Category: Participant Quotes

New England Ski for Light gives me the opportunity to push beyond what I think is possible and experience the outdoors with confidence, independence, and support. Through NESFL, I’ve gained not only unforgettable adventures like summiting Mt. Pierce, but also a community of guides and friends who prove that no challenge is too great when you take it step by step together.

How grateful I am that my life’s path has crossed with NESFL! I’ve guided for 3 Winter Wonderland weekends and 3 Summer White Mountains Adventure weekends. Endless memories! Weekends of laughter, enormous challenges in the outdoors, and stories, stories, stories. Guides experience the hiking trails with their Explorers in ways we would never have dreamed. The Explorers teach us new skills every single time. Gaining their trust and helping them achieve safe outdoor adventure is the ultimate kick and what makes NESFL so magic. I was so happy to share this magic with a friend and now she’s hooked on guiding in the future.

Living in Oklahoma, I have to travel to find snow and New England Ski for Light is the perfect place to get  an extra skiing opportunity each year in addition to SFL international week. It’s a smaller group but still bursting with SFL spirit. Each time I have made the trip, I have enjoyed wonderful trails and amazing guides who have helped me continue to work on technique and improve my skiing. Whether it’s the extra opportunity to be on skis or all the feedback I get from different guides, I find that I always make huge leaps in my skills every time I go to NESFL.

Guiding through a wintery forest trail or over snow-covered fields is a true love of mine; and sharing this with my blind and low vision partners and friends has been an absolute gift. Sixteen years of NESFL and SFL guiding has been sheer delight; I am a better skier and happier person with each new adventure, for sure! And these are friendships forever!

When I first learned about NESFL, I was intrigued and figured that volunteering as a cross-country ski guide would be a nice way to help others and maybe get a little skiing in too.  What I soon discovered was that guiding with this organization is not something you do FOR others;  it is something you do WITH others.  I find that when my skiier and I are gliding through the snow, I am totally “in the moment,” focused only on the beauty of the snow and bonding with another person who loves this activity and the outdoors as much as I do!  I have since done so much skiing—as well as other outdoor activities in the non-winter months with this group, in addition to participating in the week-long international SFL skiing events.  I have met so many new and excellent friends, both skiing explorers and guides, true skiing addicts and lovers of outdoor activities, just like me!  Guiding with NESFL is a joy and has become a really important part of my winter and my life and I look forward to many more years of being part of this energetic, enthusiastic and positive group!

The Impact That NESFL Has Had On My Life.

New England Ski For Light has changed my life in so many impactful and wide ranging ways.

I have developed life long friendships which I cherish.

I have learned to ski, something that I never dreamed that I would be able to do as a blind individual. When I am skiing it is the only time that I am not holding onto a guide dog, a person or a cane. I am just free out there on the trails, flying on the beautiful snow! That feeling is indescribable.

At NESFL I am not a blind person in a sea of sighted people who are uncomfortable around me, worried about me and/or pitying me. I am in a community of beautiful people who get it, who trust me, who respect me as an equal, who are there to share a love of skiing and the great outdoors.

My experiences at NESFL events have increased my joy of living, my confidence in myself and my independence. As a board member I love being a part of something that brings so much joy to so many people!