Schweitzer To Battle Ms Jimmie Heuga Ski Express Aids Fight Against Multiple Sclerosis
Former U.S. ski team member Susie Luby gets breathlessly excited when talking about the Jimmie Heuga Ski Express races at Schweitzer Mountain.
The Sandpoint ski resort stood supreme in 1995 among 29 other sites when it came to fund-raising for non-profit multiple sclerosis research at the Jimmie Heuga Center in Avon, Colo.
Schweitzer’s three-person coed teams collected $109,322 for JHC programs. Two of those teams, Groundhogs and Dirt Brothers, raised $23,000 each to rank No. 3 and 4 nationally.
“Last year everyone embraced it and it just took on this life of its own,” said Luby, the Schweitzer Ski Express coordinator, and a Spokane resident.
“We just had a banner, banner year. I don’t anticipate us redoing that. We’re going to have a great year fund-raising, but I think to raise those kind of funds on a year-in, year-out basis in our community would be extraordinary.”
Schweitzer raised $35,000 when it joined the 11-year-old Ski Express in 1990. That total reached $80,000 in 1994.
“I don’t want to set expectations (the 1996 race) that aren’t realistic,” Luby said. “I think we can raise $50,000.”
The Ski Express includes a 4-hour downhill marathon Saturday at 8:30 a.m., followed by giant slalom races in the afternoon. Entry fee is a minimum $1,000. Top fund-raisers advance to the finals in Vail, Colo., April 10-14.
Heuga’s parents, Pascal and Lucille, of Lake Tahoe, Calif., will be special guests at the Schweitzer awards banquet.
Luby has been involved since the inception of the JHC in 1984 and Ski Express series a year later. She won the bronze medal in women’s downhill during the 1972 Olympics.
In 1964, Heuga and Billy Kidd won America’s first Olympic men’s downhill medals.
Illness sent Heuga into early retirement following the 1968 Olympics. In 1970, at the age of 26, Heuga was diagnosed with MS, an incurable neurological disease that debilitates muscles.
“Jimmie was one of the ski racers I looked up to; his career was just ahead of mine,” Luby said.
“It was so different. You take your hopes for granted and this ability to go out and ski to peak performance and compete, then all of a sudden this (disease) strikes.”
At the time of Heuga’s diagnosis, exercise for MS patients was discouraged. In 1976, he started exercising and a personal wellness program.
While spending three years researching and working with the National MS Society, Heuga promoted similar programs for local MS chapters, and later founded the JHC.
A portion of the Ski Express funds go toward scholarships for MS patients to participate in a five-day program at the JHC.
Heuga was at the October dedication of the Exercise Adherence Project in Spokane, a pilot program providing followup for JHC graduates.
Jeanne Schillinger, 40, a compensation analyst in Spokane who is a JHC grad, was diagnosed with MS in Montana when she was 17. Her parents kept the diagnosis from her until she was 22.
Schillinger learned of the JHC in 1995 and attended the program last summer. Now, she exercises twice a week with other JHC grads.
Schillinger’s MS is in remission. She skis and bikes with her family, and will be a featured speaker at the Ski Express banquet.
“One of the things Jimmie said was as an athlete, it was really tough for him when he couldn’t exercise anymore,” Schillinger said. “I’ve seen some of the people at the little Exercise Adherence Program improve. They get real excited when they lift their foot off the floor and hadn’t been able to do that for a while.”
Joe Guske of Spokane, a 1993 JHC scholarship recipient, is entering his own team this year.
Olympians are present at each Ski Express stop. Luby is joined by the 1984 women’s North American downhill champion and U.S. team member Maria Maricich as Schweitzer dignitaries.
Maricich, a Coeur d’Alene chiropractor, did 26 downhill runs during the marathon last year. “I don’t do any ski racing any more, only participate in fund-raising,” she said. “In a sense, it brings me back (to her racing days).”
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