Cynthia’s Challenge is excited to announce the next beneficiary of the 24-Hour Ski-A-Thon to be held at King Pine Ski Area in East Madison, New Hampshire March 13-14, 2020. Funds raised from this year’s scheduled event will benefit Tuftonboro, New Hampshire's Evelynn Bunnell, a fifteen-year-old young lady who attends Kingswood Regional High School. Evelynn suffers from Quadriplegia, Cerebral Palsy, Secondary and Extreme Prematurity, Epilepsy, Vision Abnormalities, Cognitive Impairments, ADHD and Anxiety.
"Taking Evelynn to her appointments and out to run errands with me daily is very challenging with my older van," said Evelynn's father Michael Bunnell. "I lift her into a special needs car seat and then lift her manual chair in the back of my van and this is getting very hard on my back. A wheelchair accessible van will allow her to better access her community, friends and family. Evelynn would be more comfortable and safer being transported in her power wheelchair rather than in a car seat. A wheelchair accessible van would also have more room for her equipment and would be opening up a whole new world of activities for Evelynn that otherwise would not be possible. One of Evelynn’s biggest dreams is to be able to bring her powered wheelchair to the mall and go shopping." Evelynn lives with her father and younger sister Charlotte and Michael cares for his girls on his own.
Now in its seventh year, Cynthia’s Challenge 24-Hour Ski-A-Thon has raised over $310,000 to benefit children and their families. Starting in 2014, Cynthia Verrill was the first benefactor and resulted in her name being used to name the event. $35,000 was raised for Cynthia and used to provide a seizure detecting service dog. Since then, the event raised over $35,000 for Samantha Gillard in 2015; $61,000 for Kevin Dall in 2016; $50,000 for Faith Holt in 2017; $65,000 for Jacques Villeneuve in 2018, and $65,000 for Sylis Heck in 2019. All of those beneficiaries were in need of and provided wheel chair accessible vans with funds raised.
Cynthia’s Challenge was created in an effort to ease the financial burden upon children and their families associated with specialty medical needs. King Pine Ski Area supports Cynthia’s Challenge with the support of local business and the surrounding community.
For those that would like to contribute to this year’s Cynthia’s Challenge, online donations are welcome at cynthiaschallenge.org. For more information, please call Purity Spring Resort at (603) 367-8896 or email marketing@purityspring.com.