My Nonprofit Reviews
Gregory Merena
Review for Adaptive Sports Foundation Inc, Windham, NY, USA
The commitment and generosity of the staff and other volunteers at ASF is truly outstanding. Seeing and being a part of what they provide has personally inspired me. Since 2004 up through this past season, I have been a full time ski instructor at Mountain Creek resort in New Jersey and a volunteer adaptive ski instructor at Adaptive Sports Foundation at Windham. Were it not for the excellence of their training and experience matching instructors to students, I would never have had the knowledge and confidence to obtain my Adaptive Level II pin from PSIA. I volunteer midweek most of the year, working at Mountain Creek on the weekends. There are however, two weekends that I normally schedule myself to be at Windham, the Wounded Warrior Program - Support Our Troops Weekend and the Hartman Race. There are too many great memories to choose from to tell in detail here. Among them are: -- providing a safe new adventure for a student who is autistic, blind and non-verbal, --allowing children with various degrees of Developmental Dissability to play and find untold confidence and independace and JOY... (the thank-you cards from them hung on my locker at Mountian Creek for the rest of the season), --teaching the aunt, or teaching the wife of a wounded soldier providing a shared experience of, and witness to the transformitive experience of their love one. --sharing the beauty of the mountain and all the true freedom skiing provides with a veteran overcoming TBI\PTSD. --the JOY of the entire community present at the Hartford Race!!! What is consistantly provided at the Adaptive Sports Foundation is beyond description. The biggest (and only real) lament or problem is that they can not\ do not pay their instructors beyond complimentary lift tickets and a generous discount on food and ski shop products. If I were offered even a mimimal salary, I would do this full time. Because of the overall cost of Adaptive Ski Instruction, most programs in the country DO NOT PAY their instructors. As of yet, the nature of this work is such that few people can make a living doing this work alone. As a result many of the weekday volunteers are retired individuals or people who have the time and flexibility from their job to do this. The challenge to ASF, as well as other Adaptive Ski Programs is to recruit, maintain and train instructors. ASF does this exceptionally well! The Adaptive Sports Foundation manages to consistantly make the most efficient use of its budget. Generosity for the students Abounds in the decision making. Rest assure that anything you give to this organization will make an overwhelming difference to the students who come to their winter program.
More Feedback
I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
Inspired by what goes on there, I successfully gained a high level of certification in the field, Adaptive Level II, and I will probably spend the rest of my days doing this work. I want to take the good that goes on their and bring it to wherever I am.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
I would offer more paid opportunities to others like me who could then spend more time teaching. If there was enough income, it would be great to recruit and train physical therapist, occupational thereapist, special ed teachers, etc, people who normaly work with those in the adaptive world, and allow them to see this work as a viable supplement to their other employment... MORE WEEKDAY LESSONS could then be offered to students.
