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By Shane Clausing

Ski for Angela

Ski for Angela event being held by Wapiti Nordic Ski Club

Jan 7, 2021 | 5:00 AM

The Wapiti Nordic Ski Club is hosting a Ski for Angela event on Saturday, January 9.

It is taking place from noon to 3:00 p.m. and is being used as an opportunity to help Angela Oakley raise money so she can afford a sit-ski.

This is a device that allows skiers who cannot walk to ski down the cross-country trails. Sit Skiing is also a popular event in the Paralympic games.

Until recently, Oakley was big into cross-country skiing. However, in December of 2016, she lost her leg and was mostly forced to hang up her skis.

“I’d always cross-country skied recreationally before and here we have 50 km of groomed trails right adjacent to the town, so I was really excited to try skiing with a prosthetic leg. All I really did was go out on my skis every day, fall down and get back up and keep going.”

While she was finally getting the hang of skiing with a prosthetic leg, Angela continued to have problems with her amputated leg.

“This year I’ve had ten more surgeries on my leg to try and save my knee, so if I want to get out skiing at all, I need to find a sit-ski, which sounds easy, but they’re really hard to find.”

According to Oakley, a sit-ski in Canada can cost between $4,000 and $5,000. Some are so hard to find, ski clubs that do have an extra one won’t rent it out.

“They’re very unique to every person’s need,” said Oakley.

While they’re hard to find, she says that there is some hope that she’ll be able to get one fitted for her.

“Digging online and talking to people, I managed to stumble across the guy who makes them for the U.S. Paralympic ski team. He had a semi-used one that he figured he could get into good enough shape to be usable to me. Even that alone by the time we get that shipped up here is going to cost $3,000. Compared to a pair of cross-country skis, you can usually get a usable outfit for $300.”

If she can fundraise enough money to get the sit-ski, Oakley says that she wants to try and make a major impact within the community.

“My hope is that I can get a sit-ski and become proficient at it and take a course so I could keep it. Then hopefully through the club and some government funding at that point, we can buy some generic sit-skies for the club and create a Paralympic ski program here, so people can take advantage of the beautiful trail system that we have.”

On Saturday, the ski club is requesting that members who are out on the trails consider donating $1 for every kilometre they’ve skied so they can help Oakley buy her new ski.

The fundraiser idea came from members of the ski club who Oakley regularly skied with while she was on her prosthetic leg.

Anyone interested in helping Oakley get her ski can do so by donating to her GoFundMe page.