Abilities And Then Some

by Debra Hart

Sixteen years ago, Meeche White might have scoffed at the idea that her start-up sports and recreation program for mobility challenged people might be linked with the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games. But then, with her almost anything is possible.

This year, both games will take place in the backyard of White’s National Ability Center (NAC) in Park City, Utah (pop. 7,371), and volunteers from the center have been selected to help spectators with disabilities at various events during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Ten days after the Olympics close, White and the NAC staff will work with the VIII Paralympic Winter Games, also in Salt Lake City, helping coordinate the Journey of Fire (Paralympic version of the Olympic torch run), when it passes through Park City, and hosting a welcome party for the athletes at NAC’s indoor arena. Up to 1,100 athletes and officials from 35 countries are expected for the Paralympic Games.

“We are excited to be involved with both events,” says White, who holds a degree in therapeutic recreation. “With the Paralym-pics, we’re really looking forward to seeing the world’s finest disabled athletes in competition.”

The idea behind all this was sketched out on a kitchen table in 1985 between White and a close friend—a former member of the U.S. Disabled Ski Team whom she met while teaching skiing for the disabled in Colorado in the early 1980s. The two wanted to offer sports and recreational opportunities to others with disabilities, in part to help foster self-esteem in those people. During its first winter, the center provided 45 skiing lessons. Last year more than 3,500 participants took part in more than 10,000 lessons in alpine and cross-country skiing, river rafting, camping, horseback riding, swimming, water skiing, and more.

The NAC’s recreational center and ranch is on 26 acres outside of Park City—a plot donated to the group in 1996. Its facilities include indoor and outdoor riding arenas, stables, a universal challenge course, a dormitory building, and a program services building that includes a 25-foot indoor climbing wall. White’s nonprofit organization is supported through special event fund-raisers, grants from private corporations and foundations, individual donations, and individual program fees.

One memorable turning point for White and her mission occurred on Christmas Eve 1989, when James Nebeker, a young paraplegic in his 20s, went skiing with his family. Following the experience, White recalls, “It made me feel so excited to see our efforts make a difference. I said, ‘Thanks, you’ve made my day!’ James replied, ‘No, thank you, you’ve made my life!’”

Chad Dunn came to the center after losing a leg to cancer at age 14. With NAC’s efforts, he and his family rafted through the Grand Canyon. “The National Ability Center is a place where people accepted me for who I am,” Dunn says, “a place where I could be me.”

Mike and Shawna Robb first joined NAC’s programs when their daughter, Jayci, was only 4 years old. “At that time she had never walked independently,” says Shawna. “Within weeks of being in the horseback riding program, she started taking her first steps. We’ll always be grateful to the center and its volunteers for helping our daughter overcome her greatest challenge—walking.”

Today, Jayci is 14 and a part-time worker in the NAC office. “You can be yourself here and not feel out of place because you have a disability,” she says. “Their slogan is, ‘If I can do this, I can do anything.’ They help you believe in that by helping you set and reach your goals.”

White strives to have participants believe that they are valuable people who can open their own doors to possibilities. “Seeing the change in our participants, seeing their smiles, their parents’ smiles and pride is what keeps me going.”

Debra Hart is a freelance writer from Eagle Mountain, Utah.

first appeared: 1/27/2002