Northern California Athletes, Matt Leonard, Shawn Maloney & Michele Edwards receive Empowerment Grant Funding of $4,000 from High Fives
Bay Area resident Matt Leonard receives continued support from the High Fives Foundation! $1,000 Empowerment Grant will provide Leonard with personal training sessions at SCI-Fit in Pleasanton.
The High Fives Foundation is awarding 27-year-old Matt Leonard an Empowerment Grant to help aid in his recovery from a life-altering injury he sustained at Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe, Calif. this winter. Leonard was doing a warm up run under the Summit Chair at the resort. It was his second run down on the same trail, when his ski edge caught the snow wrongly, sending him into an ice mogul. In the crash, one of his skis came off, sending him into the ninth tower pole of the Summit Chair. He was airlifted to Renown Medical Center, in Reno, Nev., where Leonard found that he had compressed his spine 90%, shattered his T5/T6 vertebra, and had a 45-degree kink in his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
After multiple surgeries in Reno, Matt transfered to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo. for intensive inpatient rehabilitation. He is now back at his house in San Francisco, Calif where he will continue to work at SCI-Fit in Pleasanton. SCI-Fit is a facility dedicated to exercise-based recovery. Their mission is providing the most comprehensive, post-traditional, exercise based therapy for those individuals who have suffered a debilitating injury.
“I want to be able to live a fun, independent, outdoor, active life,” Matt Leonard told the High Fives Foundation. “This continued work with a Physical Therapist to help develop some of my abdominal core and to help with any nerve regeneration in my spine.”
Roy Tuscany, Executive Director of the High Fives Foundation, said, “Matt has an amazing spirit and support system. He will put this injury behind him with grace and accomplish anything he puts his mind to.”
Since the organization’s January 2009 inception, the Empowerment program service has assisted 89 athletes from 20 states in nine respective funding categories which include: living expenses, insurance, travel, health, healing network, adaptive equipment, winter equipment, programs and stoke (positive energy, outlook and attitude). In 2015, the High Fives Foundation set a budget of disbursing $266,000 via board-approved grants through the Empowerment Fund. Since January, the Foundation has disbursed $203,626 to 29 athletes and two organizations.
Roseville resident Michele Edwards to receive $1,000 Empowerment Grant to help towards recovery from a life-altering injury. High Fives Foundation to provide Edwards with grant funding for sessions of personal training at SCI-Fit in Sacramento.
The High Fives Foundation Empowerment Program service disburses board-approved grants to mountain action sports athletes who are recovering from life-altering injuries. In July, the Foundation’s Board of Directors Grant Selection Committee approved a grant for Oakland-based Empowerment Athlete Michele Edwards totaling $1,000.
In February 2012, 42-year-old Edwards was snowmobiling with a friend in Bucks Lake Wilderness. Traveling fast on the back of the snowmobile, Michele and her friend hit a bump and she went flying over the handlebars crashing into a tree. While unconscious, Michele was driven by snowmobile to Buck Summit and then airlifted to Enloe Hospital in Chico where she was told that she had fractured her C2 and C4-C5 vertebrae, causing paralysis from the shoulders down.
Since then, she has continued her rehabilitation at SCI-Fit, a facility in Sacramento dedicated to exercise-based recovery. Their mission is providing the most comprehensive, post-traditional, exercise based therapy for those individuals who have suffered a debilitating injury.
“Edwards has experienced gains with her work at SCI-Fit,” said Roy Tuscany, High Fives Foundation Executive Director. “And she looks to continue working there so she can get closer to reaching her short-term and long-term goals.
The July 2015 Empowerment Grant will provide Edwards with 10 sessions of personal training at SCI-Fit.
“My goal is to increase my independence to whatever capacity possible,” Edwards said. “I am a big winter sports enthusiast and would love to participate in snow activities for adaptive sports.”
Since the organization’s January 2009 inception, the Empowerment program service has assisted 89 athletes from 20 states in nine respective funding categories which include: living expenses, insurance, travel, health, healing network, adaptive equipment, winter equipment, programs and stoke (positive energy, outlook and attitude). In 2015, the High Fives Foundation set a budget of disbursing $266,000 via board-approved grants through the Empowerment Fund. Since January, the Foundation has disbursed $203,626 to 29 athletes and two organizations.
Oakland resident Shawn Maloney to receive $2,000 Empowerment Grant to help towards recovery from a life-altering injury. High Fives Foundation to provide Maloney with grant funding for sessions at San Francisco’s Project Walk.
The High Fives Foundation Empowerment Program service disburses board-approved grants to mountain action sports athletes who are recovering from life-altering injuries. In July, the Foundation’s Board of Directors Grant Selection Committee approved a grant for Oakland-based Empowerment Athlete Shawn Maloney totaling $2,000.
In April 2015, 29-year-old Maloney was hiking along the cliffs overlooking a beach in Northern California with some friends. They decided to hike over an exposed ridge that required some brief climbing. He grabbed onto something that did not hold his weight, and fell 20 feet onto the beach. The fall broke his T-12 and L-1 vertebrae and caused a contusion to his spinal cord. Maloney was lifted in a helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where his spine was fused, and the doctors were able to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord. His rehabilitation took place at Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center in Vallejo, Calif.
“I was encouraged to reach out to High Fives by a couple of mutual friends and family,” said Maloney. “A friend of mine gave me a copy of Grant Korgan’s book.” Grant Korgan is a High Fives Athlete who was injured in 2010. His book, “Two Feet Back,” chronicles his road to recovery fueled by positivity. It is shared with all future High Fives Athletes as inspiration.
“Shawn was injured just three months ago, and he is already making a tremendous recovery,” said Roy Tuscany, Executive Director of the High Fives Foundation. “He is already walking with assistance. He has linked up with other High Fives Athletes in the Bay Area as a source of inspiration and support.”
The July 2015 grant for $2,000 awarded to Maloney will be used toward 20 sessions of Locomotor training at Project Walk in San Francisco.
Locomotor training re-teaches walking to people with life-altering injuries by varying body weight support and a treadmill system in combination with manual assistance by specially-trained physical therapists and other members of the locomotor team.
“High Fives has already helped by showing me examples of people who have overcome this injury and are living full, positive lives,” said Maloney. “I know that I will recover, and I am extremely lucky to have such a strong support group of friends and family that have helped get me this far.”
Since the organization’s January 2009 inception, the Empowerment program service has assisted 89 athletes from 20 states in nine respective funding categories which include: living expenses, insurance, travel, health, healing network, adaptive equipment, winter equipment, programs and stoke (positive energy, outlook and attitude). In 2015, the High Fives Foundation set a budget of disbursing $266,000 via board-approved grants through the Empowerment Fund. Since January, the Foundation has disbursed $203,626 to 29 athletes and two organizations.
In the month of July, the High Fives Foundation disbursed $17,509.88 in Empowerment Grants to the following High Fives Athletes:
David Hewel from Reno, NV.
Tim Burr from Glenwood Springs, Colo.
Michele Edwards from Roseville, Calif.
Jordan Griffin from Lakewood, WA.
Matt Leonard from San Francisco, Calif.
Frank Lin from Anaheim, Calif.
Shawn Maloney from Oakland, Calif.
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About the High Fives Non-Profit Foundation: High Fives Foundation is a Tahoe-based, national 501.c.3 non-profit organization The High Fives Foundation supports the dreams of mountain action sports athletes by raising injury prevention awareness while providing resources and inspiration to those who suffer life-altering injuries. Formed as a way to “pay-it-forward” by the founder from his own recovery to help injured athletes, the Foundation has helped 89 athletes to date since its inception in 2009, more information visit www.highfivesfoundation.org.
