,

Wor ld

WOMEN'S

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN

DESIGNER

CLOTHING COLLECTIONS

ACCESSORIES

HANDBAGS

SHOES

Israeli soldiers, rabbis, ski instructors and

some family members gather on the slopes.

SALE

Disabled Israeli
soldiers hone ski
stroke in Colorado.

Marcia Zacks
Special to the Jewish News

S

TENDER

271 WEST MAPLE
DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM
248.258.0212

MONDAY—SATURDAY 10-6
SUNDAY 12-5

tenderbirmingharn.com

20

December 17 • 2009

ince 1996, I've been privileged
to work as a team leader for
the National Disabled Veterans
Winter Sports Clinic. For several years,
this adaptive ski clinic, co-sponsored by
the Department of Veterans Affairs and
the Disabled American Veterans, has
been held in Snowmass, Colo., about 17
miles from Aspen.
I work with blind and severely visually
Unpaired veterans at the John D. Dingell
Veterans Administration Medical Center
in Detroit but, once a year, I travel to
Colorado, where 350 or more severely
disabled American veterans learn to ski.
About a third of the veterans are visually
Unpaired while approximately two-thirds
have spinal cord injuries, amputations
and other injuries.
Over the past few years, younger vet-
erans with recent injuries suffered in
combat in Iraq or Afghanistan have par-
ticipated. Some are flown with therapists
from Walter Reed Medical Center, where
they are still hospitalized and receiving
rehabilitation.
The Winter Sports Clinic was founded

Above, Kfir Levi of Netanya and, right, Dov Genish of Kibbutz Revadim at
Snowmass in March

by Sandy Trombetta, national direc-
tor, who believed that the experience of
skiing could be a therapeutic event for
severely disabled American veterans.
Sandy has built the clinic from approxi-
mately 90 veterans to more than 350.
The advances in adaptive ski equip-
ment as well as prosthetics and orthotics
are evident on the slopes of Colorado
during these ski clinics. A dramatic
example is Dana Bowman. When
Bowman and his partner Jose Aguillon,
members of the Golden Knights, the U.S.
Army parachute team, collided in mid-
air on Feb. 6, 1994, Bowman lost his legs.
His partner lost his life.
Yet in 2008, I saw Dana Bowman
skydive from a small plane and land
on his two flexible prosthetic limbs. He
now boasts a 543,000 computer knee
that he plugs into a laptop each night. In
addition to having earned his wings as a
helicopter pilot, Bowman has formed a

company, Hanger, Inc., with a mission to
provide prosthetic and orthotic devices
for those in need.
Several years ago, I contacted Rabbi
Mendel Mintz at Chabad of Aspen to
request a seat at the community seder,
which coincided with my week in
Snowmass. The seder was held at the
historic Jerome Hotel; a stranger from
Michigan was welcome at the table. I
remember talking with people at my
table about the Winter Sports Clinic and,
of course, they had observed the disabled
veterans on the slopes and in the streets
of Aspen.
Much to my surprise, in 2008, Hebrew
was the second language on the slopes of
Snowmass thanks to the efforts of Rabbi
Mintz and Chabad of Aspen. They initi-
ated an effort to bring severely disabled
Israeli soldiers to Aspen to experience
the slopes of Colorado. The Chabad com-
munity of Aspen sponsored the Israeli

