Cross country skiing with CLASS

By Bethany Bray
Staff Writer

February 14, 2008 09:37 am

—

Boxford resident Peter Tehan cross-country skied for five hours straight on Feb. 10, completing the Great Glen Nordic 300 race at the base of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. With every stride of his skis, he was raising money for the disabled.

Friends, colleagues and family of Tehan, 48, pledged money for each kilometer he finished, allowing him to raise nearly $2,000 for the Citizens League for Adult Special Services. CLASS Inc. is a Lawrence-based nonprofit that offers services, therapy and job training for the disabled.

"The athletic accomplishment is nothing, compared to the people who work here," said Tehan a few days before the race, as he sat in the Lawrence office of CLASS President/CEO Bob Harris. "These are people who give something, every day."

Tehan has a personal connection to his cause — both he and his wife, Karen, have siblings who are developmentally disabled. Growing up, he saw first-hand the benefits of someone helped by a program like CLASS, he said. His second oldest brother, Steve, was a client of the Vocational Advancement Center in Boston.

In the Great Glen Nordic 300, participants have 300 minutes to ski as many laps as they can through the five-kilometer course, which utilizes the rolls, twists and turns of the Great Glen Trails Nordic ski system at the base of Mount Washington. Tehan's finished 26 kilometers, about 16 miles, earning about $76 per kilometer for his cause.

Polartec sponsored Tehan with a donation and a specially-designed Polartec jacket he wore during the event. Polartec, formerly known as Malden Mills, is based in Lawrence. Tehan described his race jacket as "cardinal red," with the Polartec logo on one sleeve, and CLASS Inc.'s logo on the other.

The ski race this past weekend is just the beginning of Tehan's work for CLASS, Tehan said. He has dozens of ideas of how to connect CLASS with corporate donors and to "ring the bell a little louder," spreading awareness about the organization and its programs, he said.

Ringing the bell

CLASS Inc., a chapter of the ARC of Massachusetts (formerly known as the Association of Retarded Citizens), is headquartered in Lawrence and also operates an office in North Reading. It serves 500 Lawrence-area people with disabilities, said Harris. Founded in 1976, the organization is a certified nonprofit agency that receives 97 percent of its funding from the government.

"That's a problem, because they (the government dollars) are not keeping pace with our needs in the community," said Harris.

That's where Tehan and his ideas come in. Tehan, a Boston College graduate, has a background in high tech sales and is not afraid to be a "crazy sales guy, knocking on doors," to form partnerships, Tehan said.

Building off the donation and race jacket from Polartec, Tehan has plans of contacting business from Harvard Pilgrim health insurance to National Grid to reduce CLASS's expenses and connect the program with local businesses.

"You ask for everything you could possibly want, knowing that you'll get less," said Tehan, smiling. "It's a very well-run business here. With the help of the community, we can make it an exemplary business."

Besides forming new business partnerships, Tehan's other "crazy goal" is for CLASS to buy the 72,000 square-foot former mill building in Lawrence it's operated out of since 1992.

Skiing the course

Last winter, Tehan skied the Great Glen race, completing 25 kilometers to raise money for the Vocational Advancement Center in Boston, the program that has helped his brother.

This year, he wanted to raise money for a similar facility closer to home, and searched the Web to find an ARC program close to Boxford. He found CLASS, and sent an e-mail to introduce himself.

When Harris, an outdoorsman who enjoys winter camping and snowshoeing, first received Tehan's message, he said "I can't wait to meet this guy," he recalled.

Since then, he has been happy to collaborate with Tehan.

"It's very motivating, a morale booster for us to see folks come in from the community and get involved," he said.

Tehan said the inspiration to start skiing seriously came as he watched cross-country skiing in the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway and Albertville, France.

"I couldn't believe how fast they were," he said of the Olympians, especially Norwegian gold medalist Vegard Ulvang.

Tehan said he'll never forget the race where Ulvang stood at the finish line, after arriving first, to wait for a skier from Ethiopia, who was struggling to finish after entering for the first time.

"I couldn't believe the teamwork and the sportsmanship," he said.

From there, he began long-distance running and cross-country skiing as part of a "mid-life crisis" that also involved growing a beard and long hair, which he's since cut, he said with a laugh.

He does not run anymore, due to a tendon injury in his foot, but hopes to eventually ski the Vasaloppet race in Sweden, which is 90 kilometers, he said.

His method for skiing races is "slow and steady," he said, telling himself "don't quit, just keep pushing."

He trains at the Weston ski track, which has a two-kilometer groomed track with artificial snow, similar to the conditions at the Great Glen race.

Tehan said his wife, Karen, and two children, Nigel, 13, and Isabel, 11, are very supportive of his skiing, but enjoy downhill skiing more than cross-country themselves.

"What pushed me over the edge (to get involved) in the last year was listening to the lyrics to a U2 song, from their album 'Crumbs from Your Table': 'You speak of signs and wonder, but I need more,'" he said. "You know what the more is? Action."

BOX: CLASS Inc. snapshot

r Agency of the ARC of greater Lawrence; a chapter of ARC of Massachusetts

r Offers job training, life skills training, occupational therapy, day services and support to families and people of all ages who are mentally and physically disabled

r Based in Lawrence since 1976, serves 500 individuals each year

r Has a staff of 160, and 21 vans for transporting clients

r Visit them on the Web at www.classinc.org

To donate

r CLASS, Inc. is still accepting donations for Peter Tehan's Great Glen Nordic 300 race. Contact Alison Graziano, development manager, at 978-975-8587 Ext. 1209 or agraziano@CLASSinc.org. Or send mail to Alison Graziano, CLASS Inc., 1 Parker St., Lawrence, MA 01843.