ALBANY - Mark DeMontis sits in an RV parked alongside the Trans Canada Highway at the Albany 'Y'
He's dressed in a jersey, carries a hockey stick and is wearing in-line skates.
What is he doing here?
"Just trying to Rollerblade across the country," DeMontis says as he emerges from the recreational vehicle.
When he was 17, DeMontis was an up-and-coming hockey player, skating toward a scholarship at an American college.
But just before graduating high school, DeMontis was diagnosed with Leber's Optic Neuropathy, leaving him legally blind.
"I can only see around the eye, peripherally," he explains. "Things like large shapes, shadows, minor depth perception and colour."
Instead of giving up on his hockey dream, however, he has become a champion of blind hockey programs.
With the help of Courage Canada, an organization he founded, the 24-year-old man is in-line skating from Halifax to his home in Toronto.
It's his second journey to encourage more support for blind hockey programs across Canada. In 2009, DeMontis skated from Toronto to Vancouver.
In the coming year, he hopes more blind hockey programs for youth and adults spring up around the country.
"Blind hockey is very similar to sighted hockey, aside from one major modification being a noise-making puck...so players can hear it," he said. "There are a number of Canadians who are blind or visually impaired from coast to coast, in every province or territory. I think it's important that we work together...so they can get the chance to learn how to skate and play hockey."
The skate from Albany to Borden-Carleton was the culmination of Day 9 of a 64-day trek.
DeMontis was eager to cross the Confederation Bridge, even if he'd have to ride in the RV instead of skate across it.
"It would've been great to in-line skate the Confederation Bridge," he said. "None the less, we're looking forward to seeing it, and using my peripheral sight to see the water on each side."
sbrun@journalpioneer.com
Via: journalpioneer
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