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AccesSportAmerica, a national non-profit organization, inspires higher function and fitness for children and adults living with disabilities through high-challenge sports and training.
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Watch Videos about AccesSport:
A Gleam in the Eye
YouTube
COMING EVENTS
AccesSportAmerica Mayor's Cup Regatta
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Boston's Charles River
Sponsor/Entry Form
Donate to a team/paddler
Photo Gallery
EVENTS
AccesSportAmerica Leadership Luncheon
Friday, November 4, 2011
Boston Harbor Hotel at Rowes Wharf, Boston
Good Sports Applaud AccesSportAmerica
AccesSportAmerica Mayor's Cup Regatta
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Thank you Boston Business Journal
Team Photos
Event Photos
"Marianne Leone is a courageous steward of the legacy and message of her son, Jesse... She brings us into her home, and won't let us go until we are inspired by the love her family shared." - Ross Lilley, Executive Director, AccesSportAmerica
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Patriot's Coach Bill Belichick is donating a portion of each book sold to benefit AccesSportAmerica. From the Boston Globe: "In his book, "The Education of a Coach," [David] Halberstam describes the organization as "an extraordinary group to which the Belichick family is committed, which brings formidable athletic challenges . . . to children and adults with serious physical or developmental disabilities."
Buy a copy from Amazon
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Letter from the Executive Director Spring 2012
Photos, courtesy of Steven Gardner, MD
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I could never do a good job of sitting on a beach. As a kid I needed toy
trucks or buckets and as a, so called adult, I still need toys. I just can't
sit still by the water. That's something of our motto at AccesSport as well
- we just can't sit still. We do not allow for any of our trainers to do
anything but to be in motion. No we don't want them to play with trucks in
sand. But even in down moments they are to practice something new on a
windsurfer, do maintenance on an outrigger, try a trick on a stand up paddle
board, juggle a soccer ball, fix a cycle, or improve an adaptation as
example. Something of a blessing and curse, this community doesn't seem to
tolerate "sitting still".
The notion carries over into our programming. As we start a new summer on
the water in Boston, Our trainers are being asked about what's going to be
new on the water this year. One of the reasons we go to Florida for our
intensive training camp is to try new protocols and devices for the upcoming
warm weather in New England. This year, we developed a fairer but more
challenging means to play integrated ability soccer so all are valued and
challenged on a high level. We also toppled some windsurfing barriers with
new techniques for people with hemiplegia to sail on a mono hull windsurfer
and means for 2 athletes with disabilities to sail together and independently
on the same board.
At times, I wish we could sit still and live in the present, celebrating the
great feats and great people who are AccesSport athletes and trainers. That
probably would be a good thing. When I was a minister I preached that the
secret to a great life is being able to live in the moment. I'm sure that
includes being able to "be" and to savor what's around us. But I could never
practice what I preached. Even now I know we've done so much with so many
people. I know that our equipment adaptations, our inventions, and our
established program is great without change. But putting our collective
AccesSport "feet" in the sand and sitting still, just doesn't work. We have
to bring something new to the program each season.
So here's to those in your lives who can't sit still. If you are one of us,
I celebrate your uneasiness and hope our lives are filled with
accomplishment. To all of you who can sit still and who can pause to
celebrate your days, I hope you can teach us the way to live in that
balance.
Ross Lilley
AccesSportAmerica
Executive Director/Founder
978.264.0985
978.314.9137 (direct)
www.AccesSportAmerica.org
Previous Letters from the Director
 Affiliated with Disabled Sports USA
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