U.S. Paralympics and Wintergreen Adaptive Sports Announce Partnership

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WAS welcomes people with any disability, but our new partnership with U.S. Paralympics will help us focus on our mission for people with physical and visual disabilities.

Wintergreen, VA (PRWEB) December 22, 2011

U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Wintergreen Adaptive Sports (WAS) have partnered to create a new organization, Paralympic Sport – Wintergreen.

Paralympic Sport – Wintergreen is a community-based sports club developed to involve youth and adults with physical and visual disabilities in ongoing sports and physical activity, regardless of skill level. All programs and activities will be based in and around Wintergreen Resort and run by Wintergreen Adaptive Sports.

“U.S. Paralympics is dedicated to creating opportunities for individuals with physical and visual disabilities to be physically active in their own communities. Participation in physical activity enhances not only self-esteem and peer relationships, but also results in greater achievement, better overall health and higher quality of life,” said Mike Mushett, U.S. Paralympics Director of Community Programs.

With 21 million Americans living with a physical or visual disability, including thousands of military personnel who've been severely injured while on active duty, this is an important community need.

The mission of Wintergreen Adaptive Skiing is to establish, operate, and maintain recreational programs that encourage children, teenagers, and adults with disabilities to learn to snow sports in the winter and paddle sports in the summer. The program provides standard and adaptive equipment, as well as trained volunteer instructors. Outdoor recreation and sports offers individuals with disabilities profound therapeutic benefits, including increased physical vitality and stamina, as well as important improvements in overall mental and emotional health.

“At WAS our mantra is ‘all we see is possibility.’ We help our students see that their disabilities are not obstacles; that they represent new possibilities yet to be discovered. WAS welcomes people with any disability, but our new partnership with U.S. Paralympics will help us focus on our mission for people with physical and visual disabilities. The new partnership will be an important addition to our existing programs for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities,” said Tom Brown, WAS Executive Director.

U.S. Paralympics is committed to working with community organizations like Wintergreen Adaptive Sports across the United States to create 250 Paralympic Sport Clubs by 2012.

For more information about Wintergreen Adaptive Sports, please contact Tom Brown, (434) 989-2814 or ExecutiveDirector(dot)WAS(at)gmail(dot)com.

For more information about U.S. Paralympics, please contact Susan Katz, (719) 866-2068 or susan(dot)katz(at)usoc(dot)org.

About U.S. Paralympics:
U.S. Paralympics, a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is dedicated to becoming the world leader in the Paralympic sports movement and to promoting excellence in the lives of persons with physical disabilities. Visit the U.S. Paralympics website at http://www.usparalympics.org.

About Wintergreen Adaptive Sports:
Over the organization’s seventeen-year history WAS has given thousands of ski, snowboard, and kayaking lessons through its all-volunteer instructors. Lessons are offered to any person of any age with any disability. Lessons are offered at an affordable price and a scholarship program ensures that no one is turned away due to an inability to pay.

In 2004 WAS became one of the first adaptive snow sports programs to offer a ski weekend specifically for injured warriors. This has become an annual event with the eighth event to be held January 20-22, 2012. WAS is expanding its work with military service members by creating the Disabled Sports Project for Injured Warriors. The project will offer to qualified wounded warriors free mid-week snow sports instruction, free ski racing coaching, free snow sports weekend, free weekend of kayaking, and free participation in our golf events. Visit http://www.skiwas.org.

The region served by WAS includes the entire mid-Atlantic area of the United States, particularly the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., Richmond, Va., Raleigh-Durham, NC, and many of the smaller cities and rural communities within 150 miles of Wintergreen Ski Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Though independent from Wintergreen Resort itself, WAS operates with the full support of Wintergreen’s management and community.

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