Scottish Rite Hospital’s Amputee Ski Trip Is A Learning Experience for Teen Amputees—And for the Hospital’s Staff
01/21/2018 | by Glenn Hunter – Dallas - D CEO Healthcare Writer
Inside the Saint Bernard ski, snowboard, and apparel store in Dallas’ Inwood Village, more than a dozen teenagers were excitedly picking out new gear Sunday morning for an upcoming ski-and-snowboarding trip to Winter Park, Colorado.
This wasn’t just any group of exuberant teens on a random shopping spree, though. The ones at Saint Bernard all had some sort of amputation—a missing leg or hand or foot, say—and they were preparing to participate in the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children’s 37th annual Amputee Ski Trip.
The teens—seven boys and seven girls, all patients at Dallas-based Scottish Rite—will leave February 12 for five days of skiing and snowboarding at the National Sports Center for the Disabled at Winter Park, about two hours west of Denver.
They’ll be “chaperoned” on the trip by eight staffers from Scottish Rite Hospital. The staffers include Don Cummings, the hospital’s director of prosthetics (and a double leg amputee himself); Matt Chance, the facility’s senior vice president of operations; and Dr. Tony Herring, the hospital’s chief of staff emeritus, who founded the annual amputee trip in 1981.
At Saint Bernard on Sunday, Scottish Rite patient Cody McCasland, left, chats with Dr. Tony Herring. (Photo by Jeanne Prejean)