The NCAA Honors Committee has named Kelly Brush, a former skiing student-athlete at Middlebury, as the 2009 NCAA Inspiration Award recipient.

Brush will receive the award during the Honors and Delegates Celebration January 15 at the 2009 Convention in Washington, D.C.

The Inspiration Award may be presented to a coach or administrator currently associated with intercollegiate athletics, or to a current or former varsity letter-winner at an NCAA institution. It honors an individual who, when confronted with a life-altering situation, used perseverance, dedication and determination to overcome the event and now serves as a role model who gives hope and inspiration to others in similar situations. The honor is not automatically presented each year.

Skiing on a top NCAA team was a goal for Brush, and skiing for Middlebury was her dream. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her parents and her older sister, Lindsay. An excited Brush was accepted in to Middlebury’s class of 2008.

However, Brush’s dream came to an abrupt end on February 18, 2006. While competing in the giant slalom at the Williams College Winter Carnival, Brush skied over a knoll and caught an edge on an icy patch. Although she fought to stay on the course, her ski edge grabbed and she was catapulted off the trail, striking a lift-tower stanchion as she fell. Her injuries included a spinal fracture, four fractured ribs, a fractured vertebra in her neck and a collapsed lung. Though her spinal cord wasn’t severed, it was badly displaced and bruised.

Brush underwent 10 hours of surgery to realign and stabilize her spine and spent 2-1/2 months in rehabilitation. Currently, Brush has the use of her arms and has feeling at chest level and above.

After returning home, Brush learned to navigate daily life in a wheelchair, and through determination and perseverance she learned how to ride a hand bike and drive a car.

Brush returned to Middlebury, where she was a film and media culture major. In addition to resuming her academic pursuits, she continued as an active member of the Alpine ski team. She learned to mono-ski and rejoined her teammates on the mountains of New England. Brush even set a goal to race the giant slalom course at Middlebury’s Winter Carnival in late February of this year.

Following several months of dedication to mastering the skills of mono-skiing, Brush successfully navigated the blue and red gates on her home hill in front of hundreds of college and public spectators.

Having missed a semester of school during her recovery, Brush took three classes during the summer of 2007 and was able to graduate with her class in May 2008. As she accepted her diploma at the commencement ceremony, a cheering crowd showed its support for all that she has accomplished, and the inspiration she has provided.

In the summer of 2006, Brush and her family established the Kelly Brush Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving ski racing safety. It also works to enhance the quality of life for those with spinal cord injury by providing adaptive sports equipment, advancing scientific research on spinal cord injury and supporting the U.S. Disabled Ski Team.

Last year, the foundation created the Kelly Brush Century Bicycle ride fund-raising event. During the inaugural ride, Brush and the Middlebury ski team rode 100 miles (Brush rode 25 miles on her hand bike) for individuals, friends, businesses and others who sponsored them, and raised more than $65,000 for the foundation. This year, 165 riders raised $80,000.

Brush also created an awareness event at Middlebury in the fall of 2007 that gave students an opportunity to spend a portion of their normal day in a wheelchair, to give them a better understanding of the challenges people in wheelchairs face, and on February 4, the Kelly Brush Foundation announced the launch of a national campaign to improve ski racing safety and prevent spinal cord injury with $35,000 in grants to ski clubs across the country.

For more information about the Kelly Brush Foundation, visit www.kellybrushfoundation.com.

The Inspiration Award recipients are selected by the NCAA Honors Committee. Members of the committee are Gene Corrigan, former Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner; Timothy W. Gleason (chair), commissioner, Ohio Athletic Conference; Calvin Hill, consultant, Alexander & Associates, Inc.; Jackie Joyner-Kersee, former UCLA  track and field student-athlete and Olympian; Gibbs Knotts, faculty athletics representative, Western Carolina; Robert Lawless, president emeritus, Tulsa; Roxanne Levenson, associate director of athletics, Pepperdine; Barbara Walker, senior associate director of athletics/senior woman administrator, Wake Forest; and Willie Washington, director of athletics, Benedict.