ARISE - EFR
The theme of the podcast is independent living and advocacy for people with disabilities.
ARISE - EFR
ARISE & Ski: Opening the Slopes to Everyone Through Adaptive Sports
In this episode of Exceptional Talk on Disabilities, host Bruce Drake, CEO of ARISE and Exceptional Family Resources, is joined by Mary Schwanke, Senior Community Inclusion Supervisor, for an in-depth conversation about the ARISE & Ski program.
Mary shares how ARISE & Ski has been creating access to adaptive skiing and snowboarding since 1996—empowering individuals with disabilities, ages five and up, to experience winter sports in a supportive, instructional environment. The conversation explores how adaptive equipment, skilled instructors, and dedicated volunteers work together to make independence on the slopes possible, from first-time skiers to seasoned participants who eventually become volunteers themselves.
Listeners will learn about the program’s partnership with Ski CNY at Labrador Mountain, the vital role volunteers play, and why peer support and lived experience—both professional and personal—are central to ARISE-EFR’s mission. Mary also offers powerful insight into what makes ARISE & Ski special, including her favorite moment each season: seeing empty wheelchairs at the bottom of the hill.
This episode highlights how adaptive recreation isn’t just about sports—it’s about confidence, independence, community, and full-circle moments that last a lifetime.
Recorded and produced at WCNY Public Broadcasting studios.
This is the Arise Exceptional Family Resources Podcast with your host, CEO Bruce Drake.
SPEAKER_01:Hi everyone, I'm Bruce Drake, the CEO at Arise and Exceptional Family Resources, and I'm your host for today's Exceptional Talk on Disabilities. I'm really excited today to be joined by Mary Schwanke, the Senior Community Inclusion Supervisor at Arise and EFR. Welcome, Mary. Hi, Bruce. So, Mary, for the people who don't know you, uh why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into Arise uh ski program?
SPEAKER_03:Sure. So my name is Mary Schwanke. I've worked at Arise for five years. I um have overseen the inclusive uh recreation programs, my time there. I am also a sibling caregiver. That's what brings me uh my expertise to the field. And I just uh uh enjoy talking about the programs that I oversee.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. So I was I was actually gonna ask, so what is your it sounds like you have a brother or sister who has a disability and that's how you got in the field?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. So I have a sister who will be 39 tomorrow. Her name's Katrina. She has Down syndrome, and we have lived together for nine years now.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So I'd love at another podcast to kind of have maybe you and your sister and to kind of to peel that onion a little bit. Oh, sure, yes, absolutely. That sounds fantastic. And so, but we're here to talk about the Arise Ski Program.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:So why don't you tell everybody a little bit about that program?
SPEAKER_03:So Arise and Ski has been uh around since 1996. It uh started off at Toggenberg Mountain, and now we're at Labrador Mountain with the uh partnership with Ski CNY. Um it is an adaptive ski program for individuals of varying abilities to learn uh cold weather sports like skiing and snowboarding.
SPEAKER_01:So you you said a partnership with Ski CNY. I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with them. So what's Ski CNY?
SPEAKER_03:Ski CY is a ski mountain management company, and they oversee operations at Song Mountain and Labrador Mountain.
SPEAKER_01:Great. So so now when you talk about adaptive ski, really what are we talking about? Who who's in the program? Is it a recreational thing? Is it an instructional thing? Tell us all about it.
SPEAKER_03:So it's uh instructional based.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:And anyone ages five and up can participate and they will teach you how to ski and or snowboard using adaptive equipment that might be needed. It could be anyone from learning how to ski by themselves independently going down the hill, or someone who uses a wheelchair might need um help of uh sit ski, where they sit in the ski and someone um is tethered to them getting them down the mountain.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so let's so let's talk about that a little bit because I would imagine that the instructors are a vital part of this. Yes. Uh but before we get to them, the people who come to the program, what level of expertise in regards to skiing do they need?
SPEAKER_03:Aaron Powell They can be beginners.
SPEAKER_01:Um never been on a mountain before, coming for the first time. I've always wanted to do this, but I didn't know how.
SPEAKER_03:And it's a uh fee-based service, so it's not like you have to have a certain eligibility to participate or anything like that. Anyone who identifies as having a disability can complete an application to uh take part in the program.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Ross Powell And when you say fee-based, there's a cost to them?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's uh this year it's$275 for six weeks.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell Six lessons. And that includes the lift ticket?
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm not I'm not a skier. I try and stay off the ice and snow. So if I don't use the correct terms, please uh correct me, okay?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yep. That includes uh a day pass uh for the lifts.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell Okay. So you have somebody they've never skied before, but they're interested, they have some sort of disability, uh, they're willing to pay the$2.
SPEAKER_03:$75.
SPEAKER_01:$75, which essentially gets them six full days on the mountain. Yep. How long is the instruction for?
SPEAKER_03:Uh we do two-hour lessons and we have four sessions per weekend. So we do a morning session on Saturday and Sunday and an afternoon session on Saturday and Sunday as well. And someone gets signed up for one session for the six weeks.
SPEAKER_01:What time did the sessions start?
SPEAKER_03:9 30 to 11 30 and then 1, 2, 3.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. But after they go through their instruction, they're welcome to stay on the mountain if they feel comfortable doing so. Okay. Great. So how many people would be in a typical session?
SPEAKER_03:Uh Saturday m is our busiest day, and they could have thirty to forty people per session.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Uh participants per session.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Volunteers, most individuals need at least two volunteers to ski uh with them.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Or teach them on the Learning Hill, um, the learning centers uh people start off at.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um so volunteers we could go up to 60 on a weekend.
SPEAKER_01:So the volunteers they would typically come for the whole day?
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And they were able to stay on the mountain the whole day? So after the instruction is done, the benefit to the volunteers that they get to do some skiing on their own.
SPEAKER_03:It's a great perk. Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Sounds like it. So I know we have five staff who, you know, we'll call them consultants who kind of run the ski pro other than you, right? So you you run the program. You're you're the person in charge.
SPEAKER_03:I call myself the man behind the curtain because I'm the one behind the computer screen.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. And everyone seems to know you and you seem to know where everybody kind of fits and needs to go. But when I went last year to visit, there were five, you know, we'll call them consultants, but they're they're really ski instructors who serve different parts or they serve different roles there. So can we talk about those five folks a little bit? Absolutely. So first, what's what's their expertise in skiing? Because I think some of them are skiers and some of them are logistics people.
SPEAKER_03:Uh the the one person who does our logistics uh is a skier as well. So she is familiar with uh you know the mechanics of skiing.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um we have a wide variety of the uh other consultants either come from the disability world field that they work in, or um they're just they might be a sibling, they might be a parent. They could just be involved in the program, and that's their um expertise.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Ross Powell And do they do they have to show some sort of expertise in skiing in order to fill those roles?
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah, we we prefer them to have um what is called a PSIA certification, which is the professional ski instructors association.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:And uh there is a di an adaptive component to that um that we like to see our consultants have.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell Okay. So and they're out there for all the lessons, all the weekends.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. So then you have just regular volunteers, right? 60 people who you need to help on the mountains. So what role do they play? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_03:So our volunteers are really the crucial part of this because without them we wouldn't have the manpower to be able to support the individuals appropriately on the mountain.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So, like I said, we each participant could have up to three maybe uh volunteers with them, and that could be either hands-on teaching them how to ski at the learning center or um being tethered to someone coming down the hill, which just means you have control if they can't uh control the the skis or the sled by themselves. But it's it's really the volunteers. We base the number of participants off of the number of volunteers that we have.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. And how does somebody volunteer if they're interested in participating? The same way.
SPEAKER_03:We have an electronic application. You can find it on the Arise website or uh Facebook or social media platform. That both the participant uh application and the volunteer application are there.
SPEAKER_01:And do you get a lot of uh skiers and volunteers who return each year?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Yep. It's a very popular program. Um so we have returners of both, and uh I can tell you that some volunteers have have worked with uh the same person for 20 years. Okay. Um or we also have participants that learn to ski so well then then they become a volunteer as well.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. That must be that must be exciting for everybody.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, full circle moments.
SPEAKER_01:So that was gonna be my next question, actually. You know, I know you've been with the program for five years. Are you able to see progression in the skiers and how they develop over the course of time?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. So I'm not there every weekend, so um I don't see it, but I do get the emails saying, hey, you know, little Johnny learned how to ski so well last year. Do you think you would be able to use him as a volunteer? And my answer is always yes, because there, you know, a lot of peer leadership and stuff like that goes on as well.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Ross Powell Well that's always been one of the backbone uh philosophies of of a rise as an independent living center anyway, is to be a peer-driven service, right? Yes. It it it means it often means more and more personal when the person who's helping you with education advocacy might have a child who needs assistance in the school district and you've had to play that role, or right, you talk about your sister who has a disability. It just gives a different perspective to the support than someone who doesn't have that relationship.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:So you talked about equipment. So can we can we talk right? So uh I again I can barely stand on a pair of skis and I would never try a snowboard. Right. Uh can you talk about the different types of adaptive equipment that we can provide folks? You know, so someone who's who might be listening to this says, you know, that's nice, but you know, I I have this disability and it would never work for me.
SPEAKER_03:So we could take anyone from a uh quadriplegic up to anyone who can walk completely independent.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um you know, some of the the equipment that we see is then made by the consultants or a volunteer with just a PVC pipe so that someone has something to hold on to around the skier, to the sit skis where um a person who has difficulty with mobility or something like that can actually sit in a sled where they are then um pushed, not pushed, but they go down the mountain with someone steering the sled for them.
SPEAKER_01:Well, go back to the PVC pipe because I'm having a I'm having my first mental image was somebody like inside a piece of pipe, but that's not how we're no, no, so it's like a square, it's called a frame.
SPEAKER_03:So it's a square uh PVC pipe built contraption, and it goes around the um individual that is standing up on a set of skis or snowboard, and then the volunteer stands behind it.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Ross Powell So it's it's it's almost like a a belt around somebody made out of the same thing.
SPEAKER_03:That the instructors can hold on to and the individual too, so you can steer them properly.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Ross Powell To provide the stability that they need to learn how to ski. Okay. How about so so is is most of the adaptive equipment around things like that where it allows the volunteer or the instructor some part in the control, or is it also the equipment? Like are the skis adapted at all or the snowboards? Or those generally off the off-the-shelf type things and it's really the equipment to help teach is what we need to be adapted?
SPEAKER_03:Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. Yes. Yes. Um it's just if you if they recognize it most of the time in the moment of what this individual might need to be able to ski independently or go towards skiing independently, and then they'll figure out how to support them appropriately.
SPEAKER_01:And is that stuff that happens before the season begins as part of the application process, or is that stuff that happens when we first meet the individual on day one and we say if it's someone that we know about and they've they've skied before, we will have that same equipment ready.
SPEAKER_03:If it's someone new to the program, we try to get a good idea off of the application.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:And then we can match them up with the volunteers. Obviously, we're not gonna take someone who is uh proficient in in pushing one of the or leading one of the uh the sleds, the sit skis, um that's what we're gonna lean into their strengths for two.
SPEAKER_01:Can you describe the we only have about a minute left, but can you just describe the sit skis a little bit? I found those to be fascinating.
SPEAKER_03:It's a chair and they have either one or two skis attached to the bottom of it. The participant sits in it, and then they have a instructor or volunteer behind them. And uh at some point, hopefully down the hill, they can relinquish a little bit of the control or the steering to the individual and that they can steer by leaning, or if they have use of their arms, they can have poles that uh can help towards that.
SPEAKER_01:I th I think that's an important part, right? This this isn't people with disabilities getting on a sled and just going down the hill. This is people using adaptive equipment so that they could be as independent as possible while skiing with the assistance of volunteers and instructors.
SPEAKER_03:Correct. My favorite visual, and I think you saw it last year, is the empty wheelchair at the bottom of the ski hill.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:That's my favorite visual every year.
SPEAKER_01:Fantastic. Mary, thank you so much for finding the time today to talk with us. Ladies and gentlemen, that was Arise and Exceptional Family Resources, Senior Community Inclusion Supervisor Mary Schwanke, talking about Arise Ski. As always, thank you all for listening, and we hope you join us next time as well.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:This has been the Arise Exceptional Family Resources Podcast with CEO Bruce Drake, recorded and produced at the WCNY Public Broadcasting Studios. For more information, visit our website at contactefr.org. You can also follow us on Facebook. Thank you for listening.