8620-R1_MSA_February2024_Newsletter_Web

The Adaptive Snowmobile of the Future

is named greatly for the inspiration or need behind the seat Veteran Shawn Conoway, who has participated in the Snowmobile Reintegration for his second year. Unlike many of the other disabled veterans, Shawn required just a little bit more as his M.S. (Multiple Sclerosis) leaves him bound by wheelchair. Shawn is an inspiration to all Veterans that they too can do the unthink able, and they too can have a better quality of life. The predecessor to the Shawn 2.0

A n Officer andTwo Gentlemen Inc. a 501c3 Nonprofit in Massachusetts, is running its Winter Snowmobile Reintegration Pro grams up within the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and nothing of what they do is short of amazing. The nonprofit built to end Veteran and First Responder Suicide and to provide reintegration of our heroes to ultimately better their quality of life is just the start. This year alone they will take over 50 of our nation’s heroes up within the great

literally at the hip last year on a 1995 skidoo, there would be no data on what a disabled adaptive seat would truly need, and without the 2.0 there would be no framework for the future of Disabled Adaptive Snowmobiling. Shawn Conoway is a true inspiration and is known to say “what else could you do to me”, and though dark, his sentiment is true, but his courage is that much stronger. It is safe to say that without people like Shawn, or Mike and his team at An Officer andTwo Gentlemen that their might have not been a future for disabled adaptive snowmobil ing, but Mike says, “the future is now, and our beloved sport of snowmobiling will be shared with as many as we can”.To Mike, his team, and the Veterans and First Respond

is deemed the Conoway, because without Shawn’s way of life and his inspiration to be the seat would not have become. “There might have been a few spinoffs” Mike DeFazio says prior to the 2.0 build, but there is no framework, no engineered specs, or even a discord online even discussing disabled adaptive snowmobile seats, nev ermind for a snowmobile. After present ing to many engineers, and their firms, seat upholsters, and even metal workers, not one wanted to take on a project that had no specs. Mike nor his team takes no for an answer easily and, after consulting with Shawn, who valiantly volunteered to be tied to Mike just last year the decision was made to build their own, and to be an inspiration to the future of snowmobiling. Without Shawn and Mike having been tied

north, but that’s not all. An Officer and Two Gentlemen or (AOATG) as they are known is well, known to be a little different. Their Executive Director, Mike DeFazio, is always doing more. Whether it’s their Snowmobile Dealership that he started to fund their pro grams which is completely nonprofit, or their most recent invention of a Disabled Adaptive Snowmobile Seat which as he says will redefine who can or will be able to snowmobile. As many of us know snowmo biling is a passion, and it’s a thrill, and it’s people like Mike and his team that will bring the beautiful scenic views and back country winding trails to those who might not have been able to before. The seats base sits upon a Skidoo Passen ger seat connected by BRP’s LINQ Brack ets. For Mike and his team, that just wasn’t enough so in his spare time albeit probably only a couple days of work Mike took some stock aluminum tubing, a ¼ inch sheet of steel, a 5 point restraint seatbelt harness, memory foam, and outdoor awning fabric and fully designed, built, and upholstered the seat. This seat deemed the Shawn 2.0

ers that reintegrate at their Camp One Eighty (named for the fact that they turn our heroes lives around 180 degrees) Snow mobiling isn’t just a sport, or a past time, it truly isThrottleTherapy, and the experience itself has and will continue to save lives. Their story is far from being over, and Mike as the executive director is just plan ning his next out of the box moves to build what he deems “The American Legion of the future”. Just short of pigs flying An Offi cer and Two Gentlemen seem to be able to do it all, and if anyone could make a pig fly it might just be the team at An Officer and Two Gentlemen.

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