DOUGLAS F. SMITH MEMORIAL FUND

The Douglas F. Smith Memorial Fund has been offered since 1994 to a student, artist, or athlete within the United States. As a general guideline, recipients are notable for an understanding of excellence as demonstrated through persistence and hard work. Recipients exemplify the concept of victory as earned in the monotonous and committed moments, where often alone and unrecognized, the winner earns his right to win. CHARITYSMITH is proud to present annual grants from this fund dedicated to such individuals.

Nominations for this award should be mailed to CHARITYSMITH along with a brief essay supporting the proposed recipient. Letters of recommendation from the nominee’s professors, coaches or mentors are also appreciated.

About Douglas F. Smith

Douglas Franklin Smith was born in Ohio on the 25th of August 1932. He was the only son of Percivall and Ann Smith and attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois.

In 1954, Doug graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire with a degree in History. While at Dartmouth, Doug participated in the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity, competed for the Dartmouth Swimming Team and served as a cadet in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp.

Following graduation from Dartmouth, Doug attended Northwestern University where he earned his Jurist Doctorate in 1957. He then went to work as an investment banker in the Eastern Division of E.F. Hutton. On July 2, 1964, Doug married Frederica Seiber Gardner at St. Elizabeth's Church in Cook County, Illinois. The couple had four children together: Elizabeth (Ginger), Katherine (Katie), Douglas (Duke), and Brooks.

Doug and Frederica eventually bought a condo in Aspen, Colorado where they could spend time in the mountains they loved. On January 22, 1970 at 8:06 a.m., Doug was killed in a commercial plane crash on McLain Flats, just three miles west of Aspen, Colorado. All eight passengers aboard the commercial flight were killed on impact. Then 37 years old, Doug died a husband, father, scholar, and successful member of the business community. He had a passion for skiing, wore his hair short, and appreciated the companionship of good friends. Doug was driven to be a success and his life, brief though it was, demonstrated that commitment.

In some small way, by building this fund in his name, Douglas F. Smith, though gone from this life, is not gone from ours.

Maddison Page

Please join us Saturday, May 10th for a day of celebration, life, love and hope as we help raise funds all day in the Olympic Village Lodge in Squaw Valley (near Lake Tahoe) for the very special Maddison Page. This CHARITYSMITH EVENT is fully tax deductible. The day will be filled with live music and entertainment, an auction and the opportunity to make Maddy's days filled with the things she has wanted to do her entire life and is now forced try and accomplish in a smaller window of time. Thank you for your generosity -- see you on Saturday, May 10! To donate immediately, click the Make A Donation button below.

Maddison Page Blog: http://maddisonpage.blogspot.com/

Current Recipient: Roy Tuscany, Professional Skier

Click here to watch a video slide show of the HIGH FIVES contest!

Article by Sylas Wright, Sierra Sun Newspaper, swright@sierrasun.com
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20080425/SPORTS01/50713540

The hitch in Roy Tuscany’s giddy-up does little to illustrate his body’s battered past. Nor does his contagious, zest-for-life attitude.

Despite the eight screws, two plates and two 9 1/2-inch rods stabilizing his spine, the 26-year-old Truckee skier can’t seem to wipe the infectious smile from his face.

He doesn’t try. Even after three surgeries and 23 months of painful rehabilitation following a 2006 ski accident that left him paralyzed from the belly button down.

“I think it actually helped Roy out in a lot of ways,” said KC Wry, Tuscany’s longtime friend and roommate. “It definitely made him more passionate about skiing and about life in general. It’s amazing how he’s been able to stay positive through the whole thing.”

Tuscany’s all about positive vibes, really. And skiing.

For him, the two are closely linked.

So it’s with much pride that he spearheaded the High Five 540 Contest, which is set to go down in Sugar Bowl’s Switching Yard Terrain Park on Saturday.

“It’s going to be a celebration of skiing and a celebration of the positivity that can come out of skiing,” the former Sugar Bowl Freeride Team coach said, smiling at the thought.

The “High Five” part of the contest title is more than just a clever name. It holds special meaning for Tuscany and his crew.

“I would high five all my physical therapists and friends (during rehabilitation), and then it kind of just turned into who I am now,” Tuscany explained. “I just love seeing my friends again because I almost lost that opportunity.

“And it gets a great point across. It’s a train of positivity between two people. You get their positivity, and they get yours back.”

Since that fateful spring day in 2006, the Vermont native has worked tirelessly to get back on his feet, and back on skis. After steadily chipping away at his goal for nearly two years, he’s accomplished both.

The crash
Once a pro-level freeskier with a dozen sponsors, Tuscany went from the top of his game to near death in one miscalculated launch in the Mammoth Mountain terrain park.

The day was April 29. Tuscany, who was skiing solo on a three-week trip with his Sugar Bowl Freeride Team, charged a 70-foot step-up table. Soon after takeoff, he realized he had carried too much speed.

Tuscany overshot the landing by 21 feet, soaring 121 feet from the lip of the jump before crashing into the flats from 30 feet in the air.

“I closed my eyes to tell myself, ‘You don’t want to see this,’” Tuscany recalled.

Then the aftermath.

“It felt like I went through my body, like my legs went through my body — if that makes sense,” Tuscany said. “The pain is something that I can’t explain to anyone.

“I opened my eyes, saw blood and instantly almost went into shock because of the amount of pain I was feeling.” The blood was from a severed artery in his thumb.

Though he was writhing in pain and covered in blood, Tuscany had enough wits about him to reach into his pocket and grab his cell phone. He called Jim Hudson, his surrogate father and director of development of the Sugar Bowl Ski Team.

Hudson, who also was skiing on the mountain, relayed the message to Tuscany’s then-girlfriend Ashley Carter and friend Libby Webster.

Carter and Webster took action, and they soon found Tuscany in a heap, unable to move his lower extremities.

“It was really scary,” Carter said, adding that the initial concern was the blood, which also was coming from a cut on Tuscany’s face. “I think everyone was in shock. I certainly was. I never expected to see someone in that situation. I was almost just going on auto pilot.”

Tuscany explained what was going through his mind.

“There were so many thoughts, it was kind of like a computer overload, like they canceled each other out,” he said. “It was such an overload of emotions, my mind kind of shut down.”

Painful times
Mammoth Ski Patrol rushed Tuscany to the bottom of the mountain, where an ambulance relayed him to the local hospital.

The burst fracture sent his T12 vertebrate into his spine, compromising it by 40 percent. Putting the spine injury into context, Tuscany compared it to a soup can, or anything cylindrical, denting in on the sides.

After about two hours in the Mammoth-area hospital, Tuscany said he was flown to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno by way of a Lear Jet. There, Tuscany said a world-renowned back specialist happened to be on call, and he stabilized Tuscany’s spine by inserting the plates, rods and screws. The operation required 48 staples to sew up, leaving a 13 1/2-inch scar.

It hurt, Tuscany said. Badly. And to make a bad situation worse, his morphine drip made him sick. Vomiting was excruciating, so he stopped taking the morphine.

“I felt the most pain after surgery,” Tuscany said.

He then spent three days in the intensive care unit, then five more in the neuro science wing of the hospital. There, he received between 30 and 35 visitors a day — including Truckee skiers Daron Rahlves and Marco Sullivan and his large contingent of friends. At one time, 27 visitors crowded into his room to pay a visit.

Tuscany was out of bed and in a wheelchair after six days, then started physical therapy, working on standing with the assistance of parallel bars.

“Every day was a struggle,” he said. “It was ridiculous going from a fully functional person to just looking at your legs and having them do nothing for you. It’s crazy to look at your legs and tell them to move, and they don’t.”

Carter was there every day with him, providing priceless support along with Tuscany’s parents, he said.

On June 26, 2006, Tuscany was discharged from the hospital.

The recovery
Once discharged, Tuscany flew back to Vermont. In nearby New Hampshire, he began working with Wayne Burwell, a personal trainer at River Valley Club in Lebanon.

The two hit it off and remain good friends to this day.

“Wayne basically re-instilled the positivity I had back into my mind,” Tuscany said.

Also back in Vermont, Tuscany had a “bad doctor” who misdiagnosed a new problem with his feet, which started to drop and turn inward. The doctor said it was because of muscle contractions.

After moving back to Truckee in December 2006, Tuscany learned from Ladd Williams of Bear Bones Physical Therapy that the problem was caused by shrinking of his Achilles tendons. His right Achilles had shrunk by 2 1/2 inches and his left by 1 1/2 inches. Tuscany still works with Williams, crediting him — and Burwell — with how far he has come in his recovery.

“Ladd has natural healing powers people need to hear about,” he said. “He just has this positive aura that you don’t find in your everyday physical therapist.”

Tuscany had surgery in May 2007 to repair his right Achilles, then went under the knife again in September to fix the left side. He still needs two more surgeries, one to transfer muscles to his left leg and another to repair damaged toes on his right foot.

By November, his feet were flat again. He began using crutches, then switched to a cane within a month. By February of this year, Tuscany was walking under his own power.

The big day
On March 25, Tuscany took two runs down Knob Hill at Sugar Bowl along with the assistance of friends.

With his legs still far from 100 percent, he couldn’t turn. Nevertheless, he skied.

Soon after, Tuscany got adaptive ski poles that allow him to initiate turns with the strength in his upper body. So far he’s skied five days.

His goal: “I just want to ski powder again. That’s the only goal I have in skiing right now,” Tuscany said.

While he’s enthusiastic about making powder turns, Tuscany said he has no intention to jump again — on anything.

“No, never. I hit a 3-foot jump on my snowmobile and it was scary,” he said. “I’ll never hit another jump again — not on skis, not on a snowmobile, not on any apparatus.”

Past Recipients:

• 2008 Roy Tuscany, Professional Skier
• 2007 Rosine Area Veterans Memorial, Rosine, Kentucky
• 2006 Charlie Anderson, Freeride Skier
• 2005 Shelly Robertson, US Freestyle Ski Team
• 2004 Shelly Robertson, US Freestyle Ski Team
• 2003 Shelly Robertson, US Freestyle Ski Team
• 2002 International Health Corps to Ghana, University of Utah School of Medicine
• 2001 Michelle Mellor, Miss Utah Pageant
• 2000 Scott Johnson, Stevens Heneger College, Computer Science Program
• 1999 Brad Brazzeal, Dixie College, Paramedic Program
• 1998 Jesse Thurgood, Singer/Songwriter
• 1997 Redwood High School, 10 Year Class Reunion
• 1996 Steve Edgley, Medical Mission - Choice Program
• 1996 Mathew Vernon, Medical Mission - Choice Program
• 1995 Aaron "Zippy" Rasicot, U.S. Freestyle Ski Team
• 1994 Aaron "Zippy" Rasicot, U.S. Freestyle Ski Team

Fund Administrators:

• Brooks H. Rohlen, MD
• Douglas S. Rohlen, MBA

Donations:

All donations to Douglas F. Smith Memorial Fund (a division of CHARITYSMITH) are tax deductible in accordance with federal tax laws. Donations can be made using one of the following secure methods:

• By mail: send your donation check payable to:
  Douglas F. Smith Memorial Fund
  c/o CHARITYSMITH Nonprofit Foundation
  PO Box 7377, Menlo Park, CA 94025


• At Wells Fargo Bank: donations can be deposited directly to the Douglas F. Smith Memorial Fund. For account information, please contact CHARITYSMITH at 800-276-6546.


• Gift Card: Donate in honor of someone and we will mail a gift card directly to your family, friends, or business associates telling them you’ve made a donation in their honor. Make a Donation

• Online: donate with a credit card or paypal account by clicking the link below or by calling 800-276-6546.
  

(This memorial fund is established as a division of CHARITYSMITH Nonprofit Foundation EIN 87-0636433. CHARITYSMITH is dedicated to the creation and governing of memorial endeavors. All donations are tax deductible in accordance with with federal tax laws.  If you have any questions regarding this donation or memorial fund, please contact CHARITYSMITH at your convenience.)