The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Crested Butte ski racer Summit Wallace could use some help to get to the Junior Olympics next month.
The 12-year-old has once again qualified for the event in Steamboat Springs March 14-18 but he needs some financial assistance to make the trip a reality.
Summit placed in the top 20 last season during his first visit to the competition. Summit also plays on the Crested Butte Blizzard hockey team and is on the A honor roll at school.
Summit was just a baby when his family began following the Alpine World Cup and above his bed hangs a photo of when Bode Miller signed his head with a permanent marker. As a young boy here in Crested Butte, Summit Wallace decided to take his love for skiing to a different level.
According to his mom, Jocelyn, Summit has endured years of solitude on the training hill and below zero mornings, long weekends away from home and an immense amount of physical demand on his body.
Summit has raised money for himself by selling cookies, collecting driftwood, wagoning at ferries, poaching the Art Fair tables to sell t-shirts, and more. Jocelyn has also participated in many hours of volunteer work to make ski racing scholarships a possibility for him.
Summit and his coach, Conor Lynch, need lodging, entry fees, food, and coach’s expenses. “We are well aware that there are way more important matters to donate monies to and with the economy in this condition—people are wary—and we appreciate that. We just want to help Summit fulfill his dream and help him get to JO’s another year,” said Jocelyn. “He does this on his own with only his coach because he loves it, because he wants to and for the real love of the sport.”
Donations can be sent to Summit at P.O. Box 57, Crested Butte, CO 81224. You can contact his mother at (970) 596-2116.
