2024 President’s Report

15 Nov 2024 President’s Report

Memberships for last season were up just over 13% from the previous season for a total of 509, breaking the 500 member mark for the first time in recent memory. This is a strong reminder of the demand for our services and the benefits accrued by them for all involved.

In regards to programming, the beginning of the 2023/24 season began with a monumental challenge.

The Community Sport for All Grant from Sport Canada and delivered in partnership with Alpine Canada – was presented to CADS Ontario just prior to the launch of the season and proved a challenging endeavour both from a timing as well as logistics perspective. CADS Ontario was tasked to certify 100 new instructors, mostly from Snow Schools, over the course of the season. Through exemplary collaboration with multiple Course Conductors and Snow School Directors across the province, we were able to certify 104 ski instructors + 5 snowboarders over 37 events. Truly a monumental task with our limited capacity. Thankfully the outcome of this exercise now allows for more ski resorts across Ontario to include more people with disabilities in their on hill programming. A win for the whole sector. Special thanks and recognition go out to Gwen Binsfeld, Amy Royea and all the Course Conductors for their blood, sweat and tears that ensured the grants success. We continue to search for more grants that will allow us to grow capacity across all resorts in Ontario to become more inclusive in their client experience.

Another highlight of the season was the re emergence of our Horseshoe Resort program. After being closed for a number of years though the pandemic, we were able to renew ties with the resort, now under new management, and restart a small but mighty program which we hope to continue to grow and return to pre-pandemic levels. I’d like to especially thank Donna Muirhead for her involvement with the Program and for championing the continuance of a CADS program at Horseshoe.

CADS Ontario was grateful to receive Jumpstart funding that allowed for the purchase of new equipment for several Programs which , in turn, allowed them to expand their student enrolment for the season.

February, once again, saw CADS Ontario and Ontario Track 3 team up to help facilitate the Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCIO) Ski and Snowboard Day allowing 14 SCIO members the thrill of experiencing SitSkiing for the first time. Thanks again to Dave Scott for leading the CADS Ontario volunteer contingent.

March began with CADS Ontario being the recipient of funds from the inaugural Charlie Adams Ski Day which helped raised over $4500 for programming and training support. These funds are already being used for the 2024/25 season. A special thanks to Charlie and friends for recognizing CADS in this way and to help promote the importance of CADS to the wider ski community.

And finally, the 2024 CADS Festival came back East and was hosted at Calabogie Resort and our friends at CADS NCD. CADS Ontario was pleased to be able to sponsor and Après-Ski event with an additional highlight being our very own Ian Duff sharing the prize with fellow namesake for the People’s Choice Award for best Costume!

I’d like to thank the Board and Program Coordinators who put in countless hours over the course of the season to ensure such a successful experience for all involved.