Sky Volleyball Club has confirmed Josh Dueck as keynote speaker for the 2018 national fundraiser to be held at Wings Tap and Grill on Thursday, May 3.
Dueck competed in sit skiing at the Korea Paralympic Games and struck silver in 2010 in Vancouver.
“His raw approach to sharing stories is refreshing and takes you through the natural cadence of life, exploring the peaks and valleys of the human experience,” said Sherman Dahl, of Sky Volleyball. “His incredible success in sport has inspired him to explore the depth of his own humanity, which he shares with grace and humility. His candid observations will have you on the edge of your seat and the cusp of tears.”
This will be the fourth annual national Sky Volleyball Club fundraiser which raises money for volleyball athletes in Vernon to attend the Nationals along with 800 other teams from across Canada, May 16- 22, in Edmonton.
Last year’s fundraiser was a major hit with extreme athlete Shanda Hill as keynote speaker.
Said Troy Lorenson, president of Sky Volleyball: ” The 2018 national fundraiser committee has hit it out of the park by signing Josh as our keynote speaker. I have met Josh personally and we look forward to his presentation - he has tremendous energy and his powerful message: Passion plus Perseverance equals Possibility is a message we work on with our athletes at every practice and every game ”
Added committee member Paula Harned: “The 2018 fundraiser is going to be our biggest ever with a target of 300 attendees including all the athletes. Tickets will be on sale soon and they will be going very fast.”
Tickets are on sale at Wings Tap and Grill and through committee members and athletes.
All interested corporate sponsors can contact Harned at 250-308-9562. The gala event will include a buffet dinner and silent auction table.
Dueck created his identity as the daredevil who would jump bigger.
At 23, while coaching the freestyle team at Silver Star Mountain Resort, Dueck demonstrated a jump for his students. From the moment he took off, he felt uneasy, describing it as “a battle between ego and intuition.”
The landing dislocated his back and severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him from the waist down. The emergency room doctor broke the news as, “You’re going to rock the world in a wheelchair. Before you know it, you’ll be back in the mountains with all your friends riding a sit ski.”
In Dueck’s TED Talk, he described the lightness of those words. Silver, better than Gold Nine months after his accident Josh flew down the mountain again. This time strapped into a sit ski. Dueck celebrated skiing and racked up a series of medals, including winning the 2009 World Championships and taking gold at the 2011 Winter X-Games.
In 2012, he took the title as the first sit skier to perform a back flip. In the 2014 Sochi Paralympics, exactly 10 years to the date of his accident, he won a silver medal.