MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - “Faster. Faster. Go faster.”
Barely audible over the sound of skis carving turns on the perfectly groomed run, Mickey Jones Jr. made his wishes known while holding on as best he could to the sled racing down the slope at Whitefish Mountain Resort.
When you live your life in a wheelchair, there’s not that many opportunities to go fast.
With an ice-cold wind tugging at the edge of bare skin exposed under his goggles, Jones’ head swayed back and forth as he reveled in the speed and this newfound sense of freedom.
“Faster. Faster.”
Bob Zahller employed a mastery gained by decades of practice, making big, wide turns to accommodate his charge’s desire as he guided the custom-built sled mounted on a pair of skis. At his side, Jerry Mahugh kept the pair under a close watch as they zoomed down the mountain.
“He makes me smile,” Zahller said after sliding to a stop. “He likes to go fast.”
For the past 30 years, the two men have opened up a new world to hundreds of people with a wide variety of disabilities as volunteers with the Whitefish Mountain Resort-based Disabled Recreation Environmental Access Movement program that most people simply call DREAM.
The program’s history in the Flathead is older than the American With Disabilities Act.
Five years before that law was passed, a group of Flathead residents came together with a goal of making outdoor activities more accessible to people with disabilities. Dottie Maitland, Jane Lopp and Larry Dominick traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1985 to meet with the U.S. Access Board - an agency that promoted equality for people with disabilities.
They came home with the information they needed to begin working on projects in northwest Montana.
After being joined by Larry McMillian and Dennis Jones, the group’s first project was the development of the wheelchair-accessible “Trail of the Cedars” hiking trail in Glacier National Park. The nature trail that winds through Avalanche Gorge’s scenic hemlock is now one of the most visited in the park.
The group patterned its winter ski offering after the original DREAM program at Winter Park, Colorado, that matches a variety of adaptive equipment and trained volunteers with people with disabilities who have a desire to be outside and learn to ski.
This year, the program will offer more than 100 lessons a week from mid-December until the end of the ski season. Young people from local schools as far away as Libby typically make the trip to the mountain once a week. Many are training for the annual Special Olympics competition that occurs in March.
DREAM has also expanded its offering to include program for veterans.
None of it would be possible without a dedicated host of volunteers, said DREAM Adaptive Recreation’s executive director Emily Bertino.
“There is no DREAM without volunteers,” Bertino said. “They are an amazing group of people. Some come up four or five days a week to offer their expertise and support. . Their efforts change lives. I’ve had parents tell me they’ve seen their children gain new confidence and a willingness to try to new things after they spend time on the mountain.
“The results truly can be incredible,” she said. “Every day here is a good story.”
Phil Emery of Eureka is both a parent of one the DREAM program’s participants and one its volunteers.
“Most of these kids had never skied before,” Emery said. “They didn’t know if they could do it, but then they tried. A little bit at a time, they discovered that it was possible. That knowledge helps them grow in other parts of their lives, too.
“It gives them confidence,” Emery said. “It allows them do something the other kids are doing. They get some physical exercise and just have a great time doing it.”
His daughter, Christine, was all smiles she listened to her father talk about the program that has changed her life.
“My life is skiing,” Christine said. “I like to go down the hill fast. I really like to speed like a bullet. I will get gold. I already have a ton a medals.”
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Bob Zahller was 38 when a friend asked him if he would be interested in helping out a paraplegic race at what was then called Big Mountain.
“They told me they needed someone with a strong back and a weak mind,” Zahller said. “I guess I qualified.”
He couldn’t have guessed that day would change his life. As Zahller helped the paraplegic athletes load on the chairlift and do whatever else people asked, he began to wonder if there wasn’t something more that he could offer.
He had dabbled in cross-country skiing in the backcountry, but had never been alpine skiing before.
After learning about the fledgling DREAM program, he decided it was time.
In January, he turned 68. In the 30 years since that first day he first ventured onto the mountain, Zahller has helped hundreds of people either learn to ski or leave their wheelchair behind for a day of freedom on the mountainside. Through the winter season, he’s on the mountain about five days a week.
There have been so many good stories that it’s hard for him pick just one favorite.
But there was this young person, Stewart, with cerebral palsy who came to Big Mountain. His parents were skiers and they hoped their son could share that adventure someday.
When Stewart first started, two volunteers would stand on each side and help him down the hill as he learned to make snowplow turns with ski tips tied together.
“He had a little trouble in getting his edges to dig in at first, but eventually he got to the point where he could control things well enough,” Zahller said. “We put a lot of miles on and he learned. I can remember standing there with his mom when Stewart skied down from Chair 6 with his dad and another volunteer for the first time. She just gasped when she saw him actually skiing. I told her he’d be all right. He can only fall a few feet.
“A lot of these kids don’t think they could ever ski when they first get started,” he said. “They are afraid of anything new, but then they discover they can do it after all. It makes them feel better about themselves. A lot of them become more outgoing and personable. You get to see them change.”
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Jerry Mahugh was teaching middle school back in the mid-1980s and looking for an opportunity to ski more.
His life changed after being introduced to the DREAM program.
“It wasn’t very long at all after I first volunteered that I was hooked,” Mahugh said. “There is something extremely satisfying when you help someone do something that they never thought they would be able to do. I had a 65-year-old man start bawling when we helped him out of his wheelchair and took him up on the mountain. He never thought that would ever be possible.”
Over the years, Mahugh has watched the program open doors that many had assumed were closed to them.
One of his favorite stories started in church when he noticed a little girl who was obviously blind. He had already been working the DREAM program when he walked over to ask the parents if skiing was something they thought their daughter might enjoy.
They said yes.
Starting on the easiest part of the mountain, Mahugh would click his poles together to provide a reference point for the young girl as she learned how to make her skis turn.
“She was such a brave little girl,” Mahugh said. “The relationship of trust that we developed was phenomenal. I would try to explain something and she would tell ’Oh, I see.’ She could visualize what I asked her to do.”
Mahugh would occasionally see her after she had learned to ski zooming down the mountain.
“You would never know that she was blind,” he said. “That was 20 years ago. I still see her occasionally. She’s still skiing.”
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Both Mahugh and Zahller encourage people to volunteer.
“You don’t need to be a skier or snowboarder to help out,” Mahugh said. “There are a lot of other areas where they need volunteers. What you do need is a desire to help others. . If you do choose to help out, I can promise you one thing. You will get far more back than what you give. That’s just how it works.”
The DREAM program is working to expand its year-round adventures for the disabled that range from a paddle board day at Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald to mountain biking on one of the many local trails, said its program coordinator Julie Tickle.
“All the credit to our success goes out to the volunteers who so freely give their time,” Tickle said. “They really are the catalysts that make it all happen. There can never be too many. We would love to see some more people get involved.
“We want to do everything we can to make sure that everyone can get out and enjoy the outdoors that we all love,” she said. “We all know what it does for us. This is a wonderful way for people to make a long-lasting difference in a person’s life.”
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Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
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