Unnecessary Constraints

To the Editor:

The definition of community is people helping other people and when that happens, everyone wins. Community is the antithesis of bureaucracy, where people make things more complicated, add layers of cost and waste, and don’t bring any value to the table. Leaps of Faith is community at work.

I have been a volunteer with the Leaps of Faith Water Ski Club since I was a sophomore in high school in 2002 and have loved every minute of it. After finishing college in May 2008, I moved to Georgia to begin my master’s program, and I still look forward to being able to come home to stay with my family and volunteer with Leaps of Faith during the summer. The skiers who come to the clinics are so full of life and eager to learn and have fun that you leave one clinic already excited for the next one. What could be more life affirming than surrounding yourself with people who have courageously faced their disability head-on? Imagine the tremendous courage and trust that is required for someone to jump into water that they can’t see, hold onto a long rope that they can’t see, and wait to feel tugs on the rope that tell them to move back to the center of the wake because a boat is coming by, or that they can go back out of the wake because the path is clear. Everyone who participates in the Leaps of Faith clinics walks away learning about courage, about facing fears, and about the gift that comes from working hard and trusting in others who are trustworthy.

Leaps of Faith is not an organization that has excess funds. They are a nonprofit organization, meaning that unnecessary and unfair costs directly take funds away from the activities and services they are able to provide for the disabled skiers. Requiring LZA [Lake Zoar Authority] officials and police officers to be present during clinics at an exorbitant cost means even fewer clinics for the skiers and fewer opportunities for our own community to grow. Please remove these unnecessary bureaucratic constraints so that Leaps of Faith can continue to offer clinics and perhaps even expand their program. Leaps of Faith has such an incredible impact on everyone involved, as well as the community at large, that we need to support their efforts to improve others lives rather than require them to jump through hoops and pay fees for unnecessary services.

Sarah Saint

90 Sylvan Crest Drive, Southbury                          November 5, 2008