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From
The Daily Sentinel in Colorado:
An unheralded event that began at Powderhorn Ski Area almost a quarter of a century ago is about to kick off its 24th year as the largest adaptive learn-to-ski event in the world.
The 24th annual National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic begins its annual week-long run March 28 at Snowmass Ski Resort, and officials are expecting more than 370 disabled veterans to participate in a variety of traditional winter-related events.
Vets as young as 19 and from all branches of military service are expected to participate in a variety of winter events, including downhill and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, sled hockey and rock climbing on a specially designed outside climbing wall.
It was Sandy Trombetta, director of recreational therapy at the Grand Junction Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who on a whim took a vet skiing at Powderhorn, a day on the slopes that now has reached thousands of vets from every walk of life.
“It’s incredible, the changes you see people go through during their week at the clinic,” Trombetta said during an earlier interview. “You see that transition from Day One to Day Five, something magical really does happen.”
The clinic, not coincidentally, also is known as “Miracles on a Mountainside,” and each year it opens the doors to a snowy world for veterans from every conflict, from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jointly sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Disabled American Veterans and hosted by the Grand Junction VA Medical Center and the VA’s Rocky Mountain Network, the week is aimed at giving disabled veterans a chance to succeed at activities the vets might have thought no longer available to them.
Two veterans from Grand Junction, Dana Liesegang and Randy Sirbaugh, will be attending this year’s clinic.
Liesegang is a Navy vet and an incomplete quadriplegic who was injured while stationed in San Diego.
Now attending classes at Mesa State College, Liesegang has been attending the clinic since 1993, and in 1997 she won the clinic’s Linnie Howard Spirit Award.
“The clinic for me has been such a measure of progress and how far I’ve come since I was first injured,” Liesegang said.
She particularly credited a handful of longtime instructors who have worked with her since that first year.
“They have been so supportive of me in every aspect and every step of the way,” she said. “They’ve never said ‘No’ or ‘Don’t try that.’ “
Liesegang said that support has propelled her from being barely able to push her wheelchair up the wheelchair rugby court at her first clinic to this year and her first attempt at standing-up snowboarding.
“I can’t tell you how much the clinic and the people there have meant to me,” she said.
Sirbaugh, 52, will be attending his 14th Winter Sports Clinic. He is an Air Force veteran whose service time included a stint at North American Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs. He lost a leg in a motorcycle accident while in the Air Force.
In an earlier interview about his participation, Sirbaugh said the week of snow-sports and getting together with fellow disabled vets is one of the highlights of his year.
“If you don’t have a good time at the Winter Sports Clinic, you better check your pulse,” he said.
The clinic is open to vets with service-related disabilities ranging from paraplegics and quadriplegics to visual and hearing impairments, amputees and nervous disorders.
From The Daily Sentinel in Colorado:
