Canadian comedian Rick Mercer's show on CBC last night went "downhill fast"...his own words...when he paid a visit to North Bay's Laurentian Ski Hill March 5.
The stars of the show were kids enrolled with the Nipissing Trackers.
The group provides a free downhill ski program for special needs children, This year is the biggest season yet, with 30 volunteers providing approximately 350 lessons to roughly 50 students and their families over a five-week period.
And it's all volunteer driven.
During the segment, Mercer learns how to teach the children, skis backward, then joins the kids racing down the hill.
"I was racing with a kid and I was strapped in. It was fantastic," Mercer told CKAT. "It's a real rush and it's exciting. You just can't beat it when you have a small kid in a wheelchair, that at some point in their life think there are certain things they won't be able to do, and probably downhill skiing is on that list, and because of the Trackers, no more, and they're going downhill fast."
See Mercer's full program here. The Laurentian Ski Hill segment starts at the 10:15 mark and runs about 12 minutes.
Mercer has another segment that will air soon as he goes to helicopter school at Canadore.
"One of the things I've enjoyed about my job over the past 15 years is that I've spent a bit of time in helicopters flying over incredible scenery because we sometimes use them to shoot from, and sometimes we need to get to remote locations. I've always had a bit of a fascination with them and always thought it would be great to know how to actually fly one.
"They have a college program there that is incredibly intensive. It's one of the best in the country by far. So I went up and got this stick and we went flying helicopters for a day. It was a huge thrill, literally one of those 'thrill of a lifetime' experiences, and now I know I'll never be a helicopter pilot."
