New England Healing Sports Association (NEHSA) with Executive Director Carly Bascom

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Transcript

Dan Egan: 

Welcome back. Welcome back to the 6 0 3 podcast. Course I'm Dan Egan. And here at the 6 0 3, it's all about the people, places, and things that make up New Hampshire. This episode, we're joined by Carly Bascom at New England Healing Sports Association, NEHSA. Carly is the executive director of NEHSA based up at Mount Sunapee, right at the base of the ski area, and they help adaptive people for inclusion and empowerment 

from disabilities, cognitive and physical. 

Carly Bascom:

Sure. So, uh, New England Healing Sports Association, as you said, located at Mount Sunapee Resort. We're a nonprofit organization that specializes in getting people with disabilities out and active all year round, enjoying everything that New Hampshire has to offer, the beauty that New Hampshire has to offer. So, uh, our biggest season is winter season, so we do our skiing, snowboarding, we, we've added snowshoeing as well. Uh, and then in the warmer months, we do a lot of kayaking, paddle boarding, and then we've also have, um, added hiking most recently. 

Dan Egan:

Thats Great. So based there at Sunapee, of course, you have the lake. Uh, where do you access the water? 

Carly Bascom:

So we go all over New England, actually. Our, our home base for our kayak programs right now is Little Lake Sunapee which is just North of the big lake. It's calm water, it's nice. Not a whole lot of boat traffic there, which is really nice. Uh, but we travel to different veterans organizations all throughout New England. So we go up and we serve the White River Junction VA, um, typically up on Mascoma Lake or Grafton Pond. And then for, uh, some of our more southern regions, we go down to service VA Boston, and we go on the Charles River down in Boston and yeah, all kinds of different places. 

Dan Egan:

Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. You know, it, it's, it's nice to see, of course, a huge volunteer base. I met. Just tell me a little bit about what it takes to have an army of volunteers to make this work. 

Carly Bascom: 

Yeah, volunteers. I mean, our organization is really, the volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization. We have four paid staff members, and then everybody else that's involved with providing the services that we do are volunteers. So we have about 250 active volunteers right now. It's down a little bit from Covid. We're still, uh, making our num trying to grow our numbers back to pre covid numbers, and we're always looking for more volunteers. And the, the beauty of it is you don't have to have a whole lot of experience. Uh, we can train you for any of the positions that we have, uh, any of the volunteer positions that we have, and really just a willingness to help out, a willingness to learn and be open-minded. That's what we're looking for. Yeah, 

Dan Egan:

Yeah, That's, that's a big part of it. Being open-minded and willing. 

Carly Bascom:

Right.

Dan Egan: 

Right Two key ingredients right there. 

There's no doubt about it. Um, you know, it's interesting to me, the evolution of all that we see for access. It's, uh, one, the apparatuses that you're training on, you're teaching on, uh, from tethering to the sit skis to the outriggers. It's pretty vast, right? And it's snowboarding, it's skiing in the winter, it, it's all that and more, but then there's getting on the lift. 

So how are these apparatuses a...adapting to the newer lifts, the high-speed lifts, and all those sorts of things? 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah, the engineers, I, I leave it up to the engineers to figure that out, but then we, we figure out how to use the equipment that they design. But everything is really, really up to pace, I'd say, with, you know, the speed of the lifts and, and things like that. We, of course, also, uh, will ask for a slowdown if we need one from the lift operators. But the equipment is super, you know, fairly easy to use from an operator's perspective. And, uh, yeah, they, ya they meet the needs of the population, which is a tough thing to do because we're working with all different kinds of people with all different kinds of challenges.  But somehow those engineers, they, they've got it down. 

Dan Egan: 

It's pretty outrageous, you know, of course, a lot of it comes to funding. Right. And, uh, that goes along with your volunteer base, your fundraising base. But on a group like yours that's really New England wide, you're going down to the Charles River Basin, you're up north in the Lebanon, Hanover area. Are, do you have grants or people are, are there organizations that are also funding you?  

Carly Bascom:

Yeah. Um, so we do, as far as funding for our organization goes, we do charge a fee of service. If somebody isn't unable to pay that fee, then we do have scholarship opportunities, which are funded through grants and things like that. Uh, but we also fundraise quite a bit. We have several major fundraisers throughout the year where we try to just raise awareness and raise funds for the work that we're doing so that we can keep our costs fairly low. We also, I, I write a lot of grants. I have a team of folks that help me write grants and just getting corporate sponsorships from businesses and things like that. We're, we're always looking for donations, always looking for monetary support if folks are able to provide that. 

Dan Egan: 

That's awesome. Do you interact with Whaleback at all? 

Carly Bascom:

We've, um, yeah. I, over the years, I know Whaleback has had some, some change in management, and I've been to a couple of their events over the last couple of years. I really like where Whaleback is going. I think they're in, they're going in a great direction, and I'd love to partner with them more. I think that would be great. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah, absolutely. They, I, I don't think they have a program. 

 Carly Bascom:

They Don't. Yeah, they don't. 

Dan Egan: 

That's cool. So what, what do you think about this idea? I wrote an article about this couple years back that, uh, you know, inclusion in a way, the disabled organizations are moved the population away from the population, right? That it's separate, that it's not real inclusion, right? Because a family shows up and you don't deal with the whole family, you do with, you know, whoever needs the help and needs the equipment and their support, and the rest of the family goes off to somewhere else. 

What do you think about the, in the future, is this gonna become one ski school, one center, you walk a family comes in and all their needs are met. Have you explored that at all? 

 Carly Bascom:

Um, I can't, I can't say much what the future's gonna look like, but I will speak on behalf of our organization at NEHSA and, and kind of the goals that we try to achieve with our population that we work with. And that's, we wanna get the whole family involved. So if we have a, an athlete that's coming in, they have a disability, but their whole family also wants to ski too. We try to make that happen. Uh, it's not a really good business model, but we try to have our people, our athletes graduate from our program so that they can go off and ski with the rest of their family. 

And it can be a fully immersive, you know, family activity for all of them. 

Dan Egan: 

And so, in, in some cases, are your instructors or volunteers going with the family to help facilitate that as a family unit?

Carly Bascom:

Yep, Yep. We'll train family members, um, to help operate the sit skis, if that's what the athlete needs to help operate any of the equipment if there's is an interest from the family. Not all families are super interested in skiing, and they just wanna see their kid go out and enjoy it. But if it seems to be a family activity that they can all enjoy together, that's really our goal is to get everybody out there together. I know for me, skiing and snowboarding growing up, it was a huge part of my family dynamic. 

And so to be able to provide that to another family, it's, it's really important. I think it's great. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah. It's a, it's a big step, right. And I think, you know, down the road, if, if you play that out into water sports, you know, rafting, paddle boarding, all of these can come together in that way with that openness and willingness, as you spoke about earlier, if there's a vision for that. 

Carly Bascom:

Right? No, exactly. Absolutely. And I do know that there are some ski schools across the country that they are fully inclusive. They have, it's the same building, you know, the, um, adaptive, adaptive programs are in the same building as the, uh, I'd say mainstream ski school. Yeah. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah. The able body ski school.

Carly Bascom:

 Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah. No, I, I find it interesting 'cause a lot of the mountains I work at, if, if a wheelchair came into our office, unfortunately would tell 'em they're in the wrong place. Right? 

Carly Bascom:

<affirmative>. Yeah. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah. So, you know, and you don't often think about, about that piece of it, that it could all be in one place. 

Carly Bascom:

Right, right. It, it could. Um, I think that there are still some, some steps that need to be taken to get there, but it could maybe eventually be that way. 

Dan Egan: 

So you're a lifelong, uh, sunapee skier. You grew up, uh, riding there, did you? 

Carly Bascom:

I did. I did. I, so I started off as a skier when I was very young, but quickly switched to snowboarding and haven't really looked back. But Sunapee has been a big part of my family for many, many years. Growing up, we'd go on family vacations to Mount Sunapee, and then when I moved to the Sunapee area to actually do my internship with NEHSA, I haven't looked back. I love the area. I love living in New Hampshire and Mount Sunapee is a great mountain 

Dan Egan: 

For sure. It is. And it, it, it's fun. But, but the community of Sunapee is interesting, right? It's, it's a very loyal, uh, skier and rider base. 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah, I'd say I didn't realize that until I moved there. Um, you know, for me as an outsider coming in, it was just where we went to vacation, but then once I kind of planted roots down in Sunapee, I, I realized what a tight-knit community is, and just how much pride and loyalty the community has for the mountain. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah. No, it's huge. It's huge. And so I'm sure everybody must ask you, I know, I want to know, what's it been like with Vail coming in? Has there been a shift? Do you notice it? Is it great? Is it, what is it for you? 

Carly Bascom:

Um, for us, for, for NEHSA, there hasn't been a huge shift, honestly. Uh, Vail Resorts or, or, um, the Epic Promise, that's their grant program. They picked up where the Mueller's left off as far as ticketing and support for our organization is concerned. They've been a great support for our organization from the very get go, which has been awesome. So no complaints on my end for sure. Uh, and a lot of the staff members that were there before are still there. So that's been really encouraging as well. It's hasn't been a huge shift for us. 

Dan Egan: 

That's great news, you know, really for everybody, for the ski community and, and the greater area to, to see that almost be seamlessly. 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah, Absolutely. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah. No, I love it. So, you know, when you work with something where, you know, here you are, you started as an intern and you worked your way up to the, to the big boss. Uh, you must love it. Tell me what you love about your job. 

Carly Bascom:

I love, I do love my job. You've got that right, Dan. Uh, there are so many things, but for the most part, it's just about creating these equitable opportunities for anybody, uh, regardless of any challenge they might be living with. Uh, sports and recreation has been such an enormous part of my life growing up, that, you know, if I can help or have even a small part in making that happen for everyone, then that's, that means the world to me. So that's why I've stuck around. The people that I work with are also just fantastic. Our volunteers have the biggest hearts of anybody I know, and I feel so lucky to be able to get to hang out with them every day at work. 

Dan Egan: 

I love that. Now it's great. So you love your job, and I, I think that makes, of course, doing it that much better when you're passionate about it and you love it. And particularly when you've worked your way up like you did. But there must be the people, it must be the athletes that really, drive this. Can you give us some examples of, uh, the athletes you're working with and what keeps you coming back? 

Carly Bascom:

Sure. Uh, so we work really with anybody with any sort of disability, uh, whether they're from the ages of four to 4- 104, maybe it's a physical, um, disability, maybe it's a cognitive disability. So really anybody could come through our doors at any moment, and that's kind of the beauty of having such a strong and supportive volunteer base, uh, to help work with and adapt to any person that comes in. Uh, there've been so many different examples as far as, you know, creating success for somebody out on the mountain or out on the lake. But if few come to mind and, and the first being a veteran with a spinal cord injury, uh, he uses a wheelchair in his everyday life. He started off pretty timid, and shy at first, but, uh, he became quite a confident individual. And particularly we, we, so we just started our hiking program a couple seasons ago, and we have this piece of hiking equipment that we use called the Trail Rider. Uh, and it's essentially a sit-down piece of equipment where volunteers kind of help get the sit-down piece of equipment up the mountain. And so on this particular day, we were doing our first big hike, which was to summit Mount Kearsarge. And this gentleman was coming with us. He had not hiked, um, in since before his injury, which was like 50 years ago. And so he was a little nervous, and it's a trust, it's a bit of a trust thing to sit in this piece of equipment and have these people help get you off the mountain. 

Carly Bascom:

And so he, he got in the piece of equipment, we took a while, but it, we, and it took a team of people, but we got to the top and he, I said, Hey, when was the last time you saw a view like this? And he is like, I don't know if I ever have <laugh>. 

Dan Egan: 

Wow!

Carly Bascom:

And it was like, oh my gosh, this is, this is awesome. And because of, so he is able to stand and he is able to walk very short distances, but, um, for quality, quality of life, he uses his wheelchair in everyday life. But the, there's a fire tower on the top of Mount Kearsarge, and he saw the fire tower, and he was like, I wanna go up there. And the piece of equipment that we had was kind of too big to get up there. And we said, well, can you walk up there? 

Carly Bascom:

And he's like, yep. So he did with assistance, we walked to the top of the fire tower, him and several other veteran buddies that he had, and then they hung an American flag up at the top of the fire tower. And it was just a really, really, really cool moment. Yeah. 

Dan Egan: 

That's amazing. 

Carly Bascom:

So that's one example. Yeah. But I have lots of them. Um, but I think we'd be here all day if I went, went through down the line with all.

Dan Egan: 

No, I mean, that's, that's a great example. And, um, what have you learned about resilience by doing your job? 

Carly Bascom:

 Working for NEHSA is kind of humbling, really humbling. You think you have a bad day, you know, you stub your toe or you, you have something minor happens, and yeah, it kind of stinks at the time, but there's a whole different perspective when you work with the people that we work with, uh, day in and day out, and see some of the things that the, our athletes overcome just in their everyday lives. And it puts a whole new twist to your perspective on life. And things could be much harder. And, and, you know, just be grateful and be happy with what you have and adapt, you know, no matter what, adapt with what you have and make the best of it. 

Dan Egan: 

Yeah. That's, that's amazing. We had, uh, Randy Pierce on earlier, the blind mountaineer that climbed...

Carly Bascom:

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>

Dan Egan: All 48, uh, in one summer, uh, one winter he climbed all 48, 4,000 footers in one winter. As a blind man. Phenomenal. Mm-Hmm. 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah. It's, it's amazing. And, you know, these are people doing extraordinary things. They're regular people doing extraordinary things. And, and sometimes it's not extraordinary things. Sometimes it's just your everyday activity, but it's just awesome to see that people can do it. And, uh, we like to be part of helping people do that. 

Dan Egan:

Seems to me that some of the, uh, the equipment, uh, some of it of course is engineered, but others is solving a problem, right? Like just sort of duct tape. 

Carly Bascom:

Duct tape, right? 

Dan Egan:

I mean, is that kind of what it's all about? 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the equipment is fancy and it's engineered, but there are certainly your quick fixes for on the mountain. Uh, you know, something inevitably breaks or, you know, something goes wrong, I'll say in quotes, and you just have to kind of, it's all about adapting, you know, adapting to the person, adapting the equipment, adapting your own instruction, and the way that you deliver your instruction. Uh, there, there' is so many different ways that we can make the best experience for the people while they're participating with us. 

Dan Egan:

Is there a way that you describe the community, uh, that you work with that, that some characteristics of them? 

Carly Bascom:

My old boss, Tom Kersy, would say that NEHSA is a group that socially makes no sense at all, <laugh>. Um, he would say that, you know, you have your physicians and you've got your male carriers, and you've got your pilots and your garbage people, and all these people coming from all different walks of life coming together for one similar goal. And that's to just get people outside, get them active, get them moving. Um, and it doesn't really matter, you know, what your background is, but, uh, there's some sort of, there's a certain support that comes with entering into the building that we have at NEHSA. And, and just seeing who, who else is also coming to the same space. So it's kind of cool. 

Dan Egan:

Yeah. As my experience with, um, disabled sports and athletes is there's a real sense of accomplishment with the athletes. And on the family side or the caregiver side, there's a, there's a release, there's, there's like a, oh, thank God, right? There's like, there's a, they're proud. 

Carly Bascom:

Oh Yeah!

Dan Egan:

 And that's the other part of it that we don't always see when we just see the athlete. 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah. Sometimes, and not all the time, but sometimes we see athletes and we see athlete family members of athletes come at very close to the worst moment in their lives. Um, and they come through our doors just looking for maybe one glimpse of hope. Um, and then when they find it, or if they find it, it's really awesome. It's an awesome feeling to be a part of that. Um, and then we have other people that are just looking for something fun to do, and, you know, they're, they're not in their, at their lowest point of their life, but this is something that we can, uh, this is provide them with some opportunities that they, they can then carry out through the rest of their lives. So there's a couple different ways that people come to us. Uh, but again, it's just rolling with whatever that is and figuring out what's going to work best for taking care of them. 

Dan Egan:

I mean, you're really a community resource right. For the region. And I know you work with a lot of, uh, veterans groups, but how about the hospitals and the schools? What's your interaction there? 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah, We have a, a couple of pretty regular, uh, school groups that come. A lot of the schools in New Hampshire are great. They have funding for programs like ours, so they send groups of students to come and learn how to kayak or ski or snowboard. Uh, so we work quite a bit on a weekly basis with the school systems locally. We also have some great partnerships with some group homes, um, some outpatient units, outpatient care. So yeah, we're definitely a resource. 

Carly Bascom:

And, um, I don't like that we're kind of kept as a, you know, Sunapees best-kept secret. But that is kind of how it is. And, and we're just looking to spread the word and, and tell more people about the services that we offer. 

Dan Egan:

Yeah. And there's, I mean, that's, that's an ongoing, you know, struggle, but I imagine as a resource, you're not hard to find. Right. I mean, the hospitals know, and the schools know, the veteran programs know, um, to do that. And so do you, do you do, uh, like community events? Do, do you have like a summer event, a fall event, summer events? 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah, we all, we actually just wrapped up one of our largest fundraisers of the year, which is a golf tournament. Um, so we, uh, did that at the Eastman Golf Course in Grantham. And we get a lot of different community members, different businesses that participate in that. And it's open to the public, so anybody that wants to golf, uh, can come and golf with us. So that's one of the big events that we've done. But also, as far as marketing is concerned, we try to get into, like the Sunapees Farmer's market and go to Newbury Old Home Day and just try to get our name out there and, and let the community know that we are a resource and, and that we could benefit. I mean, they could benefit from, um, you know, knowing about us. 

Dan Egan:

And, you know, you just touched on it, uh, briefly a little bit ago, but it's cognitive and physical. Right. And it's important to be focused on both. Right. And, and the cognitive one is, is a big one. 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's a lot of our, uh, school groups, the kids that come through our school groups and even the, the folks that come through the group homes, uh, come with some cognitive disabilities. And so, um, also Autism has been, you know, certainly awareness of autism has been on the rise. And so, um, yeah, we've been trying to just, Nessa has been trying to meet the needs of those populations as well. We actually started for veterans with disabilities, specifically physical disabilities. And then over the years, we've evolved into just meeting the needs and the demand demands of anybody that might come through the door, uh, regardless of, you know, what disability it might be. 

Dan Egan:

Yeah. No, that's a big deal. And I'm glad that that's going in the right direction. Uh, particularly of course, I mean, for all, all of these communities, uh, to find a home and, and, and to hit on it, you know, autism is, is a big deal. What, what do you think the, looking forward, you know, is there a piece of this that you, you see a community you're not serving something you want to take the organization to? What's, what's on the long range planning for you? 

Carly Bascom:

You're hitting me with the big questions here, <laugh>, for sure. Um, I love to see our programming at  NEHSA expand to more sports offerings. It's always exciting to think about different programs that we could add, but that always comes with, okay, well, we need the volunteers, we need the funding, we need the location. So there are steps that we need to take before we can just say, okay, we want an adaptive mountain biking program, or we want an archery program, or, or, or any of those items. 

Uh, so I'd certainly like for Nasaa to expand their sport offerings. Uh, but we have some, some building blocks to get there. And I'm excited about, you know, the future and what that might mean for us. As far as folks that we serve right now, we, we pretty much see anybody with a disability. So, um, I think we're, we're in good shape there. Uh, something might come on the rise, much like Autism has become more, um, people have been more aware of Autism and in the last few years something else might come up. And, and our goal is to just make sure that we meet the needs of whatever that population might be. So exciting things. It's exciting to think about the future, but at the same time, it's like, okay, well we need to make sure we have this, this, this, and this in place. And, and to structurally be able to realistically meet those goals, 

Dan Egan:

That's a huge piece of the puzzle access. You know, I remember when, uh, lake Winnipesaukee Sailing finally was able to access the lake with their own club and offer disabled sailing. And it was all came down to access. They had always wanted to do it. Yep. But didn't have the docks, didn't have the boats. And once somebody donated the right property Right. Things started to come in place. And I guess that's all part of the, the building block of going after certain segments, uh, in certain donors. 

Carly Bascom:

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. We, uh, right before Covid, we actually finished up a huge building renovation and expansion program, uh, project. And so we doubled our building size, um, made it certainly more accessible to the population that we work with. But, you know, who knows what, what's next on the horizon. Um, maybe we get a piece of land donated and we start, you know, a whole, whole new program, uh, on that piece of land. Uh, that would be fantastic. That would be phenomenal ideal scenario. 

Dan Egan:

 Ideal scenario out there in the 6 0 3 podcast land where we're dropping hints all over this episode to get involved. And, uh, you know, that there's, that's exciting, right? Because there's so many ways people can do that, uh, and leave things to organizations like yours that have a real lasting impact, particularly around the lake. Sure. Uh, and you know, you, it sounds simple archery, right? But from your perspective, it's like, okay, now where. You know, we'd love to offer it, but where are we gonna do it? 

What's the range gonna look like? All those sorts of things.

Carly Bascom:

Yeah. And finding the people to, you know, that are skilled in, in that sport, whatever it might be. So yeah, let's start archery, but let's get the right people trained to teach archery. And, and all of that plays into starting new programs. We wanna make sure that they're safe first and foremost, but also that people are going to learn something and, and have fun. 

Dan Egan:

You know, the skillset to run an organization like this is very diverse, right? It's fundraising, uh, it's run of the books. It's, it's dealing with people all day long, I imagine. Yeah. Uh, staffing, um, and, you know, critical fundraising volunteers sounds nice. Difficult at times. I think. I know for imagine. So how'd you get the skillset? Where'd all that come from? 

Carly Bascom:

Didn't have the skillset <laugh>, to be honest with you. I, you know, as you said earlier, I started as an intern, fell in love with the program and what they believed in, and then just kind of learned as I went. Um, and I know when I, uh, this is my fifth year of being the executive director, I know five years ago I was like, okay, what did I just do. Because now I'm running a business and I don't have a business degree, but we have had really supportive board of directors members, um, just people within the community that I've been able to ask questions and, and pool their resources and figure out, okay, this is, this is what our next step is. 

This is what's going to be best for the organization. And, um, yeah, it's good to have people that you can kind of lean on, because I'm not a finance expert, so, and I'm not ashamed to say that. So it's good to have people to ask those questions. 

Dan Egan: 

Nice. You have a few mentors. 

Carly Bascom:

Quite a few. 

Dan Egan: 

Nice. Yeah, it's really, it's key, right? To have that level of help and support to, to guide. Sometimes.

Carly Bascom:

To a point.

Dan Egan: 

No, that's good. And um, you know, I always say in, you know, in the middle of summer, we couldn't be any further away and any closer to winter. 

Carly Bascom:

That's right. It's right around the corner. Um, we, we were just, I was having a meeting earlier and it was, uh, to start preparations for our preseason winter training for all of our instructors. And so it starts early and it sneaks up on you quick. 

Dan Egan: 

It keeps coming. Uh, September is the busiest month in the winter, don't you think? 

Carly Bascom:

I think so. <laugh>, I think you're right. 

Dan Egan: 

It freaks you out. <laugh>, it's a blink of an eye. Uh, what are you looking forward to? 

Carly Bascom:

I am looking forward to an awesome 24-25, uh, sorry, 23- 24 winter season. Uh, I think I'm, hopefully, hopefully the, the snow gods are out there and Sunapee New Hampshire. Um, and I'm looking forward to getting more people out, whether it, you know, we've got our hiking program coming up in the fall soon here, or wrapping up our kayak program. Um, hoping to just get as many folks out as we possibly can, create as many smiles and hope as, as much as we possibly can, and just keep doing the work that we're doing. 

Dan Egan: 

What's been the, the biggest surprise for you? The, the athlete who's years later came back and said, thank you, or dropped you a note or an email? What's been the one that really tugged at the heart? 

Carly Bascom:

It is nice to get those notes, you know, of athletes years later, whether it's maybe a family member that says, I didn't think my son could ever do X, Y, Z. And here he is on the top of Mount Sunapee, biggest smile on his face, ready to cruise down Bonanza, or whatever the trail is. Uh, we get those every once in a while. We get letters like that. Um, but just to see, see the growth in the athletes that have been with us for years and years and years. You know, I've been there now nine years, so I've gotten to see some of the kids or young adults grow up in our program. And just to see the human beings that they're becoming and, and who they've become and how far they've come. That's been, that's been really awesome. 

Dan Egan: 

That's great. And how people find you and how do they learn more about it? 

Carly Bascom:

Yeah, so you can check out our website. It's www.nehsa.org. All of our contact information is on there. Uh, but our phone number is (603) 763-9158. Give us a call, shoot us an email, hit us up on our website. Um, and we would be happy to tell you more about our programs and how you might be able to get involved. 

Dan Egan: 

Carly changing lives, supporting people. Well done. Nice job. 

Carly Bascom:

Thank you very much.