Green Mountain Adaptive Sports is mainly known for offering scholarships to Vermont athletes with disabilities, allowing them to participate in a variety of sports. Another very important part of GMAS’s mission is to provide grants to coaches and instructors so that they can further their educational training, skills and accreditations in those adaptive sports.
GMAS presently offers seven adaptive sports, with an eighth coming in the Fall of 2025. Over the years, training and workshops have been provided for coaches and instructors in each of these sports.
To provide the training locally, GMAS partners with existing Vermont organizations offering a sport facility, such as a pool, a rock climbing wall, a skateboard park, a Nordic center, or a ski hill. Then, GMAS hires some of the most experienced coaches in the country to come and provide a 2-3 day training clinic to local and area adaptive coaches and instructors.
Creating More and Better Accessibility
The goals for the specialized training are multi-faceted. For the coaches, it enables them to get together with other professionals to build on their learning, to share experiences, and to add to their accreditations.For the adaptive athletes, well, it goes without saying that they get to learn from the best trained professionals in the field, and benefit from the latest techniques, equipment, and technology in the given sport.
For the community, we strongly believe that people with disabilities should have access to sports in as many locations as possible. By training instructors and coaches in various locations, we are increasing accessibility so that more people can participate in a sport of their choice, in a location and a time that is convenient to them.
This year’s GMAS Winter Challenge Fundraiser is 100% dedicated to raising funds to support coaches trainings. We hope to raise $20,000 by the end of March. Thanks for donating if you can. GMAS is 100% volunteer-run and proceeds from our fundraiser go directly to support our mission.
Share the Passion, Increase the Knowledge
At GMAS, we pride ourselves on working in the spirit of collaboration. Attendees from other adaptive programs are always invited to the GMAS sponsored training ~ our clinics are not limited to instructors who are part of the GMAS network. Invitations are always extended not only to our partners, but also associates from other adaptive sports programs. If they can learn, and bring back new techniques, increased knowledge, and enhanced experiences for participants in their own programs, we believe everybody wins.
Past GMAS Sponsored Trainings
Last December, GMAS was able to support four ski coaches to attend the annual Move United Ski Spectacular in Breckenridge, Colorado. All came back from this week long training with new accreditations, new found energy, and an urge to share their newly gained knowledge with their students. In 2026, we hope to support the participation of at least four, and hopefully six coaches to Ski Spectacular.
In the past couple of years, GMAS has also sponsored coaches’ trainings at Petra Cliff in Burlington, at Metro Rock in Essex, at Stowe Mountain Resort for the TetraSki and Snow’Kart, and at various pools across the state. A recent training for the Craftsbury Outdoor Center was also a huge success.
GMAS instructors’ grants are also available for coaches to attend existing trainings, such as the Swim Angel program, PSIA-AASI certifications, and other sport specific trainings. Find out more here
On May 17-18, 2025, GMAS will offer a “Skoaches” Training at Talent Skatepark in Burlington to support a brand new (so exciting) Adaptive Skateboard Program to kick off in the fall of 2025. We are accepting applications until the event is full. Apply today, some restrictions apply.
Your Support is Crucial
Adaptive sports are an integral part of our community, and providing those opportunities also comes at a price. Green Mountain Adaptive Sports provides scholarships to over 200 adaptive athletes to participate in our programs annually.
To continue to provide safe, up-to-date professional instruction to our adaptive athletes, we need to keep offering training to the very people who work hand in hand, face to face with the athletes – the coaches and instructors.
Thanks for considering making a donation to our Winter Challenge Fundraiser going on until the end of March. Our goal is to raise $20,000 this year, with 100% of those proceeds going to provide coaches trainings in 2025-26.
If you would like to learn more, or discuss other opportunities to support, and get involved with GMAS, please contact us at info@greenmtnadaptive.org.
By Pascale Savard, March 17, 2025