TELLURIDE ADAPTIVE SPORTS PROGRAM: GOIN’ COWBOY AT THE OPERA

07 Mar TELLURIDE ADAPTIVE SPORTS PROGRAM: GOIN’ COWBOY AT THE OPERA

Go Cowboy – for TASP

Telluride Adaptive Sports Program’s spring fundraiser is March 9

In the Telluride Adaptive Sports Offices, we send people skiing who weren’t supposed to make it back outside to recreate. We see kids from Arizona with disabilities light up because they’re sliding on snow, sometimes for the first time.

We hold classes for our local kids to better understand disabilities because we think we can build a better world through better understanding. And we’re inviting you to help us with our mission — to get everyone, no matter what, outside, exploring the natural world.

The Telluride Adaptive Sports Program invites you to don your cowboy hats and Wranglers on Friday, March 9 for its annual fundraiser, Goin’ Cowboy at the Opera. Goin’ Cowboy, held at the Sheridan Opera House, combines Western music (Laid down by the Vanishing Breed Band) with live and silent auctions and delicious food. The money raised goes right back into TASP’s myriad outdoor programs for those with disabilities, activities such as skiing, mountain biking and rafting.

Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 on the day of the event. They’re available at the Adaptive office and Telluride’s Alpine Bank, or at the Sheridan Opera House just prior to the event. The doors open at 6 p.m., and the live auction begins at 7:30.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to come out, bid on some wonderful auction items and support the Adaptive program,” said TASP’s Matthew Beaudin.

TASP sends kids to the Special Olympics, runs winter ski and summer bike camps for veterans and doesn’t turn people away due to inability to pay for adaptive instructions. Last year alone, TASP offered more than $80,000 in scholarships to those who wanted to participate in its programs. Last year, the organization provided more than 2,000 adaptive activities. TASP is also about a 100 volunteers who make it all possible.

Some of the items up for auction include a stay at a secluded house in Nicaragua; a set of Wagner custom skis, a week’s stay at a historic Telluride house with two transferable ski medallions, a Nicole Finger painting, a one-of-a-kind trip to California’s wine country and a stay for six at a home in Hawaii.

Matthew Beaudin photo: Ron Magnus ripping the ski resort during the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program’s Expand Your Horizons camp this winter.