboard, how it might be tuned, how the rider is setup on this tool, snow conditions, and many others. One thing remains the same though: how a ski/snowboard can move through space...no matter what. It doesn’t matter who is riding the tool, ability or disability, it can only move through space in finite ways: (1) the tool can tip over from side to side; (2) the tool can rotate; (3) the tool can bend from the front or back; (4) the tool can be weighted and unweighted; or (5) the tool can be twisted (intentionally or unintentionally).Knowing how the tool can move through space is important, especially when we’re trying to compare or contrast how different modalities can change how these movements can happen. For instance, if I wear skis and lean forward (into the cuffs of my boots), I might bend the front of my skis, whereas on a snowboard the same movement might result in me tipping the snowboard over. Rotational forces might be initiated for a stand up skier in the femoral socket, but a sit skier might initiate from the free spine (lumbar region).Regardless of ideal or less-than-ideal movement patterns, it is best to readily understand which joints in the body coordinate to which movements in the tool. I can bend the front of my snowboard by shortening my front leg (flexing) and extending my back leg. If I did the same exact movement on my skis, then I would be either edging (tipping my skis) or weighting one ski and unweighting the other. As an instructor, it is interesting to note that some movements are more readily accessed by different tools. For instance, in a snowboard, it is very easy to do edge to edge movements (tipping). It is so easy, in fact, that many people may tip themselves all the way over into a fall. The same movement pattern on skis would allow one to leverage on the fronts/backs of their boots and they would remain standing. As an instructor, it is important to identify these movement patterns and to be able to select the tool that will accentuate the positive movements of the athlete you are teaching.This is why it is essential to understand, as an instructor, which piece(s) of equipment you are selecting and understanding what movements, and from w h ere the strengths are in the body that are most effective for the piece of equipment. As an example, a person who can tip their head from side to side may affect turn shape by tipping a bi-ski, but the same isolated movement may have no affect for a mono-ski.

The Clinician:One of the hardest skills in a adaptive coaching is the ability to be able to train peers in the skills, techniques, and knowledge required to teach individuals living with disabilities. Our clinicians are those coaches who have mastered much of the skill set required. Additionally, NEDS clinicians have committed to challenging themselves to continually refine their personal skills as they pertain to skiing/riding, teaching, and leading groups.One observation is that of our clinician’s absolute dedication and attention to detail in providing the best adaptive training to our general coaching community. Our NEDS training program is something for which we can be proud as an organization and, training will only improve with your feedback to clinicians throughout the season. I have also noticed the direct correlation between the skills presented in clinics and those applied to our student’s lessons; this has directly resulted in our students having more productive and fun lessons. As we continue to grow as individual coaches, I challenge all of our coaches to keep learning and actively participate in clinics as one way to develop their skills to coach our students.

PHYSICS OF SKIINGRyan Latham, Sports Programming Director

On January 24th, New England Disabled Sports (NEDS) at Bretton Woods, in partnership with Maine Adaptive, hosted the Diana Golden & Mills Cup Race Series. This race is an entry level race for people living with physical and intellectual disabilities sponsored by DSUSA and NASTAR. We were proud to welcome 18 racers from around the country, four of whom represented NEDS, competing in the Diana Golden and Mills Cup series categories.More than 50 people attended the event participating and cheering on the racers. All four NEDS racers competing in the event took home medals, making their families and the NEDS community very proud.. Our NEDS racers were... Vince Skelton 4 Tracker Youth; awarded a Gold medal Beck SchutteVisually Impaired Youth; awarded a Gold medal Peter KellerStand up Adult; awarded a Silver medal

Ian Clemence-Schreiner Mills Cup Adult; awarded a Silver medalBeck Schutte shared how he felt about the day saying, “I’ve learned a lot about Diana Golden...she was a kind person and fierce competitor. She showed everyone that you can pursue your passion regardless of your disability. That’s what I’m all about. It was a great day and I loved the feeling after the race.”Congratulations Vince, Beck, Peter and Ian on races well run!Diana Golden was an American disabled ski racer who after losing a leg to cancer at age 12, went on to win ten World and 19 United States championships between 1986 and 1990 as a three-tracker or one legged skier. Golden also won an Olympic gold medal in giant slalom at the 1988 Calgary Games, where disabled skiing was a demonstration sport. She participated in alpine skiing at two Winter Paralympic Games, in 1980 and 1988, winning two gold medals in 1988. After retiring from skiing, her cancer returned in 1992 and 1996, with her last bout of cancer resulting in her death in 2001. The Diana Golden and Mills Cup Race is in her honor.

BRETTON WOODS HOSTS DIANA GOLDEN & MILLS CUP RACE SERIES

January 16, 2015

Dear Nicole and NEDS Team,

Thank you for making our skiing experience such an enjoyable one. Our sons Adam and Sean both skied in the Disabled Ski School Program during the Christmas/New Year’s break. Each of our boys has a diagnosis of Charcot Marie Tooth Disease (CMT) which is a neuromuscular disease that affects their extremities. CMT causes muscle weakness, foot dropping, and atrophy of muscles in their extremities.

The staff at Bretton Woods were absolutely amazing with our children! They were friendly, excited, energetic and so positive with the boys. We were lucky to spend our four days with the same staff of volunteers and could not have been happier.

Our son Adam worked with Mike, Eric and Tom. Each of these men really took the time to work on skills with Adam to make him a better skier! There was also one other man that we could not remember his name. We call him the gray beard man – he was fabulous with Adam as well! Adam began his lessons with fair skills and left a much better skier!

Our son Sean is more affected by the CMT. His skills were not as good going into his lessons. He is also a child that is easily frustrated by difficult challenges and is more likely to give up when tasks are difficult. His instructors Jerry, Debbie, and Vinny were just the absolute perfect fit for our Sean. They made his experience positive and he moved from skiing with an assistive device to skiing alongside his instructors. He never complained once and looked forward each day to going back!

Jerry, a retired army veteran, really made a lasting impression on our son Sean! He was curious of Jerry’s prosthetic arms and he answered any and all questions Sean had for him! Sean and I talked about Jerry’s challenges and how he did not let them stand in his way of doing the activities that he loves. It was a great lesson for Sean to experience firsthand!

Teacher Deb was also a great match for Sean. Her experience of working in the public school with young children with disabilities was evident in her demeanor. She was so happy and positive with Sean and truly made his experience a great one!

As a person with a disability myself (Laurie – I also have CMT), I can truly appreciate the efforts of the entire teaching staff and program! Thank you for helping our children to have such a positive, self-esteem building experience!

Sincerely,

Laurie and Chris Palermo

Congratulations Nicole and the NEDS Bretton Woods Team for creating HAPPY for two young boys living with CMT!!!

SEE WHAT OUR STUDENTS FAMILIES ARE SAYING...

STUDENT HIGHLIGHTDan Dowd

Over the years, Dan has been one of our active NEDS coaches; however, in recent years, Dan developed a visual impairment requiring him to have trained guides accompany him when skiing. Early in the season, Dan, an accomplished ski enthusiast, called the office looking for as many guides as possible to assist him skiing throughout the season. While identifying “guide” coaches for Dan, many have remarked, “that guy skis fast.”

As it turned out, we had no problem identifying guides to meet his advanced skill level and speed. Every day this season when we schedule lessons, Dan is there expressing just how great our NEDS coaches are and raving about his ski guides. Our thanks and appreciation to the dedication of Rina, Hans, George, Hal, Peter, Bob, Dave, our interns, and many other volunteer coaches for helping Dan and other students achieve their personal goals on the slopes. Our volunteers represent the true essence of who we are and what we do at NEDS.

NEW ENGLAND DISABLED SPORTS & LOON MOUNTAIN TO HOST

2015 US PARALYMPIC ALPINE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AND IPCAS RACESNew England Disabled Sports and Loon Mountain will be hosting the 2015 US Paralympic Alpine Skiing National Championships and International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing North America Races for the Slalom and Giant Slalom events. Top racers from throughout the United States will descend on Loon from March 22nd though March 26th for four days of Paralympic-caliber alpine racing. The schedule is as follows:

• March 22 – Training Day• March 23 – NORAM GS (first run start time 9:30 a.m.)• March 24 – NORAM SL• March 25 – U.S. Paralympic GS Championships• March 26 – U.S. Paralympic SL Championships

The U.S. Paralympic ski team includes a number of racers from New England, all of who are expected to compete at Loon. Tyler Walker (Franconia, NH) has competed in three Winter Olympics; last season he finished first in three World Cup disciplines. Laurie Stephens (Wenham, MA) won two bronze medals at Sochi, and finished second overall in the women’s sitting World Cup standings last season. Chris Devlin-Young (Campton, NH) has represented the U.S. as a Paralympian since 1989, and is a gold medal-winning Olympian. These athletes and other New Englanders will compete at Loon the last week of March.

CONGRATULATIONS 2015 PAC MEMBERS:Like years past, the 2015 winter season brings to NEDS a group of 25 exceptional high school age students as our new class of Pre Adaptive Coaches (PAC), under the leadership of the founder and director Fred Law. After a rigorous interview process pre-ski season, six (6) new inductees joined the ranks of this prestigious group:

Congratulations to the class of 2015 PAC members! Each of you are remarkable, hard working, dedicated, passionate and committed to the NEDS mission and we would not be the same organization with YOU!

James BrooksEmily ClarkPatrick Jennings

Shona McMorrowAiden O’LaughlinPatrick Stevenson