By Cliff White
Staff Writer
Though Terri Perry is a year-round athlete, she can’t wait until winter arrives. That’s when she can hit slopes, get some speed up and really feel free.
    Perry, 38, from Gorham, has multiple sclerosis and is a participant in the Maine Handicapped Skiing program. Every Monday this winter, there’s a chance you’ll find her learning how to balance and steer a modified skiing bucket down the trails of the Sunday River ski resort in Bethel.
    “I head up to the mountain every Monday during the winter,” Perry says. “I can’t stay away. It’s a great outlet – a way to get me out and doing something, and it’s a lot of fun.”
    Perry has had help along the way – volunteer Dennis Doyon of Bethel has been with her for practically every chair lift ride, carving turn and sunny winter day spent on the slopes since Perry started with the program five years ago.
Doyon, who is married to the founder and executive director of MHS, Betsy Doyon, works full-time during the winter in MHS’s headquarters at the base of Sunday River working with the organization’s equipment to adapt it correctly to fit to its users. He takes Monday off to ski with Perry.
“Terri has been my prime person to ski with. We’ve been teamed up together right since she started skiing,” Doyon says. “I take my days off to ski with her because she’s so much fun to ski with. It’s a day off on the slopes with a friend.”
Maine Handicapped  Skiing (MHS), based in Bethel, was founded in 1982 and originally had two volunteers and eight participants. Today, MHS has 390 volunteers and more than 300 participants, said Wendy Iseman, who is development and public relations director for the organization. Originally, the group’s sole activity was downhill skiing, but the program has expanded over the years to include snowboarding, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the winter, and canoeing, kayaking, golf and cycling in the summer. MHS’s programs are entirely free of charge for both participants and volunteers.
    Besides its involvement at Sunday River, MHS also brings participants to Sugarloaf, if it is close to where the participants live, and runs Nordic and snowshoeing programs at the Sunday River Inn cross-country skiing center in Newry and Pineland farms in New Gloucester.
    “This is a program that changes people’s lives,” Iseman said. “It gives participants the opportunity to get outside and have fun in a very welcoming environment. The atmosphere is so friendly, participants very quickly start having a lot of fun, and gain a lot of confidence from learning that they can actually participate in these activities.”
Cindy Paine, from Scarborough, is the mother of Ben Paine, who began skiing with MHS last winter. Ben, 9, has cerebral palsy and is ordinarily wheelchair-bound. But when he arrives at Sunday River every Sunday during the winter and is fitted into his sit-down skiing equipment, he suddenly becomes a lot more mobile, and often covers the entire ski resort with his tracks in one day.
    “He loves it,” Cindy Paine said. “We’re not a skiing family, so me and my husband will watch him get on the chairlift with his entourage of volunteers, and 45 minutes later we will watch him coming down the mountain on his little sit ski. He goes right back up again, three hours at a time, and sometimes more.”
    Paine said the volunteers were what made Ben love the program as much as he does.
    “Ben loves the freedom and the feeling of skiing, but he definitely has favorites among the volunteers, and gets very excited to see them on Sundays,” Paine said. “The volunteers are all such great people. Last year they fought with each other over which ones got to ski with Ben,” Paine said.
    Iseman said there are requirements to join MHS, but that many exist to ensure the participants’ safety, and others were created to ensure those with the greatest need for assistance were served first.
    “We’re always looking for new participants, and we never want to turn people away from the program,” Iseman said.
    Requirements to join the program include amputations, visual and auditory impairments,  neurological impairments such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s.
The organization also accepts participants with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and arthrogryposis.
    If a prospective participant does not explicitly meet the group’s requirements, MHS will still teach up to three lessons and make an assessment that may qualify him or her to become a full-fledged participant in the program.
    Emily Ryan, from Buxton, has an 11-year-old son who has been involved with MHS for five years.
    “Cam was born with a genetic disability, and when I inquired about the program, they invited us for three lessons,” Ryan said. “They helped him learn how to ski using a contraption that fits on the tips of skis to keep them in a pizza wedge. Eventually, they invited him to stay for 10 lessons, and then Cam became a full participant in the program.”
    Ryan said she and Cam both love the atmosphere of the program – that it motivates them both to ski and have fun.
    “The social aspect of the program is so important to its success,” Ryan said. “Everybody is there because they love to ski, and everybody is so supportive of one another.”
    Ryan said Cam began to get better at skiing and has changed equipment as he has improved.
    “As he got more and more into skiing, you could see his self-esteem improve so much,” Ryan said. “And it transferred to so many other things, like his relationships and his time at school.”
    Ryan said she was thankful to MHS for giving her son an opportunity he might not have had otherwise.
    “Stuff you and I take for granted is challenging to Cam – talking, moving, making you body do what you want it to do. For a lot of his life, Cam has had to deal with the limitations of his body,” she said. “All of a sudden, here’s this program that made so much possible for him.”
    Ryan said she was enthused by the program she decided to become a volunteer herself.
    “I had to become more of a part of this program,” she said.
    Iseman said there is always a need for more volunteers, and that for every day a volunteer spends assisting the program, he or she receives a complimentary day pass at Sunday River or Sugarloaf.
    “It’s a pretty sweet deal, and you really are making a huge difference in people’s lives,” Iseman said.
    Perry said he was looking forward to another season starting up in January.
    “I don’t like sitting around – I get bored,” Perry said. “I love taking advantage of all of the programs, but I especially love skiing. Looking forward to ski season keeps me going.”
    Doyon said he was excited to take his first run of the year with Perry.
    “Skiing with her just lights up your day. To see the smile on her face as she heads down the mountain, there’s nothing like it. It makes life worthwhile,” Doyon said.
    For more information on Maine Handicapped Skiing or to learn how to become a participant or volunteer, visit www.skimhs.org or call 1-800-639-7770.