INJURED MOUNTAIN BIKER RECEIVES CONTINUED SUPPORT FROM LAKE TAHOE-BASED NON-PROFIT, THE HIGH FIVES FOUNDATION
The High Fives Foundation is awarding 28-year-old Conrad Addison an Empowerment Grant of $7,200 to aid in his recovery from a life-altering injury sustained while mountain biking in Bellingham, Wash. The Empowerment Grant will allow Addison to receive vital personal training not covered by insurance.
On May, 29, 2016, Addison was mountain biking at Galbraith Mountain just outside of Bellingham Wash. when he went off of a platform jump in the freestyle park. He went over his handle bars and hit his head, resulting in immediate paralysis of his arms and legs. At Harborview Medical Center Addison was told he had burst fractured his C-4 and fractured his C-5 vertebrae.
Immediately following his injury, Addison reached out to the High Fives Foundation for support in his recovery. When he was discharged from in-patient rehabilitation at the University of Washington Medical Center, High Fives provided funding to cover three months of personal training at Pushing Boundaries – an outpatient neurological recovery facility in Redmond, Wash.
The April cycle marks the second grant for personal training at Pushing Boundaries for Addison. The recovery gains that Addison has made through rehabilitation at the Redmond facility has helped his quality of life immensely.
“Pushing Boundaries and the ability to pursue therapy there through the High Fives Foundation has been literally life-changing,” said Addison. “My independence and functionality has improved to the point where I can feed myself, brush my teeth and maneuver a manual wheelchair. At the end of March I was even able to use outriggers on a bi-ski!”
The High Fives Foundation supports injured mountain action sports athletes through grant funding to be used towards reaching their recovery goals. Since the Foundation’s January 2009 inception, the Empowerment program service has assisted 156 athletes from 31 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).
