On June 10 at 3:30 pm Chris Luciano left work with a few friends and went to their regular swimming spot in North Hoosick. There they were jumping off a platform that had been built over the years and where many folks jump and dive into the river. This particular day was not Chris’ day. Somehow when he went off the platform something went terribly wrong, and he never made it to the water. Instead he hit rocks 35 foot below. The result is that Chris was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Chris is a 19 year old HFCS 2007 graduate who loves being outdoors. He is a hard worker and has held a number of jobs over the last five years. Those jobs have included playing guitar in a couple of rock bands, fixing bikes at All Seasons Outdoor Sports, prep cooking at Helvi’s and a number of labor jobs. But his real passion was teaching snow boarding, which he has done every winter since he was 15. He was recently nationally certified at Level II (a difficult feat) as an instructor. He had been toying with making this a major part of his career path, and he had a number of mountains recruiting him. While there is no reason that this dream cannot happen, it may be very different than what he envisioned.
While Chris can no longer walk, his ultimate wish is to get out of the wheel chair and snowboard again. Project Walk (www.projectwalk.org) an organization in San Diego offers an opportunity to help get him out of this chair. It is a boot camp designed to regain any movement. Chris and his family would like to send him to this program.
A committee has been formed to help raise money to send Chris and a trainer to San Diego to learn this proven methodology and to work on Chris’ legs with the hope of regaining some movement or feeling in his lower body. The first event will be a bottle drive this Saturday from 10 am to 1 pm. Bottles can be dropped at the Rite Aid parking lot or at Nickel Back in Chris’ name. If you would like your bottles picked up, please call Karen Smith at 686-9036.
If you would like to follow in Chris’ progress or find more information see www.eenable.net/chris.