Ski Club For Disabled Celebrates Its Volunteers

By Kendra Bobowick

“Have you ever done any public speaking?” wondered Joel Zeisler, Leaps of Faith Disabled Waterski Club president as he sat on the stage in the Alexandria Room and gripped the microphone. Soon he crossed his legs and relaxed. Breathing deeply, he moved on to a conversation about the volunteers who assist at his summer ski clinics, noting their efforts at a recognition dinner on March 14.

Soon he was also announcing “table six, table nine…” and a mixed crowd of volunteers, ski clinic participants, and supporters wove through the room toward the buffet. On screen behind Mr Zeisler were projected images of his volunteers, knees bent for balance alongside disabled skiers, and together momentarily setting aside a disability to float across Lake Zoar where he holds his clinics.

Earlier that night guests moved around the room to look at photos and articles about the skiers and volunteers who work together several weekends each summer. Allie Lawson, 18, is among the participants who have learned to ski. Sitting quietly amid the bursts of conversation, Allie considered a moment what the volunteers mean to her. “You’re not going to find people everyday who take time out of their summer to help,” she said. “They spend [up to] six hours each day to help others learn to ski.”

Joe Shortt has been skiing at the clinics for five years, and is thankful to the volunteers that have helped him in the past. “I am always amazed at the volunteer turn-out,” he said. He has met people who come to the Sandy Hook clinics from as far as New Jersey. Like Allie, he realizes the effort they deliver. “They’re tired [by the end of the day] but they still side-ski with us. That always impresses me.”

Mr Zeisler’s program “is one of the only sports I can participate in,” Mr Shortt said. “[Mr Zeisler] does a great job. It’s a good, fun day and something I look forward to.”

At a table with his wife Michelle and young daughters Shannon and Shayla, volunteer, instructor and at times boat driver Dan O’Donnell held his daughters on his lap. Enjoying the evening out, he later clarified his thoughts about the clinic and its participants. In an email this week he wrote, “I have never worked with a better bunch of volunteers. Each and everyone so committed to the safety, happiness, and success of every person who comes to the clinics.”

He added, “There are great volunteers that do all the hard work on shore, organizing people, directions, parking, food, etc. They never get enough credit. Then there are the on-water volunteers, who for the most part are die-hard waterskiers themselves and are so passionate about the sport.”

Mr Zeisler, however, is the number one volunteer to Mr O’Donnell. “I think it’s his commitment that sets the tone for the whole club and all the volunteers. Seeing him give so completely his own time and life to helping others inspires all of us.”

Remembering one moment that changed him personally, Mr O’Donnell told a story: “I am a regionally ranked slalom skier myself, but never had the guts to go over a six-foot-tall ski jump until Al, a blind student and instructor in the club, gave me the confidence to give it a try. When I told him that the ski jump was the one aspect of waterskiing that scared me, he said, ‘It’s easy, just close your eyes!’”

Explaining another discovery he made through the clinic, Mr O’Donnell said, “Our blind skiers are often better instructors than our seeing instructors, as they can explain the feel better than our seeing instructors. Our paraplegic and quadriplegic skiers are constantly analyzing the equipment and devising new ways to improve upon it to advance the sport.”

Creative modifications and methods are constant, he noted.

In his view, the ski club’s safety measures are intense. “It’s safety overkill times 100, but why not?”

Before the appreciation dinner on Saturday, Craig Tibbels, an Easton police officer and Department of Environmental Protection instructor, offered a class for personal water craft to a group of volunteers. Leaps of Faith also sponsored a safe boating course for 43 volunteers, skiers, and family members.

Also recently, the Leaps of Faith Waterski Club was selected to host the Wounded Warriors program sponsored by the Disabled Sports USA. Soldiers with recent combat injuries, most still outpatients from Walter Reed Hospital and Brook Medical with Gaylord Rehab Hospital, will be among the participants.