Central | 2022 Empowerment Grant Cycle 2 Recap

Introducing: High Fives Cycle 2 2022 Empowerment Grant recipients

High Fives is very proud to introduce everyone to these new Athletes that we will be supporting through their recovery and onto whatever goals and adventures they can dream of.

Recovery and progression of one’s mind and body is a never-ending pursuit. These Athletes realize that setting goals and improving themselves is incredibly important. After one goal or adventure is complete, they know that that goal is possible and find ways to become better with the experience and skill created.

High Fives believes that these 21 new Athletes embody our values and will represent High Fives in amazing ways, and we cannot wait to see what they are able to accomplish.

Meet the West Coast | Grant Recipients HERE

Meet the East Coast | Grant Recipients HERE

Cycle 2 2022 Empowerment Grant Recipients

Brett Yoho | SCI C5
Evergreen, CO

Brett was injured skiing trees at Beaver Creek.

The mountains are calling and I must go.

Adaptive Equipment-$1,800

David Schlicht | Amputee Below Knee
Steamboat Springs, CO

David was injured in a summer ski training accident at the Utah Olympic Park while training for Slopestyle aerials. He had just completed a training jump on the contoured Progression Airbag. While he was walking off the bag, carrying my skis, the anchoring system that holds the Airbag to the ground failed. This resulted in the airbag overturning and dropping him 65 feet to a ground landing.

You, me, or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.

$3,000- Medical Equipment

Anna Pfaff | Amputee Below Knee
Lafayette, CO

While climbing Mount Huntington in Alaska this past Spring (2022), Anna sustained severe frostbite, which resulted in the loss of all her right toes and possibly a partial loss of her left big toe. (TBD)

Movement is medicine.

$3,700-Adaptive Equipment

Dean Ahrens | SCI T5
Westminster, CO

Dean was injured in a ski accident at Arapahoe basin in Colorado. He was on the back bowls and doing a jump and ended up losing his footing and thought he was coming down on the snow, but there was a rock under the snow. He came down on the rock, right on his back. He had an L1 burst fracture and bone fragments in his spinal column. He also had a compression fracture at T7. He had surgery after being airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Colorado. After surgery, he had some pretty good movement in his left leg and sensation in his right. Four days after surgery, the movement and the sensation went away. Children’s Hospital Colorado did an MRI and was unaware of what happened initially. Once we were at Craig Hospital, they redid testing and discovered he had a spinal stroke. Following the spinal stroke, his level of injury is now at T5.

Never Give Up

$6,500-Home Renovations

Kelly Butler | SCI C5
Plano, TX

Not allowing mobility limitations from progressive multiple sclerosis to take away her active lifestyle led her to pursue adaptive water skiing. During a practice session in June 2020, Kelly wiped out, but because of the speed she was skiing at, instead of just falling, she was catapulted out of the sit ski, causing her to land face first, and at that speed, the water was like concrete. This caused her C4 vertebrae to dislocate into her spinal cord and fracture other areas of her cervical spine, leading to paralysis and tetraplegia.

Don’t give up

$420– Programs

Deavon Tabish-Moran | SCI T11
Albuquerque, NM

In 2017 Deavon decided to backpack across a few countries on his spring break. At the time he was an educator and had just paid off his student loans. He was planning on visiting a few friends that he had hosted as foreign exchange students in high school. Upon his arrival in France, one of his buddies surprised him with a ski trip at his family’s local mountain. He rented great snowboarding gear and got on his way. With 15 years of experience, he was very comfortable on new equipment. At noon they decided to go to the terrain park. On his first jump he lost control, overshot the landing and landed flat on his back on an ice patch and fractured his t11. Being on the ice and snow prevented inflammation and ultimately was the difference between being an incomplete injury versus a complete. After 26 days in the French hospital system, his insurance brought him home to do rehab at Craig hospital.
Craig Hospital constantly encouraged him to write grants and get on the mountain as soon as possible, but there was a high level of anxiety for him to do so. He waited 5 years before giving it a chance.

The number one confession of hospice patients on their death bed is that they didn’t know happiness in life was an option.

$400 – Adaptive Equipment

Ryan Davis | SCI T4
Hobbs, NM

Ryan was going for the last ride on his dirt bike and decided to hit a jump. He didn’t quite hit it right and flew over his bike. When he landed, he scorpioned and broke three parts of his back.

Never give up

$2,650 towards Medical Equipment

Leigh Woodruff | SCI C6
Boise, ID

Leigh was mountain biking with a friend on a trail near Bend Oregon in February 2022. He had a bad crash which caused full paralysis. Fortunately, another mountain biker trained in backcountry rescue arrived at the scene and helped with stabilization. He was then airlifted to St. Charles Hospital in Bend, Oregon.

Persistence pays off!

$2,500 – Adaptive Equipment

Matt Tychsen | SCI T6
Salt Lake City, UT

Matt was in a dirt biking accident in the St. Anthony Sand Dunes in Idaho. He rode the Dunes with limited light and went over an edge he didn’t see coming. Luckily he remembers none of it!

Still gonna send it!

$4,500 – Adaptive Equipment

David Nicholls | SCI C5
Park City, UT

Dave was a NCAA Ski Racer who was hit from behind by an out of control snowboarder while training

If not now, when?

$2,500 – Adaptive Equipment

These new Central Athletes will be welcomed to the High Fives Ohana by previous Athletes and Cycle 2 2022 Grant recipients

Tyler McKenzie | SCI
Salt Lake City, UT

NO ONE WOULD HAVE CROSSED THE OCEAN IF [THEY] COULD HAVE COULD HAVE GOTTEN OFF THE SHIP IN THE STORM.

$800 – Adaptive Equipment

Jim Harris | SCI
Golden, CO

REGARD IT AS THE FOREMOST TASK OF EDUCATION TO ENSURE THE SURVIVAL OF THESE QUALITIES: AN ENTERPRISING CURIOSITY, AN UNDEFEATABLE SPIRIT, TENACITY IN PURSUIT, READINESS FOR SENSIBLE SELF DENIAL, AND ABOVE ALL, COMPASSION.

Funds toward an E-Bike