Woodstock
Captained by Bethel resident and Woodstock Union High alpine ski coach Fred Dieffenbach, team New England Masters Skiing is participating for the third consecutive year in the Kelly Brush Ride, consisting of scenic 100-, 50- or 20-mile rides in and around Middlebury, Vt., on Sept. 9. Dieffenbach’s team has nine members from across the region.
Now in its 12th year, the KBR benefits the non-profit Kelly Brush Foundation, which provides free adaptive equipment for athletes with spinal cord injuries and advocates for safety in sports. Kelly Brush, a Charlotte, Vt., native, was paralyzed from the chest down in a crash while competing for Middlebury College at the Williams College Carnival in western Massachusetts in 2006.
New England Masters Skiing has been among the top team fundraisers in recent editions of the event, having exceeded this year’s goal of $5,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, Dieffenbach alone had raised $2,475, much higher than his listed goal of $1,750.
“As a skier, the cause is near and dear to you even if you don’t directly know someone (with paralysis),” said Dieffenbach, whose team includes former Wasps coach Bill McCollom and former Woodstock skier Michael Hirschbuhl, now a sophomore and skier at Castleton University. “You see people (with disabilities), and you wish for them to have a way to ski.”
The Kelly Brush Foundation has fitted about 425 individuals in 47 states with adaptive athletic equipment, and not just skiers. Some athletes have received recumbent bikes or hand bikes, including several who participate in the Kelly Brush Ride. Others have been given specialized wheelchairs for participation in sports ranging from tennis to rugby to rifle shooting, Brush noted in a Wednesday phone interview.
“We didn’t want to limit (resources) to adaptive skiers, and we’ve really been expanding the equipment lately,” said Brush, 31. “We’ve helped (adaptive athletes) be able to scuba dive, for example, and even got what’s called a sip-and-puff rifle mount for someone. He can’t use his hands, but he uses his mouth with a mechanism so he can hunt.”
The Kelly Brush Foundation also supplies grant funding to various ski areas to help enhance safety, including the installation of fencing, padding on structures such as lift posts and widening of wooded trails. Brush’s injury came when she spun off an icy Jiminy Peak course and struck a steel lift tower in February 2006.
“At the time, safety was not a focus (at many ski areas), so we’ve been working to change the culture,” Brush said. “We work with a lot ski areas and programs to educate about safety, especially on racing courses. Alpine ski racers shouldn’t have to be thinking, ‘How safe am I right now?’ The whole idea behind ski racing is to go as fast as you can.”
Brush is motivated to help others feel as eleated as she was when Middlebury teammates rallied to purchase a monoski so that she could join them back on the slopes.
The same group organized the first Kelly Brush Ride, drawing about 30 riders in 2006. The event now attracts about 700 participants every year.
“A big part of my identity is skiing. After my injury, I kind of felt like that was gone,” Brush said. “When I got back out there skiing, I felt like myself again. That’s what I hear from a lot of the athletes who receive this equipment from the organization.”
The Kelly Brush Ride’s registration fee is $150 per rider, which covers only about 15 percent of the event’s total fundraising. About 65 percent of its proceeds comes from rider efforts, even though there is no minimum.
Brush, who takes part in the 20-mile ride every year, is familiar with the efforts of the New England Ski Masters.
“They do an amazing job,” she said. “Most of the people who ride have no special background in fundraising. They just feel that it’s an important cause and do what they can, which helps me and the organization feel really good.”
Meandering through the back roads of western Vermont and the lower Champlain Valley, the Kelly Brush Ride’s 100-mile route features 4,717 feet of elevation gain. To train, Dieffenbach has been riding various segments of Vermont’s classic LAMB ride, the Lincoln, Appalachian, Middlebury and Brandon gaps totaling 112 miles and more than 7,700 feet of total elevation gain.
“I’ve been adding Rochester and Roxbury gap,” noted Dieffenbach, 59. “I like to climb hills.”
John Lussier, of Randolph, is riding for the sixth straight year and has been part of all three New England Ski Masters teams. Lussier is a board member of both New England Masters Skiing — which facilitates the regional USSA Masters circuit — as well as the New England Masters Ski Foundation. The latter helps skiers with financial disadvantages maintain a presence on the slopes, a cause in harmony with the aims of the Kelly Brush Foundation.
“The organization is great because it helps fill the gap for ski areas and clubs that might not otherwise have the resources to install important safety equipment,” said Lussier, 76. “It’s also a great social event for Masters skiers. A lot of us see each other every weekend from December to March, but then we might not see each other again until the following December without this event.”
Though years away from becoming a Masters skier, Hirschbuhl, a 2016 Woodstock High graduate, was enthused enough about the cause to join Dieffenbach’s cycling team.
“I’ve known about the Kelly Brush Foundation for a long time, known how super-dedicated they are to helping adaptive athletes,” said Hirschbuhl, who has been riding roughly 40 miles per day all summer to prepare for the KBR 100. “They’re a very inspirational organization. It should be an awesome day.”
For more info or to donate, visit kbf.akaraisin.com/kellybrushride2017/FredDief.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.