The National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD), Winter Park, Colo, which serves 23,000-plus athletes annually, plans to host a benefit concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on June 29.
Disabled war veteran and Colorado native, Jonathan Luhan, who is a member of the NSCD elite competition center and is training to compete in the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games, is one such athlete who would benefit, says NSCD.
The performance, planned for the Monday before the Fourth of July, would include a salute to the military.
Lujan was skeptical about whether he’d be able to run again, or if he’d ever be able to walk, according to NSCD. He had been active in winter and summer sports, but those days looked to be behind him as he laid in a hospital bed after enduring back surgery that left him paralyzed from the waist down after his unit came under enemy attack, says NSCD.
Through rehabilitation, Lujan was able to go from using a walker to now being able to walk on his own while wearing leg braces, says NSCD. Through programs from NSCD and the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, Lujan has been able to hit the slopes of the Rockies once again, says NSCD.
The NSCD is among the largest outdoor therapeutic recreation agencies in the world, says the organization. Each year, thousands of children and adults with disabilities take to the ski slopes, mountain trails, and golf courses to learn more about sports—and themselves. With specially trained staff and its own adaptive equipment lab, the NSCD teaches a variety of winter and summer sports and activities to individuals with almost any physical, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral diagnosis, says the organization.
[Source: National Sports Center for the Disabled]
