For two Marbleheaders, their involvement in New England Disabled Sports blends three loves: coaching, especially of children; working with folks who have disabilities, and hitting ski slopes whenever possible.
Friends Chris Williams and Chris Baylow trekked every weekend over the winter up to Loon Mountain in Lincoln, N.H., to serve as volunteer coaches for people with cognitive and physical disabilities in the New England Disabled Sports winter alpine skiing program.
“If you look at the students or athletes that participate, it ranges from kids through adults, all ages and walks of life, with a wide range of disabilities,” Baylow explained.
The mission of New England Disabled Sports is a simple one: “Through sports, change lives affected by disabilities.”
The nationally recognized, 25-year-old nonprofit provides year-round adaptive sports, including cycling, archery, waterskiing, sailing, shooting, golfing and scuba diving. But during winter, alpine skiing is its mainstay.
Williams touted NEDS’ status among other nonprofits affiliated with Disabled Sports USA, saying it’s “the marquee chapter.”
“As far as volume is concerned, it’s the largest program,” Williams said. “We have over 200 volunteers, of which I would say 50 percent are Professional Ski Instructors of America certified, who all contribute on average 240 to 300 hours and do 3,000 lessons a ski lessons a season.”
Williams has been skiing since the age of 3. He worked as a member of Loon Mountain’s ski patrol team “some odd years ago” and just finished up his eighth season as a ski coach with NEDS.
In its alpine skiing program, NEDS makes available to participants highly specialized equipment, including mono, bi and sit skis, out of its Dr. Robert Harney Adaptive Sports Center at Loon Mountain.
“If you were to come on a typical Saturday, you would see anything from a student that’s skiing on skis, like we do, to someone with cerebral palsy who’s in a sit ski, to an amputee on a mono ski, to an instructor guiding someone who’s visually impaired,” Baylow said. “That’s a typical weekend. That’s what you’re going to see.”
As Williams put it, “You may have someone who doesn’t walk or talk, but at the end of the day, the whole point is you went out to ski and enjoyed the thrills of being on the snow together.”
Williams, who is a barber at Marblehead’s Silver Shears on Bessom Street, informed Baylow about NEDS while giving him haircut and subsequently introduced his family to skiing four years ago.
“None of us skied before this,” Baylow said. “We were just looking for our family, and this is something everybody in the family can do together. There is nothing better than having family come off the mountain after a day of skiing.”
Page 2 of 2 – One thing led to the next, and one of Baylow’s family members enrolled in the winter ski program. He was so impressed that, two years later, he became a coach, wanting to give back what the sports program had given his family member.
Just as Williams helped his family, Baylow was instrumental in securing a grant in 2013 from Bell Insurance Foundation to cover a Marblehead family’s participation in a three-day symposium, called “Sports for Life.”
“It’s for a student who’s never been on the snow before to get on the snow,” Baylow said. “The grant pays for the lodging for the family, the lessons, coaching, a lift ticket — all cost free, so it’s meant to get people involved in the program.”
Speaking as coaches, both shared their fondness for seeing the transformation their students go through when they hit the slopes, calling Loon Mountain the “great equalizer.”
“When you put someone on a mountain who faces so many obstacles in their life, then they get on the snow and can go anywhere an able-bodied person can go after you’ve taught them… You can’t put a price tag on that,” Williams said.