Annual Auction And Dinner Helps Buy Ice Time And Equipment For Skaters With Special Needs

It might be a chilly environment, but plenty of heartwarming moments will take place on Saturday, June 16 during the annual Benefit Auction and Dinner for the SkateTherapy program at the Sugar Land Ice and Sports Center. The weekly program teaches ice skating to special- needs children and young adults under the direction of B.L. Wylie, a lifetime skater and former national chairperson with the U.S. Figure Skating organization.

The evening’s entertainment will include two sports-themed group skating performances by SkateTherapy students. Event proceeds will help buy ice time and help pay for personally fitted skates, helmets and gloves when families need the assistance. “As we grow, we’re looking to get more ice time so we could add another session,” says Wylie. “We don’t want to turn people down.”

Wylie’s SkateTherapy program began in 2010 after she had connected with Sugar Land businessman Jim O’Neill, who in 2008 founded STARskaters, a USOC Paralympic Sport Club. His club offers competitive sled hockey sessions for people who cannot walk every Saturday at Ice Skate USA at Memorial City Mall. Wylie joined a STARskaters party at the Sugar Land ice facility for The Arc of Fort Bend, a group that serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“We hit it off immediately,” Wylie recalls of meeting O’Neill, explaining that she had always wanted to do a skating program for disabled children. “Jim said, ‘I’m going to put you under our 501c3,’ ” so we are considered STARskaters Skate Therapy. It has worked beautifully. He does his thing at Memorial and we’re at Sugar Land.”

On Saturdays at the Sugar Land ice arena, there are typically 25 skaters in the beginners class from 9:30-10 a.m., with a more advanced class from 10-10:30. For a total of 58 students there are 59 volunteer instructors — well-trained high school students who already are talented figure skaters — offering a 1-to-1 instructor-to-student ratio.The advanced class also includes a beginning hockey program, taught by a number of active hockey players who play for a local league.

A large number of the current students are on the autism spectrum, but Wylie stresses that the program is open to all with special needs. Students have included those who are blind, have cerebral palsy or Down syndrome. The benefits to the skaters in the program are physical — improving strength and balance — and also social, as they interact with coaches and other students and work to overcome their fears, as well as setting and accomplishing goals.

SkateTherapy students can start at age 4. Wylie says some of the boys started when they were 8 and are now over 6 feet tall. She also noted that the skaters’ parents don’t leave during the lessons; they want to stay and enjoy watching their kids and sharing the camaraderie with other parents.

The instructors aren’t much older. “We start training them at age 12, and when they are ready — and some are very ready at 12 — we move them into total instruction,” Wylie says. Experts such as physicians, occupational and speech therapists, and psychologists come to an education seminar once a month to share specific techniques with the young instructors on how to communicate with their skaters and handle various situations.

“You would be absolutely amazed what happens with 12-year-olds and how it helps them develop composure. Nothing surprises them. We have some skaters who don’t function in public easily and moments can become overwhelming — they become upset and have a difficult time maintaining an even keel. When these moments happen, there are ways of handling them; there is one skater who will regroup if you hug him or hold his hand. By the time these instructors go off to college they are ready for anything.”

Wylie adds proudly, “So far, all of our instructors who are in college are in the health field. I just wrote my first medical school recommendation for one of them.”

A former teenage instructor also designed a helpful apparatus called the Ice Cruiser, which helps blind students or any new skaters who are especially fearful. “It’s made out of PVC pipe and encircles the skaters so they can skate on their own, being surrounded and feeling safe,” Wylie explains.

Ice skating has been a lifelong passion for Wylie. “I was raised in western New York State, on Lake Chautauqua. Our whole family skated, but my parents could not afford for me to have lessons. I was determined that my own kids would have the opportunity.”

Wylie and her husband Bob made sure of that. And if the Wylie name sounds familiar, the reason may be that their son Paul was the silver medalist in men’s figure skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Daughter Claire skated at one time with the Ice Capades, and daughter Dawn taught a blind man to skate at her skating club when she was in high school. That experience helped lead her into becoming an occupational therapist.

“Dawn certainly was my role model,” says Wylie, whose inspiration to help the disabled learn to skate came to action when she met Jim O’Neill.

At age 83, Wylie has just retired as a figure skating coach working with competitive skaters. But being director of the SkateTherapy program still keeps her plenty busy, and for the June benefit in particular. Son Paul will help Mom and the cause by coming to town to be the Master of Ceremonies for the event. Dinner guests will sit at tables on the ice surface — on carpeting — so no ballgowns or tiaras are expected. “Just come casual and enjoy and stay warm for an evening of fun with SkateTherapy,” B.L. Wylie says.

The evening will begin at 7 p.m. The Sugar Land Ice and Sports Center is located at 16225 Lexington Blvd. in Sugar Land. Tickets can be bought in advance or at the door. For more information, visit skatetherapy.org.