Meet sixteen amazing figure skaters battling the odds every day. No physical limitations or personal challenges will keep them from the sport they love. Join these special young women on ice as they lace up their skates and celebrate life to the fullest.
Skating Forward
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About the Author
Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz has fifteen years experience as a contributing writer with U.S. Figure Skating. She is the author of numerous articles for Skating Magazine and PS Magazine, the magazine of the Professional Skaters Association serving figure skating coaches throughout the United States. She presently works as a contributing writer for U.S. Figure Skatings web page, www. usfigureskating.org. Joanne is a graduate of Utica College of Syracuse University and holds a bachelors degree in journalism. In 2006, Joanne assisted in coordinating Skating for Freedom an ice show fundraiser for Freedom Guide Dogs for the Blind featuring World and Olympic skaters. She also covers numerous events and competitions in the Lake Placid New York and Northeast region for U.S. Figure Skating. Joanne resides in Upstate New York with her husband Gregory, a veterinarian, and their golden retriever Angel.
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More About the Author
About The Author
Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz has fifteen years experience as a contributing writer with U.S. Figure Skating. She is the author of numerous articles for Skating Magazine and PS Magazine, the magazine of the Professional Skaters Association serving figure skating coaches throughout the United States. She presently works as a contributing writer for U.S. Figure Skating's web page, www. usfigureskating.org.
Joanne is a graduate of Utica College of Syracuse University and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism. In 2006, Joanne assisted in coordinating "Skating for Freedom" an ice show fundraiser for Freedom Guide Dogs for the Blind featuring World and Olympic skaters. She also covers numerous events and competitions in the Lake Placid, New York and Northeast region for U.S. Figure Skating. Joanne resides in Upstate New York with her husband Gregory, a veterinarian, and their golden retriever Angel.
From The Author:
When I started writing Skating Forward and began to know the sixteen amazing young women featured in this special book, one thing struck me as I read the many pages of interviews. No matter what adversity each one of them faced, figure skating gave them a reason to persevere.
As a contributing writer for U.S. Figure Skating, I consider myself the luckiest person in the world. As I interview countless skaters across the country, I find many moving stories and find young people who are truly every day heroes. Many are dealing with some heavy stuff but each one goes to the rink every day to participate in the sport they love. Skating becomes healing, and Skating Forward came to be.
I am proud to say I have found that to be true in my own life. I happily found this wonderful sport in my late twenties, learning to skate during a summer skating clinic with the most joyous group of six-year-olds I had ever met. Two years later, skating became the medicine that got me through a bout with Breast Cancer.
Through skating, at our local rink, I met my husband on a blind date. Two years later, he proposed at that same rink. Skating also took me through a horrific accident in the fall of 2007, which left me facing months of physical therapy just to walk again.
These sixteen young women are my story and it gives me great pleasure to introduce them to you. I hope these young women will inspire you. Collectively they have battled Breast Cancer and Lymphoma. Some live each day with Epilepsy, Juvenile Diabetes, Tourette's syndrome, and Lyme disease. Some spend their days working for charities inspired by parents' illnesses and a drive to make the world a better place-through figure skating! In addition, each one finds time each day to lace up their skates and fly. From the second I began Skating Forward, meeting these young women changed my life and I knew I could not wait to tell their stories.
These young women became a special part of my life and I hope in some way will touch your lives as well. As an author, I am grateful for a year of getting to know these incredible skaters. I hope you will enjoy reading their stories as well.
The year 2010 brings the start of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. When you think of the Olympics, you think of champions who touch our hearts and the Olympic spirit and drive in each athlete. Now, I think of these amazing young women. It is my wish that their heart, spirit, and dreams will stay with you forever.
With Blessings,
Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz
Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz has fifteen years experience as a contributing writer with U.S. Figure Skating. She is the author of numerous articles for Skating Magazine and PS Magazine, the magazine of the Professional Skaters Association serving figure skating coaches throughout the United States. She presently works as a contributing writer for U.S. Figure Skating's web page, www. usfigureskating.org.
Joanne is a graduate of Utica College of Syracuse University and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism. In 2006, Joanne assisted in coordinating "Skating for Freedom" an ice show fundraiser for Freedom Guide Dogs for the Blind featuring World and Olympic skaters. She also covers numerous events and competitions in the Lake Placid, New York and Northeast region for U.S. Figure Skating. Joanne resides in Upstate New York with her husband Gregory, a veterinarian, and their golden retriever Angel.
From The Author:
When I started writing Skating Forward and began to know the sixteen amazing young women featured in this special book, one thing struck me as I read the many pages of interviews. No matter what adversity each one of them faced, figure skating gave them a reason to persevere.
As a contributing writer for U.S. Figure Skating, I consider myself the luckiest person in the world. As I interview countless skaters across the country, I find many moving stories and find young people who are truly every day heroes. Many are dealing with some heavy stuff but each one goes to the rink every day to participate in the sport they love. Skating becomes healing, and Skating Forward came to be.
I am proud to say I have found that to be true in my own life. I happily found this wonderful sport in my late twenties, learning to skate during a summer skating clinic with the most joyous group of six-year-olds I had ever met. Two years later, skating became the medicine that got me through a bout with Breast Cancer.
Through skating, at our local rink, I met my husband on a blind date. Two years later, he proposed at that same rink. Skating also took me through a horrific accident in the fall of 2007, which left me facing months of physical therapy just to walk again.
These sixteen young women are my story and it gives me great pleasure to introduce them to you. I hope these young women will inspire you. Collectively they have battled Breast Cancer and Lymphoma. Some live each day with Epilepsy, Juvenile Diabetes, Tourette's syndrome, and Lyme disease. Some spend their days working for charities inspired by parents' illnesses and a drive to make the world a better place-through figure skating! In addition, each one finds time each day to lace up their skates and fly. From the second I began Skating Forward, meeting these young women changed my life and I knew I could not wait to tell their stories.
These young women became a special part of my life and I hope in some way will touch your lives as well. As an author, I am grateful for a year of getting to know these incredible skaters. I hope you will enjoy reading their stories as well.
The year 2010 brings the start of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. When you think of the Olympics, you think of champions who touch our hearts and the Olympic spirit and drive in each athlete. Now, I think of these amazing young women. It is my wish that their heart, spirit, and dreams will stay with you forever.
With Blessings,
Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courageous Women Who Refuse Defeat in Mind and Body,
By Regis Schilken "Rege" (Bethel Park, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Skating Forward (Paperback)
Skating Forward is not only a delight to read; it is also an uplifting and inspirational book as well. Author Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz has collected tales from sixteen amazing young women who used their electrifying feats on ice to overcome great physical and psychological setbacks. Their courage to persevere through personal tragedies will inspire readers to do likewise.There is sixteen-year-old Molly who knows her father has Muscular Dystrophy. Molly has a 50/50 chance of developing this disorder in late adolescence and adulthood. MD results in a degeneration of the muscles in the lower arms and legs, and the muscles of the neck and diaphragm. After visits to orthopedists and podiatrists resulting in months of frustration, Amanda White finally receives a diagnosis for the crippling pains in her wrists, knees, and feet. She must battle rheumatoid arthritis. Shae Andrews is a teen in love with skating. She would like to be in the Olympics before going on to study mechanical engineering. But Shae is deaf. Choreographed movements on ice to music looms as a mountainous obstacle facing her. Twenty-year-old Heather Johnson is a true advocate for people with disabilities. Heather has had unpredictable epileptic seizures ever since the sixth grade. Her doctor tells her she must not skate without a helmet. How can she enter competition? Because her brother Alex has autism, fifteen-year-old Belle Junge puts on her first pair of ice skates so she can interact with him. Belle feels that because her brother is unusual she must do her best to help him advocate for himself. Devastated by the death of a beloved social studies teacher, Teri Harte wants to use her dexterity on ice to help memorialize her former teacher friend. Both had shared a love for teddy bears. Carolyn Bongirno skates at a local Florida rink. Carolyn and her husband want to use fertility drugs to help her become pregnant. A complete physical shows a tumor in her breast. In addition, cancer has spread to Carolyn's lymphatic system. After losing fifteen pounds in one week while drinking volumes of water and trying to eat, skater Courtney Ann Caldwell is on a collision course with death. After several misdiagnoses, eventually, doctors uncover her problem. Courtney has Type-1 Diabetes. Skating Forward reveals that Although Laura Whitney never remembered a tick bite, nevertheless her eventual diagnosis shows dreaded Lyme disease. In addition to severe headaches, this bacterial infection affects her cognitive ability. Eighteen-year-old Kara Mietlicki is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma--a pernicious form of cancer. Faced with surgery and ongoing chemotherapy, Kara wants to keep skating like Scott Hamilton, while undergoing cancer treatment. At a skating rink on Coney Island, Tatyana first puts on ice skates purchased by her father. She was five-years-old then. Now, years later, her loving father is in the final stages of kidney failure. "He can no longer hear me talking to him." Tatyana is overcome with deep sorrow. Allegedly suffering from asthma, Victoria Hecht's coach recommends a physical to determine if she has the stamina for figure skating. A thorough physical work-up shows Victoria has two congenital heart defects, not asthma. Erica Archambault overcomes many physical problems and illnesses including meningitis but continues to skate. None of these hardships are as devastating to Erica as when her father leaves their Colorado home and refuses to return. Skater Kylie Gleason visits an orphanage while in Romania. There, a profoundly saddened young child deeply affects her. Now she wonders whether skating should always be the main part of her life. Because ice dancer Emily Samuelson falls during a dance routine, in order to avoid slashing her head, her partner must land heavily on Emily's hand. The accident requires surgery to repair a severed tendon in Emily's middle finger. Fourteen-year-old Eliana Roth suffers from Tourette Syndrome except when ice skating. Tourette's causes embarrassing involuntary body movements, throat sounds, and even the unintentional use of obscene words or gestures. All of these courageous young women you will meet in Skating Forward. There are many books on the market about persons who must deal with staggering life problems. But this book is unique because ALL of the women described are skating heroines who face situations which could easily crush most of us. For sure, this is not a woman's book; nor is it just a series of memoirs about ice skating. Skating Forward will leave all readers--female and male--in awe because it is one single tale of the stubbornness and flexibility of the human spirit. It will help people that are seeking a beam of light at the end of what could be a darkened tunnel of deep despair. Author Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz's book would be a fascinating read for high school and college students to study and discuss--particularly youth who feel life has treated them unjustly. The women in Skating Forward amend their lives and their spirits against all odds. You will not forget them. Other Interesting Books: The Figure Skating Book: A Young Persons' Guide to Figure Skating (Young Performer's Guide) Wicked Intentions: The Sheila LaBarre Murders - A True Story Saving Ben: A Father's Story of Autism (Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Series)
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