astro posted on May 05, 2010 18:07
Many SMB Nation tribal members remember the few tense days surrounding my niece Christa Brelsford and her injuries sustained in the Haiti earthquake on January 12th. She lost her leg in a crushed building; she was in Haiti as a volunteer to teach Haitians to read and to take a short ten-day break from her studies as a doctoral student at the University of Arizona in Tempe. Her PhD will be completed soon in Sustainability. It's a fitting major for this brave Haiti hero.
Christa appears on page 108 of PEOPLE magazine this week (May 3rd) in an article that celebrates her return to ice climbing within 60-days of having ler leg amputated. She wouldn't miss Spring Break for a missing leg - showing her typical college kid bravado "I'm invincible smile" in a March 13th photo. This "follow-up article" is a feel good PEOPLE piece that really captures the spirit of this amazing woman whom the Bainbridge Island Brelsford family loves and cares for very much.
There are many ways to learn about Christa Brelsford - one of which is the popular Facebook group called "Keep Christa Brelsford Climbing" and you can look for a book in the future where this “made for” book and perhaps TV story will play out, including a marriage proposal from her long-time boyfriend and fellow PhD student Ethan Coon (studying mathematics - someone Amazon or Microsoft should hire - let me tell ya').
So that is my update - please read the People article as you are able. And here are links to Christa in the news in the first few days of the Haiti earthquake relief effort. The Today Show interview was one of the best that I have witnessed.
• The Today Show (NBC): http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34876138/ns/today-today_people/
• Larry King Live (CNN): h...ttp://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2010/01/15/lkl.christa.brelsford.cnn
• Good Morning America (George Stephanopoulos): http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9570689
• CBS Morning News: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6099873n&tag=api
• CNN News Hour: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2010/01/14/sot.fl.quake.survivor.wsvn
• CNN Morning Show: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/01/15/haiti.survivors.intv.cnn
• KTUU (Anchorage) Local Story (features my brother Taylor and his wife Terry): http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=11824543
• Anchorage Daily News article: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/1093616.html
And again – special heartfelt thanks to the Sri Lankin Army, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of State, Senator Mark Begich and the local Haitians for coordinating an amazingly fast and immediate rescue effort in the first hours after the Haiti earthquake that literally saved her life. I’d also like to thank the prominent well-known professional sports figure (who prefers to remain anonymous) who provided his private jet to immediately evacuate Christa to a Miami Hospital, making her one of the first Americans to receive life-saving treatment. It was a close call folks.