Every other week on NHPR, we highlight a local nonprofit that’s providing a great service, right here in the Granite State. On this episode of Give Back New Hampshire, we hear from the New England Healing Sports Association.
First established in 1972, NEHSA serves individuals and families through adaptive sports, promoting healing and accomplishment.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Carly Bascom: My name is Carly Bascom. I’m the executive director for New England Healing Sports Association.
Kelly Allen: And my name is Kelly Allen, and I’m the program coordinator here at NEHSA.
Carly Bascom: We are a nonprofit, adaptive sports organization that helps serve individuals with disabilities and getting them out and involved in sports and recreation. We do year round programing. In the winter months, our biggest program is our ski and snowboard programing. We also have snowshoeing during the winter and then once it gets a little bit warmer, we’ve got adaptive hiking, kayaking and paddle boarding.
Carly Bascom: One of the big things with our organization is that we serve people through our volunteer base. We have a huge volunteer base. Right now, we’re at just over 200 active volunteers within the organization. So anybody that comes to participate in our organization, the volunteers are really the folks that are getting them out, getting them active and and giving them the instruction in whatever activity is, is being held.
Mike Moran: My name is Mike Moran. I’m a U.S. Air Force veteran, disabled veteran. I volunteer at NEHSA. I discovered this program in 2015, as a disabled veteran, through the winter sports program that happens here at Mount Sunapee, through the Boston VA Health Care System and NEHSA. I got let off at the hill here, looked at the hill, and I’m like “there’s no way I’m going to do this.” By the end of the week, I was on the hill skiing, and a few years into learning how to ski with NEHSA, I was asked if I would put a package together to be a board member with them, and I submitted my package and was accepted.
Carly Bascom: We’re a nonprofit organization, so one of our biggest challenges and one challenge that’s common across the board for nonprofits is funds, you know. We operate on a shoestring budget, we’re always looking at new ways of fundraising and engaging new donors at writing grants, and making sure that we are able to pay the bills and also offer these experiences at a very low cost to our athletes.
For folks with disabilities, there are a lot of medical expenses that are involved just in their everyday lives. And so one thing that’s important to us here at NEHSA is that we can alleviate some of that financial burden. We do have a cost for our programs, but we try to keep our costs, our prices, very low so that it’s not a financial burden for the athletes that come and participate in our programs.
Kelly Allen: Every day is a triumph here. I mean, every day you come in and there’s different stories walking in and out of that door.
Carly Bascom: I started as an intern here, and I fell in love with the mission of the organization, but also that the people that are drawn in to come to NEHSA. I feel so lucky that I get to come to work and have fun every day, enjoy my job and bring so many meaningful experiences to folks with disabilities.
Kelly Allen: I was actually 2016 representative of the US at the Paralympic Games over in Rio, and I was a sprint kayak racer. One day I just kind of realized this was my main goal. This was my gold medal finding NEHSA and this is my dream job.
Mike Moran: The smiles on everybody’s faces that come through the door to take part in this program. Whether you’re a student athlete or a volunteer, the perma-grin is what I call it is in effect throughout this whole program any time of the year, rain or snow. If the weather is inclement, we still have fun. We find ways of having fun, and once you’re around a group of like minded people, it’s very easy to get things done. And this is a group of like minded people.
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