Dear Editor,

Whistler Adaptive Sport Program (WASP) volunteers and staff engaged in a very intense training program designed to update and improve their expertise when teaching the cognitively disabled. This group of learners now constitutes 65 per cent of our clients.

The four days of workshops included presentations by medical experts, speech pathologists, special education teachers, representatives from Special Olympics, the RCMP and even a guest PMTS ski instructor from the U.S. This training program is thought to be the first of its kind in Canada and our instructors came away feeling much more informed and confident to work with the fifteen disabilities that were presented.

All the presentations were professionally recorded so that this information can be available to train new people who volunteer in our program in the future.

All of the twelve resource experts and the six videographers volunteered  their time and talents to make this project a reality. WASP would very much like to thank them for their support and their belief in the benefit our program has to this group of disabled individuals.

We would like to acknowledge the following people: Doctors Vera Frinton and Michael Jones, Lindsay Willms, Colin Worth, Harald Harb, Patty Wheeldon, Susan Fawcett and Jill Petersen. These people all did two-hour presentations and in some cases did more than one lecture. The calibre of their presentations was outstanding. On the hill assistance was given by Wylie Buchanan and Sietse Breedijk and off-hill assistance was given by Hazel Boyd and Bridget Daley.

Our video team consisted of Rebecca Wood Barrett, who so kindly coordinated the team and her assistant Mike Bruno both of RTown Communication; Stephen McVeigh, Peter Bailey and Matt West. A special thank you also goes to Ian Dunsmore of Shaw TV who loaned us a camera that enabled us to record consistent high quality sound and image. Jaime Kerrigan of Watermark was also very helpful publicizing our need for videographers.

WASP 's Executive Director, Chelsey Walker and our Ski and Snowboard Program Manager, John Brown (WB) are also thanked for their assistance in this project.

We would also like to give a special thanks to Whistler Delta Suites for their continued support of our program and their kindness in allowing our workshops to be held gratis in their conference centre. The Delta staff were most gracious in attending to our every need.

Thanks also go to the Abercrombie Foundation for its financial support of this invaluable training program for WASP'S instructors.

All of the above individuals and organizations have my greatest appreciation. Without your support this project would never have been possible.

Jennifer Erickson

Whistler Adaptive Sports Program

Volunteer and Member of the Board