The Abridged version:
- An extreme skier and coach at a Lake Tahoe resort, Roy Tuscany broke his back while skiing in Mammoth 20 years ago. Roughly three years later, he launched a Truckee-based nonprofit called High Fives, which raises money and aids athletes who, like him, were seriously injured in an accident.
- At first, Tuscany focused the mission on winter sports, his passion. It later expanded to help people whose activities include surfing, biking, dirt sports and even fishing.
- The foundation has aided more than a thousand athletes from almost every state and other countries. It has disbursed nearly 2,000 grants totaling $12 million.
Roy Tuscany was an extreme skier and a coach at Lake Tahoe’s Sugar Bowl Resort 20 years ago when, on a post-season journey to Mammoth with his fellow coaches, he overshot a jump, landed on his back and severely injured his spine.
Airlifted to a Reno hospital with no feeling in his lower body, Tuscany couldn’t imagine what his future held. But after a miraculous recovery aided by an outpouring of love and money from friends, family and strangers, he was back on special skis two years later. He was also on the road to a life transformed.
Today, Tuscany is chief executive of High Fives, a Truckee-based nonprofit foundation he started after his recovery to raise money and aid other athletes who, like him, were seriously injured in an accident.
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The idea came to him after the Sugar Bowl ski team established a fund that attracted more support than he needed for his recovery.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is bonkers,’” Tuscany said. “It kind of hit me that there are probably other folks who have fallen into the same shoes that I did, and what if there was a way I could do something for them, just like everyone did for me.
“I always knew I wanted to pay it forward. But this is way bigger than anything I ever thought I would be doing.”
High Fives expands its mission beyond winter sports
At first, Tuscany intended to focus only on winter sports, which were his passion. But as High Fives grew, the foundation expanded its mission. Today it also helps people whose activities include surfing, biking, dirt sports and even fishing. It has merged with smaller organization and partnered with others. It has operations in Montana and Colorado and a major presence in Vermont, Tuscany’s home state.
The organization’s services are built around the concept of “Ohana,” a Hawaiian word for family that goes behind blood relations to include a person’s entire network of connections. It focuses on the idea that no one should be left behind.
“We create this environment where folks who have these life-changing injuries know that they have hope, they have someone that they can lean on,” Tuscany said.
That help goes far beyond financial assistance. The foundation provides grants for adaptive equipment, recovery, and mental health, and High Fives holds camps where clients can learn a sport and connect with a community of like-minded individuals.
“There’s a lot that falls under this,” Tuscany said. “We all pick each other up.”
High Fives helps thousands of athletes across the country
The first athlete High Fives helped was the late Steve Wallace, a fellow Vermonter who, like Tuscany, broke his back skiing in California. The foundation helped Wallace get back on the snow, and he later worked for High Fives.
Since then, the foundation has aided more than a thousand athletes from almost every state and other countries. It has disbursed nearly 2,000 grants totaling $12 million.
One recipient was Dariel Melendez, a Costa Rica resident who lost a leg as a child after he was hit by a train while fleeing a mugger. He later took up surfing — using one hand to substitute for his missing leg — and became a high-level competitor. He heard about High Fives while competing at the U.S. Para Surfing Championships near San Diego and, at Tuscany’s urging, decided to try skiing. He now skis with one ski and two poles, known as outriggers, with small skis attached to their base.
High Fives has also helped Melendez improve his surfing by providing a base for advanced physical training at the foundation’s facility in Reno. But he said it’s the camaraderie and shared experiences that have meant the most to him.
“We come together for games and competitions, we stay together, we have lunch and dinners together, and we are all part of this cool community,” he said. “They have definitely changed lives, and I’ve been able to see that, and experience it myself.”
Jesse Murphy has seen the rise of High Fives from the start, and been deeply involved in it. Also originally from Vermont, he broke his neck in a mountain bike crash in Utah while in college. He recovered and not long after met Tuscany, who was a young teen, more than a decade before his own accident. The two soon bonded over extreme skiing, with Murphy serving as a mentor and coach. After Tuscany’s accident, Murphy spoke by phone with him while he was still in the hospital and assured him he could get through it.
Murphy helped raise money in Vermont for Tuscany’s recovery, and was an early donor to High Fives. He later joined the board of directors and is now the foundation’s development director.
“At this point I think we can say we are the safety net of outdoor sports,” Murphy said. “We are at a point after 15 years where we can create a positive impact through prevention, through inspiration, just through example.
“I try to keep the words ‘adaptive sports’ out of it,” he said. “Our goal is to normalize life for people after these injuries.”
Daniel Weintraub is a regular contributor, writing Tahoe Loco for Abridged.