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Taking the Kids: When someone in the family has special challenges

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on

WINTER PARK, CO -- Shannan Williams was born into an outdoors-loving Colorado family. The fact that she has cerebral palsy, is confined to a wheelchair and has trouble using her hands wasn't going to keep her from an active life skiing, scuba-diving and rock-climbing, not to mention graduating from college.

"How could I not? My parents got married at the top of a ski mountain," says Shannan, who is 24 and has been skiing since she was a young child thanks to The National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) in Winter Park, Colorado. In its 46th year, NSCD has made such winter and summer adventures possible for thousands of adults and kids with disabilities and their families, some of whom travel from as far away as New Zealand and Japan to participate, as well as from all 50 states.

"Just being outside makes you energized," Shannan said. "It's so freeing to be here." She notes that unlike her "real" life where her mobility device -- a wheelchair -- sets her apart, here everyone needs some sort of special equipment to get down the mountain -- skis, snowboard, snowmobile.

But such adaptive sports programs are about much more than the activities themselves, says Kirk Bauer, the executive director of Disabled Sports USA, which has some 124 chapters across 42 states, including 75 at ski resorts like the NSCD, the largest and oldest program of its kind in the country. There are winter and summer programs in Park City, Utah at the National Ability Center, including camps for children and teens on the autism spectrum, in Crested Butte, Colorado at the Adaptive Sports Centerand Breckenridge, Colorado, at the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center where my daughters volunteered when they were college students, in Vermont and at neighboring Steamboat, Colorado, the STARS program inspired by the one at Winter Park.

The NSCD has programs in Denver as well, including canoe, kayak and whitewater sessions, programs for vets and special-ability clinics sponsored by Denver pro teams.

"These programs help people to believe in themselves again," said Bauer, himself a disabled veteran. "They propel rehabilitation and recharge families who can again share experiences."

 

Indeed, Shannan's mom, Julie Allen, is convinced the programs here gave Shannan the confidence and gumption to learn to scuba dive with more than 100 dives to her credit and to know that she could succeed at college. "She can't walk, but that doesn't define her," Allen said. "This program has meant everything."

That's thanks to committed staff, trained volunteers and adaptive equipment that enable even the most severely disabled kids and adults to kayak, snowboard, rock climb, horseback ride, cycle and sail. There are opportunities to try 30 different sports around the country, Bauer said. The basics can be learned in just one day with the right equipment and instructors.

Still, "I don't think people know all of the different types of programs we offer," said Becky Zimmermann, the president and CEO of the NSCD, noting that no one is turned away; NSCD subsidizes 85 percent of the cost of the programs.

Too many people, adds Bauer, think these programs are only meant for elite athletes heading to the Paralympics. "You don't have to be what we call a "super gimp," to participate," he said. "That's only one percent of who we serve."

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