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Jan. 16, 2005 – Falmouth, ME: New England Bruins players joined with their partners, Family Ice Center and Northeast Passage to bring sleds and sticks to the Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation Adaptive Skating Program this morning. The MASR Adaptive Skating Program, which is organized by Ruth Stevenson, manned by a number of dedicated volunteers, and hosted by Family Ice's Opportunity Skate Program, enables kids with disabilities to get on the ice every Sunday morning to skate and push pucks around.

While an average of ten or so kids and ten to fifteen volunteers turn out regularly for the program, to this point, most of the kids have been able to skate standing up, using walkers or folding chairs to support themselves. This week, Stevenson arranged for Northeast Passage to attend armed with a few youth-sized sleds and sticks. Bruins players Mike Geary and Craig Gray turned out to demonstrate how to use the equipment and to work with the young skaters.

Matt Frye, a certified therapeutic recreation specialist and head of the Northeast Passage Therapeutic Recreation Empowering Kids Program thought that it was great to have the Bruins around to show the kids, and their parents, that there are competitive sports opportunities available for people with disabilities. "Kids are kids," he said. "All kids dream of growing up to be sports heroes. It doesn't matter whether they have disabilities or not. And yes, its true that they won't go on to play in the Stanley Cup Finals, but they may very well go on to represent the United States in the Paralympics."

Family Ice, a not-for-profit rink who's Opportunity Skate Program is funded completely through the generosity of donors and grants, would very much like to raise the funds to purchase a few sleds to keep at the rink. Any one interested in helping fund the Opportunity Skate Program or learning more about the MASR Adaptive Skating Program should contact Kevin Sackville, the Family Ice Rink Manager, at the Family Ice Center.