Prime articles focus on senior living and issues impacting senior living.
This month we focus on Rick Taylor who, although retired, remains exceptionally busy giving back to the community.
Taylor has been a long-time volunteer with Nipissing Trackers, a free downhill ski program for special needs young people aged six to 18.
Taylor has been a volunteer for just over 30 of the program’s 35 years.
“And I’ve never looked back,” Taylor chuckled.
“The whole program is all volunteer driven, and we teach them (instructors) how to interact with special needs children, and we show them different techniques to get special needs children safely down the ski hill,” explained Taylor, who is the program co-ordinator.
Participants meet with instructors once a week, on Sundays, at Laurentian Ski Hill in North Bay.
“Obviously, this is something these children would never get to experience, because not only is skiing expensive, but you also can’t just go and ski by yourself. A lot of ski hills, don’t really offer the proper training for someone with special needs, that is why there are programs like the Trackers.”
As Taylor shares, it is the little things that make it all worthwhile.
“The reward is something you could never buy. You get so much more out of this than you put in. We have taken children literally kicking and screaming out of fear and we’ve put them either in a bi ski or on a pair of skis and we get them down the hill. Well, from the first run, they’re whoo-hooing. And the feeling that you get from giving somebody that, you can’t buy that. That is the reward. We do it for the smiles.”
Nipissing Trackers recently made a donation to the Laurentian Ski Hill to help with the purchase for new rental equipment.
Nipissing Trackers are still looking for ski volunteers for the program which starts the second week of January.
“Right now, there are 44 children signed up for the program. The whole season is based on how many children we can take on the day we had the least number of instructors. Some of the kids are in a bi ski and the bi ski requires two instructors to safely bring it down the hill and put it on the lift and take it off the lift, and I think we have four kids in bi skis, so there’s eight instructors out of what I have available,” Taylor explained.
People interested in becoming instructors will find Nipissing Trackers on Facebook, by going to [email protected] or by contacting Laurentian Ski Hill.
When he’s not on the hill, his other passion finds him under the water.
Taylor is currently the president of the local scuba club.
The club is known for its annual spring clean up at the North Bay Waterfront Marina.
“So, I scuba drive and I am also the safety diver at the polar plunge that they do to raise funds for special needs kids. It will take place in March at the college,” shared Taylor who, when he comes up to the surface, enjoys time spent on his motorcycle.
“I get out on my bike every chance I get, I like my bike. I have a friend and we go cruising around. We go on little day trips around Lake Nipissing, around Lake Temiscaming, down to Parry Sound, have lunch and come home.”
Taylor also tries to participate in the Ride for Dad motorcycle ride, supporting the fight against prostate cancer.
“It is a really good cause. It is no longer in North Bay, so I drive to Orillia and I do the Ride for Dad in Orillia. My son came with me this year, and that was 700 km. It was 200 there, 200 back, and a 300 km ride. A beautiful day.”
No moss grows under his feet. Taylor’s advice to retirees and seniors in general is to keep moving.
“For me it’s don’t stop. If you work all your life and you’re lucky enough to retire, you have to stay active, because it is just like anything, if you stop then you stop. If you have a bicycle and you used to ride it all the time everyday, and you put it in the shed, and you don’t ride it, and it’s been sitting in there for 10 years, what is the condition of that bicycle? It has now deteriorated compared to the way it was when you were riding it everyday. And that is kind of like what will happen to anybody that just stops,” stated Taylor.
“I enjoy all the things I do; I volunteer at robotics. There is a regional robotics competition here every year, we do that, and we volunteer at the golf tournament that supports NADY (Nipissing Association for Disabled youth). The 15th anniversary of that was this year. Again, a great cause.”