Back in January our friends at Burton forwarded us an email from a passionate breast cancer survivor named Katie Jozwicki. Katie had stumbled upon the Burton Women’s Learn to Ride (WLTR) snowboard camp on website and was interested in participating in the Lake Tahoe date. Since missing the previous year’s snowboard season due to chemotherapy treatments, Katie was ready to brush up on her skills. B4BC was so moved by Katie’s story that we decided to fund her WLTR camp experience.
“After not being able to snowboard at all last year while fighting three things working against me: fatigue from chemotherapy, geographical disadvantage living in Texas, and poor snowfall even when I was back in Boston for two weeks in December; I decided this was the year to truly become a snowboarder. Lucky for me with B4BC’s support I had the opportunity to attend the Burton WLTR camp.
Riding up the chairlift on my first day of the camp and knowing that I was about to embark on a day in the “park”, I was terrified. It reminded me of how terrified I was before for my first chemo infusion. Though each situation cannot rightfully be compared, I quickly realized that if I could handle chemo, surgery, and radiation for cancer, then I can definitely handle the “park”!
B4BC is an organization for which I have great respect. These are real women working for a cause that touches home; this is not some huge conglomerate barely touching the nonprofit realms. Someday I hope to be able to make the kind of impact B4BC makes each year. THANK YOU!!!”
-Katie Jozwicki 33 years old and a Survivor
Not only has Katie’s personal journey back to health inspired B4BC, but her incredible experience at the WLTR camp has given us a whole new opportunity to give back to the community that we love. In 2009 B4BC plans to launch “Women Learn to Ride Scholarships” in snow, surf and skate camps–more details on the scholarship program to be announced this fall.
Also, coming this fall our girl Katie will be featured in a special October ’08 issue of SELF Magazine featuring young and inspiring women cancer survivors! We’ll remind you to pick up a copy in October, but in the meantime for more on Katie’s story click here.
