NEWRY – Overcoming adversity from physical and mental handicaps while relearning how to enjoy winter sports was a great equalizer for 26 disabled veterans Friday.

Maine Handicapped Skiing’s third annual Veterans/No Boundaries program at Sunday River Ski Resort was also rife with camaraderie and fun.

For Marc Bilodeau, Donald Hebert, Shon Holler and Pete Sargent, the four-day program was a must-do opportunity.

Bilodeau, of Poland, and Hebert of Roxbury Pond served with the U.S. Air Force; Holler of Mount Juliet, Tenn., and Sargent of New Gloucester, were Army.

Veterans/No Boundaries provides recreational activities to veterans and active duty personnel with a disability that may require adaptive equipment and techniques to participate in sports.

Sargent, a leg amputee, was one of more than 70 Maine Handicapped Skiing volunteers assisting or teaching veterans alpine and Nordic skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and dogsledding.

Bilodeau, who served from 1978-1982, has Guillian-Barre Syndrome.

“It’s a nervous (system) disorder, where my body tried to kill me,” he said, following a four-track skiing session using skis on his feet and a pair of outrigger skis duct-taped to both jacketed arms.

Bilodeau remains partially paralyzed in his limbs.

“My doctors think I got it from a flu shot. For eight months, I was paralyzed at 22 years old, then my body fought it off,” he said.

Another bout with paralysis five years later left him on life support. He’s still recovering. Three years ago, he rekindled his interest in skiing through Veterans/No Boundaries using a walker outfitted with skis.

“At first, I thought it sucked. Then, I said, ‘It’s not so bad.’ Then they put me on four-tracking and I’m building a little stamina. I’m still figuring it out, but I’m getting a little better every year,” Bilodeau said.

He also does snowshoeing, but prefers alpine skiing.

“This is a lot more fun. All you’ve got to do is fall downhill and keep it under control. …With just a little adaptation, I can do a helluva a lot. I’m not that messed up. I do everything – and I do it badly – but I don’t care, because I’m doing something,” Bilodeau said.

Hebert, who suffered a back injury in 1965 while serving in the Vietnam War, had spinal and hip fusion three years later. The former Nordic skier has had limited mobility ever since.

He got into Veterans/No Boundaries last year, two years after taking his disabled son to Maine Handicapped Skiing to learn alpine skiing. His son suffered a traumatic brain injury in an accident at the age of 14.

“I thought that if he’s going to do it, I ought to try it myself,” Hebert said. “I was apprehensive because I didn’t know if I’d have enough flexibility and, if I fell, what was it going to do to me. But once I got here, the instructors were fantastic. … Within four days, I was going down by myself.”

A medic of 15½ years, Holler served during the Gulf War. In Afghanistan he was with the 10th Mountain Division. A war wound in 2005 left him with a traumatic brain injury and limited use of his left leg and left arm.

On Friday, the 6-foot, 5-inch tall veteran was learning snowboard techniques

“I fell in love with it,” Holler said. “I’m getting better. They’re tweaking me where I need to be tweaked. This is really nice. It’s cold, but I’m enjoying it. There are real good folks up here. … I feel blessed to be given an opportunity to meet new people and experience new things.”

Sargent was working with an Army vet who’d suffered a back injury in 1992 but is now skiing well.

“When they get out here and find out they can ski or snowboard, they get a huge smile and say, ‘Oh, yes!'” said Sargent, an infantryman in the Vietnam War who was injured in a mine field explosion in Chu Lai in 1970.

He learned to ski at Maine Handicapped Skiing and has been volunteering for the past 16 years.

“I wouldn’t trade this for the world. This is fun. It’s a win-win situation. You don’t lose here,” Sargent added.