Kelly Brush Foundation awards safety grants

The Kelly Brush Foundation kicked off its 2008/2009 Ski Racing Safety is No Accident Campaign today by announcing its donation of more than $20,000 in grants to ski racing clubs and programs nationwide.The Kelly Brush Foundation kicked off its 2008/2009 Ski Racing Safety is No Accident Campaign today by announcing its donation of more than $20,000 in grants to ski racing clubs and programs nationwide. The grants are intended to help the clubs promote and improve ski racing safety.

Recipients of the grants include the Mount Mansfield Ski Club at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont and the Aspen Valley Ski Club at Aspen, Colorado. Each club will receive a $10,000 grant that will go toward improving safety measures in training and racing areas.

“The Kelly Brush Foundation is working to raise the bar when it comes to safety in ski training and racing. We really want safety to be foremost in everybody’s mind anytime a ski racer is racing or training on the hill,” Charlie Brush, a founder of the Kelly Brush Foundation said in a statement. “The goal of the Ski Racing Safety is No Accident Campaign is to facilitate safety enhancements and promote awareness in the ski racing community including officials, coaches, athletes and parents.”  

The foundation was established after Brush’s daughter, Kelly Brush, was paralyzed in a ski racing accident in 2006. The organization is now dedicated to increasing safety precautions for ski racers as well as providing adaptive sports equipment to those with spinal cord injuries and supporting the U.S. Disabled Ski Team.

The Mount Mansfield Ski Club plans to use its share of the grant to purchase state-of-the-art safety fencing to line a new racecourse at Stowe Mountain Resort.

This year’s receipts of the Ski Racing Safety is No Accident Campaign grant include:
•     $10,000 grant to Aspen Valley Ski Club in Aspen, Colo. for safety fencing
•     $10,000 grant to Mount Mansfield Ski Club in Stowe, Vt.  for safety fencing
•     $2,500 grant to Green Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield, Vt. for safety equipment
•     $1,000 grant to the Middlebury College Ski Team in Middlebury, Vt. for safety equipment
•     Ski Racing Safety is No Accident posters to 450 ski clubs and race programs across the United States to raise ski racing safety awareness