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“Our mission is to break down that barrier and get people outside sliding down snow,” Wintergreen Adaptive Sports Executive Director Kathleen Booth said.

Volunteers make that possible. At Wintergreen Adaptive Sports, the connection with the University of Virginia runs deep. This winter, about 100 people volunteered for the program. Booth estimates 15% of this year’s volunteers are affiliated with UVA. 

This season, the group ran an estimated 350 adaptive lessons, part of what Booth describes as steady year-over-year growth. Because lessons often require one to four instructors per student, having enough trained people on the hill is necessary. 

A snowboarder with a prosthetic leg grips an adaptive ski instructor’s hand to find his balance and adjust his footing. Wintergreen Adaptive Sports instructors are trained to coach people past their physical, cognitive, developmental or emotional barriers. (Photo by Mike Mather, University Communications)

“We are often fully booked,” Booth said, “and while that is a testament to the program’s strength, it also means we are constantly balancing demand with space, instructor and funding realities.”

For UVA students, the path to Wintergreen Adaptive Sports often starts with a friend’s recommendation, a chance encounter on the hill or a club meeting. One club in particular has become a reliable pipeline: the Virginia Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team, known as VAAST. Since its members already know how to ski and snowboard and spend time at Wintergreen Resort, volunteering with Wintergreen Adaptive Sports is a natural fit. Each fall, representatives from the program attend one of VAAST’s early-semester meetings to recruit new volunteers.

Second-year student Avery Buchanan, who started volunteering with Wintergreen Adaptive Sports this season after hearing about the program through VAAST’s service chair, described her first weekend on the mountain as transformative. “People are completely defying anything that society tells them they can’t do,” she said. 

During one lesson, her student skied without assistance for the first time. “She put her arms in the air, and you could see the pure joy on her face. It’s something I will never forget.” 

Logan Helston, a fourth-year biomedical engineering student, crouches down to encourage a young snowboarder during a Wintergreen Adaptive Sports lesson. Helston has volunteered with the program since his first year at UVA. (Contributed photo)

Third-year student Logan Helston has been volunteering with Wintergreen Adaptive Sports since his first year at UVA, after a friend introduced him to the program. He has participated in some of Wintergreen Adaptive Sports’ most popular events, including amputee camp and Wounded Warriors Weekend, an annual three-day event welcoming veterans with disabilities and their families to the mountain. An amputee camp was a particular draw given Helston’s interest in prosthetics and biomedical engineering. “Every lesson is super rewarding,” he said. 

This winter, with support from VAAST, Wintergreen Adaptive Sports relaunched its adaptive race team, pairing young athletes with disabilities with VAAST mentors for weekly Thursday practices. Second-year student Lainey Laskaris, who serves as VAAST’s service chair and coordinated the effort alongside Wintergreen staff, described the team as a way to build skills and community. 

Second-year student Lainey Laskaris observes a skier’s form during a Wintergreen Adaptive Sports race team practice. Laskaris, the service chair of the Virginia Alpine Ski and Snowboarding Team, recruited club members this winter to support race team practices. (Photo by Lathan Goumas, University Communications)

UVA biology professor Dan McIntyre has been an adaptive ski coach since 1999, first getting involved as a UVA undergraduate at Massanutten Resort. Graduate school at Duke brought him to Wintergreen, closer to Durham, and a decade in New York kept him coaching at Mount Snow in Vermont. He returned to Charlottesville in 2023 as an assistant professor and rejoined Wintergreen Adaptive Sports. 

“I really like the people and helping those in the community,” McIntyre said. “That’s what drives me.” He’s watched elementary school-aged children grow up to become skiers – and return as volunteers. 

Similar patterns run through the program’s history. Former executive director Dave Shreve, a UVA professor for many years, led Wintergreen Adaptive Sports for more than a decade before passing the role to Booth, and he was still stopping by the mountain this season. 

UVA biology professor Dan McIntyre, center, shares a laugh with a blind skier and a fellow Wintergreen Adaptive Sports coach during a break on the slopes. McIntyre has been an adaptive ski coach since 1999. (Contributed photo)

None of it, Booth said, happened by design. No official partnership exists between the program and UVA; the relationship has grown organically over more than two decades, through friendships, word of mouth and the pull of a program that tends to hold onto people once they find it. 

“Once you come into our orbit,” Booth said, “it’s hard to break that.” 

For those inspired to get involved, next winter season are open now, with training starting in the fall. Prospective participants can also apply through the same site