Spokane-area ski maker TJ Sneva is making a custom ski to be presented to President Barack Obama during the MLK Day of Service and Presidential Inauguration weekend ceremonies ending on January 21, 2013. Sneva was commissioned for the project by Vets Help, an organization dedicated to working with veterans and others suffering from life-altering injuries and in partnership with Kim Barreda, founder of Unlimbited.
Barreda and Unlimbited are working with Vets-Help to get wounded veterans on the slopes. Her program helps to get these soldiers equipment, training, and lift tickets so they can enjoy life and sport on the mountain. The program helps them have the same realization that she did when first strapped to a mono ski, that she could do something she never thought possible. After much collaboration, they landed on a design that would be capable of handling the most aggressive of mono skiers. This is the first of a new series of products being commissioned with Vets-Help and Unlimbited.
Vets-Help is working with various partners to expand the organization’s adaptive sports programs, enabling traumatically injured veterans and other disabled people to work through their disability to participate in sports supervised by specially trained teachers. The organization fosters industry partnerships to facilitate participation in sports like car racing, golf, winter sports including downhill skiing, and various water sports.
Vets-Help was created by a disabled vet who understands and actively works to meet the transitional needs of post-combat veterans. The group fosters understanding, mentoring, friendship and rehabilitation through competitive sports for active duty members, veterans, and their families.
The Vets Help programs serve as a different type of therapy, where veterans and families can work together to “come home” by dealing with, and moving past, combat stress and injury.
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For more information visit www.snevamfg.com, www.unlimbited.com, and http://www.vets-help.org. For more information, please contact: TJ Sneva/Sneva Mfg. Skis & Snowboards tj@snevamfg.com 317.496.8935
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’
