High Fives Athlete Jim Harris receives $6,600 Empowerment Grant to continue rehabilitation at CR Johnson Healing Center in Truckee, Calif.
Empowerment Grant will provide Harris sessions of personal training, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, Active Release Techniques and Neuro Kinetic Pilates
In November 2014, Jim Harris’ life changed dramatically following a ski accident in Punta Arenas, Chile. The crash found him with a back injury in an unfamiliar hospital in the South American country. Harris took a 19-hour flight to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where he underwent a surgery to stabilize the fractures in his back. He remained there for a month before transferring to the world renown spinal center at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo. Harris had fractured four vertebrae and was partially paralyzed from the chest down.
7-months later and his recovery has exceeded the expectations of doctors, friends and family, but not his own. His hard work and focused determination have brought him from wheelchair to standing-walker, and now he ambulates using only the minimal support of hiking poles. His walking gate, though slightly slower than prior to the injury, is improving by the day, thanks especially to a culmination of rehabilitative therapies. The High Fives Foundation has provided support for those therapies since his injury in November.
This June, Harris walked on his own through the doors of Craig Hospital and has relocated to Lake Tahoe, Calif. where he is able to continue his rigorous recovery schedule at the CR Johnson Healing Center. The Healing Center is CR is a 2,400 sq/ft training
“It is incredible to have Jim utilizing all of the components of the CR,” said Roy Tuscany, High Fives Foundation Executive Director. “Jim has dedicated his summer to three months of intensive therapy at the facility.”
This June Board-approved Empowerment Grant for Jim Harris will provide him one-on-one personal training with local trainers Chris Cloyd of the JM Performance Gym and Jack Powell (known as #JackTheTrainer). He will also receive acupuncture from Vitality Primary Care, Active Release Techniques from Shawn Griser of Active Motion Therapy, massage from renowned Truckee-based massage therapist Karen Stubbs and physical therapy with Synergy Therapeutics.
Jamie Crane-Mauzy will receive $8,200 Empowerment Grant for sessions of chiropractic, massage, personal training, yoga and healing supplements
Empowerment Grant from High Fives Foundation will help professional skier Jamie Crane-Mauzy in the recovery process from a life-altering injury
The High Fives Foundation is awarding 22-year-old Jamie Crane-Mauzy from Park City, Utah an Empowerment Grant to help aid in her recovery from a life-altering injury.
Crane-Mauzy, a professional skier, was injured on April 11, 2015 during her second run in the World Tour Finals in Whistler, Canada. Her injury occurred when she under-rotated an inverted trick, impacting the landing a number of times before sliding to a stop, completely unconscious. She was evacuated by helicopter to to Vancouver General Hospital ICU where her family found out that she had suffered a traumatic brain injury.
Since the April injury, Crane-Mauzy is now back at her home in Utah and has begun a tremendous recovery. She is already recreating in the mountains again with her sister and other family members and friends.
California-based non-profit, the High Fives Foundation, has awarded a Board-approved Empowerment Grant that will provide her with sessions of chriopractic, massage, personal training and yoga in order to strengthen and condition areas of the body that were affected by the traumatic brain injury. The grant will also purchase natural health and fitness supplements to augment her training and healing.
She made history in 2013 during the X Games in Aspen, Colo., when she became the first female freeskier to land a double backflip in competition and again at the North Face Park & Pipe Open, when she became the first female to backflip off a rail in competition that same year.
“She definitely wants to be skiing again, and we believe she will be able to ski even by next winter,” said Jeanee Crane-Mauzy, Jamie’s sister. Jeanee is also a professional skier.
“Jamie is the kind of athlete who was furthering the sport of skiing when her accident happened,” said Roy Tuscany High Fives Foundation Executive Director. “We’re going be high-fiving her as she accomplishes all of her recovery goals.”
Since the High Fives Foundation’s January 2009 inception, the Empowerment program service has assisted 85 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 2015, 26 High Fives Athletes and two organizations have been awarded 40 board-approved grants totaling $211,393.
In the month of June the High Fives Foundation disbursed $30,194 in board-approved grants to nine athletes.
June Empowerment Athletes:
Jamie Crane-Mauzy from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Bond Camp from Breckenridge, Colo.
Megan Wemmer from Boulder, Colo.
Nick Fairall from Andover, N.H.
Kevin Cheung from San Francisco, Calif.
Mike Schwarz from Chester, VT.
Jim Harris from Salt Lake City, Utah
Aaron Baker from Northridge, Calif.
Josh Dueck from Vernon, British Columbia
