It Takes A Village
Wounded Warriors welcomed with open arms
By Diane Eagle in the Mammoth Times

Wounded Warriors and DSES Volunteers - Diana Proemm Photo

Terry Smutney had a dream, and somehow, through a heck of a lot of work and a more than healthy dose of good karma and community generosity, that dream took wing recently when six Wounded Warriors (and one wife) came to Mammoth.

A kernel of the dream was sown last year when Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra, Kathy Copeland and Rotary sent Smutney (a veteran of the Gulf War) to the Breckenridge Ski Spectacular for disabled skiers. The Wounded Warriors Project was there with about 70 wounded warriors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He skied and talked with them and fielded the idea of coming to Mammoth.

After returning, Smutney talked to Copeland about his desire to do something similar at Mammoth but to bring the participants from the West Coast.

He started poking around and over the summer heard that Balboa Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park, San Diego was set to become the West Coast Walter Reed.

"One thing led to another and here we are," Smutney said. "It just turned out that the guy hired to be recreational therapist at Balboa was also a volunteer of ours (DSES)-Dave Donaldson."

Talk about connections...

Smutney and Copeland went down to Balboa after the medical center had started taking in wounded servicemen (Nov. 2006), met with Dave Donaldson, met some of the guys, picked a date and started putting the pieces together up in Mammoth.

"Terry Smutney was the impetus for this program to happen," says Copeland, director of DSES.

As if it were meant to happen, the sequence of events seemed serendipitous. When Copeland happened to go to a surprise birthday party at the bar inside the Holiday Inn, she met Mr. Bipin, the Inn's owner. She'd just gotten the go ahead for Wounded Warriors week and told him about the program and that she was looking for lodging for the participants. "I'd love to do it," he told her. "That set the ball rolling," Copeland marveled. Then Joanie Schaller offered Roberto's, Sue Ebersol the Breakfast Club and Ed Hurley the new Burgers.

And just like that four days full of activities and socializing were put into place for the six wounded service members and one wife who came to Mammoth as part of the Army's Wounded Warrior Project.

These members of the armed forces- Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Coast Guard- are active service members, who came from Iraq in November...first to Germany, then to Balboa. (Before November, they went to Walter Reed and Brook Medical Center in Texas.)

At least 100 Mammoth residents and businesses volunteered their time, services and goods for the Wounded Warrior Project.

"The volunteers are the heart and soul of this program," Copeland said. "People stopped going to work so they could be available for these guys. They opened up their hearts and made it happen."

For instance, all the employees of the MMSA call center chipped in their own money and gave a $50 gift card to each warrior.

Consider what happened while the group was having breakfast at Hennessey's one morning: a group of six snowboarders (Vietnam era veterans), came over to the table, introduced themselves, thanked the guys for their service, and left for the slopes. It wasn't until Terry Smutney went to settle up that he discovered the visitors had already, anonymously, taken care of the bill.

Among the skiing, snowmobiling and dogsledding activities, were memorable meals, including the luncheon in Main Lodge sponsored by the Sunrise and Noon Rotary Clubs of Mammoth.

At that lunch, Colonel Dave Hall spoke to the gathering. Hall is Commanding Officer of the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Pickel Meadows (in Bridgeport). He talked about the importance of events like this one. Each branch of the service has a program like the Army's Wounded Warriors Project, each of which "recognizes the extreme sacrifices our injured service members have made in the defense of their country." Read the full speech here.

George Booth of Noon Rotary commented, "I wish everyone in town could have been there on Thursday. The combination of the wounded warriors plus the Marine officers from the Mountain Warfare Training Center was moving, compelling, awesome!"

Booth summarized the peace we at home feel by quoting the online Mudville Gazette: "Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Copeland's favorite moment came during the luncheon, when a standing ovation started and didn't stop. "It felt like it went on for five minutes, heartfelt and overwhelming... you could feel that great energy filling the room," she said, her voice still shaking several days later.

Transformation

It was a dream come true for Terry Smutney (left) to see the transformation in the wounded warriors that was wrought by fresh mountain air and a truly caring community
Susan Morning Photo

For Terry Smutney, it was "a dream come true to see the transformation in them from shy, reserved, afraid to talk to anybody...being with them for that week and seeing them start to open up- not just to the people around them but among themselves, and joke with each other about what actually happened, making light of the prosthetics, opening up in lots of ways.

"And to see them on the hill and learning to understand the concept of skiing with one leg, one arm... to ski, period, carefree... not holding back."

Brice ripping it up!
Diane Proemm Photo

Smutney described Brice Brokaw's breakthrough in skiing. "He was bi-skiing on a tether all week. He was getting good, and wanted to get off the tether. So I got the bi-ski out and skied with him on Stump. I showed him the maneuver he couldn't get and that's all he needed. It clicked and then we were racing down Stump. Big smile from ear to ear!"

Nothing these guys had done prepared them for what they were gong to do, Smutney said. "Their lives are changed forever. They have been able to experience...if they can do this they can do anything."

From Dave Donaldson's perspective, "It exceeded my expectations. I've been to Breckenridge, Durango, Bear Mt. (15 years). The town [Mammoth], the community came together. And the guys absolutely loved it."

All the programs are great, Donaldson said, though he found Mammoth's program to be of a very different flavor; it was intimate and personal.

Copeland was happy to tell us that this kind of thing is happening all over the United States right now, through DSUSA, which is helping all the little ski areas. "Whatever the feeling about the war in Iraq it doesn't go against these guys; it crosses all the political lines," she says, "Because it really makes a difference. That's been proven. It's an integral part of rehab and has a positive impact."

For the six who came here it was really huge. The town honored them, revered them, and the warriors gave as much as they got.

Naturally, with the success of the first Wounded Warriors Project in Mammoth, Terry Smutney and Kathy Copeland are already working on the next stage of the dream- a summer program full of fishing, kayaking, rock climbing, as well as looking forward to the second annual event next winter.