Challenges, Obstacles Melt Away at 2018 Winter Sports Clinic

Challenges, Obstacles Melt Away at 2018 Winter Sports Clinic Disabled veterans take to the slopes to prove no challenge too steep On April 1, over 400 veterans from across the country descended on Snowmass Village, Colorado, for the annual National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. As a group of Federal Services volunteers witnessed firsthand, Miracles on a Mountainside, the unofficial title of the event, lived up to its prophetic name, with both veterans and volunteers finding the event transformative and life-affirming in more ways than one.

For more than three decades, National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, hosted

by Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), has served as a world-leader in adaptive winter sports instruction for injured veterans and their families. Participation is open to U.S. military veterans with traumatic brain injuries, orthopedic amputations and other qualifying injuries. Each year hundreds of disabled veterans of all ages and eras come together at the clinic to help each other “become the best versions of themselves.”

Veterans are encouraged to join in a wide range of adaptive physical activities during the five-day summit that include Alpine and Nordic Skiing, sled hockey, scuba diving, rock climbing – even curling. A variety of educational workshops and seminars are also offered.

We may slip, we may fall – but we never, ever give up Health Net Federal Services Sr. Vice President, Veterans Programs, Elisa Basnight, a U.S. Army veteran, was one of four employees representing Federal Services, a Winter Sports Clinic sponsor for over a decade. For Basnight, each day served up a different inspiration as she witnessed fellow veterans become more determined and self-reliant after reconnecting with the soldier within. “As an Army veteran, the mental and physical fortitude exhibited during the activities truly infused me with a sense of pride and optimism that there are no limits for our nation’s veterans who set the example for everyone to follow.”

Joining Basnight were fellow Federal Services employees Marcia Creamer, VA Claims Operations Manager, and Russ Whitney, senior quality consultant, from our Rancho Cordova headquarters. Manager of Field Operations for VA Programs, Brian Corlett, also attended. Both Creamer and Corlett reveled in the technological advancements made in adaptive recreational equipment for the disabled.

“The attention and care provided to amputees to meet their desires to either sit-ski, or be fitted with a prosthetic ski boot-leg allowing them to stand and ski without limitations, was truly inspiring,” Creamer said. Corlett, who called the experience “tremendous and uplifting,” was humbled by the reception he received from attending veterans. “With

everything that these veterans go through – and have gone through – as a sponsor, to have them thank us shows the caliber of people we have as veterans.”

Where there’s a will, there’s a wall John Kleindienst, national voluntary services director for the DAV, cited participant Kristian Cedeno’s personal affirmation as being the impetus for many of the disabled veterans in attendance. “It’s an opportunity to realize you’re not done, you’re not over, and you’re not broken,” Kleindienst said, quoting Cedeno. “Maybe it sounds a bit cliché, but volunteers and sponsors leave with a different outlook, while veterans shatter barriers that are no longer there, that they didn’t think they could overcome.”

For Federal Services’ Russ Whitney, a senior quality consultant based out of Rancho Cordova, inspiration came while witnessing a former college rock climber with significant motor control challenges attempt to scale the clinic’s 25-foot rock wall.

Tethered by a rope to an instructor who aided him in his ascent, the veteran was determined, fighting valiantly to gain footholds. When he tapped out on top, victorious, the crowd roared. “Several of us had moist eyes, including me,” Whitney admits, “We saw in him the pride and determination in achieving that challenge, as well as the various challenges he faces every day.”

While many veterans arrived with long faces, most left with laughs, high fives and a sense that the impossible may not be so impossible. For the able-bodied volunteers and sponsors watching from the sidelines, Miracles on a Mountainside lived up to its lofty expectations, a testament to the indomitable spirit of the men and women who serve our country.

To read more about the 2018 Winter Sports Clinic, visit www.wintersportsclinic.org. To find out more about VA-sponsored adaptive sports in your community, visit http://www.va.gov/adaptivesports/.