The Hart Highlands Winter Club will be putting on their 2nd annual fall fundraiser tonight (Saturday).
With the event comes a guest speaker, and tonight’s brings someone with a unique story.
In November of 1993, Mike Shaw stepped into his first pair of skis.
“I grew up a freestyle skier in Vernon, BC, and I joined my community freestyle ski club,” Shaw told MyPGNow. “I got involved in skiing, and it totally changed my life.”
From when he first began, to his coaching career, Shaw has spent time on community hills no different than Prince George’s Hart Highlands. Today (Saturday), he’ll have the opportunity to share his story as the guest speaker at the hill’s fall fundraiser.
While What he didn’t know was that two decades later, after sustaining injuries that removed him from competitive skiing and eventually finding a passion for coaching, his life would be changed in an instant.
In December of 2013, Shaw was at Keystone Mountain in Colorado skiing in the terrain park when he had a severe accident. In a ‘scorpion-like’ crash, Mike dislocated and broke his neck, paralyzing himself from the neck down.
Fortunately, he was in surgery hours later. His surgeon assured him it was the only hope for recovery from the crash.
Following the surgery, Shaw miraculously began to heal, but the accident changed his life forever.
What was to follow was nothing short of a miracle.
Three and a half months after the accident, Shaw walked out of the hospital.
Exactly one year after his accident, Shaw stepped back into the exact same pair of skis he crashed on and went skiing in Whistler with friends.
His journey of recovery has gone so well that just last year, Mike participated in the Red Bull 400 Race, an all-out grind straight up a 400-metre Olympic Ski Jump in under ten minutes.
He now travels around North America working with students, athletes, and organizations. He speaks to large groups and continues to inspire the next generation of young people.
“I’m stoked to be here and share my story about how the power of sport, the power of community, and the skills and the mindset that you learn through being involved in programs like I was helped me recover from the most challenging thing I’ve ever faced in my life, which was my spinal cord injury.”
Shaw’s message is simple, as Shaw states, we all get to choose our attitude and effort every day. He preaches to choose gratitude and choose your full effort, which is exactly what his message will be when he stands under his own power, his owner strength and addresses those attending the fundraiser.
“I hope I can have an impact and certainly encourage and inspire the sense of community. I think Prince George has it, that’s one of the greatest things about small communities, especially small sports organizations such as the Hart. It’s such a gift to have Hart Highlands right here in the city.”
The event gets underway at 5:30 p.m. at the Hart Community Centre.
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