The Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation recently announced Dianne Vitkus, a Skaneateles native, has been selected as the most recent recipient of its adventure scholarship.
Vitkus, a 29-year-old born and raised in a small town in upstate New York, sustained a life threatening fall leaving her with a C6 spinal cord injury and permanently paralyzed from her chest down in July of 2020. Ever since, she has been working tirelessly to get back to the life she once knew, full of sport, travel and adventure. Vitkus grew up as a three sport athlete and then went on to play collegiate lacrosse at the D1 level. During her junior year she studied abroad in Greece and traveled throughout the Europe. After college she remained active and ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 2019, just nine months before her injury. But she has not let this recent adversity keep her from having sport in her life. She has tried adaptive rock climbing, handcycling, hiking, sailing, rowing and skiing – just to name a few. By sharing these adventures she wants to show others that being in a wheelchair does not have to limit your ability and spirit to explore and be active.
Vitkus is using her award to attend a weeklong Empower SCI Camp at Stony Brook University. Empower SCI, Inc. is a residential program cater to individuals who have suffered a SCI. The program focus is not only on the formal physical therapy, occupational therapy, and recreational therapy; but more importantly peer mentoring, rehabilitation counseling and informal knowledge sharing between individuals were going through similar experiences and challenges.
The Flyin Ryan Adventure Scholarship Program exists to provide monetary awards to assist adventurers of all kinds, from all around the world, in pursuing their passions. Applicants must come up with their own set of Core Values and demonstrate character, passion for their goal and financial need. To date we have given out over 120 awards. Learn more and apply at FlyinRyanHawks.org/Adventure-Scholarship-Program/.
The Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation was formed in 2011 to extend the impact of the life of Ryan Hawks who, at the age of 25, tragically died while competing on the freeride world ski tour. Before he died, Ryan composed his 14 Principles for Living. The Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation has focused its mission around the concept that “core values matter.” Over the last three years, the Foundation has developed a five step program called lyin Ryan Decisions. The program was pioneered at South Burlington High School, Vermont, where over 1,200 students have deliberatively taken ownership of their lives by composing and communicating the core values which reside from within, and using their core values as a basis for increased self-respect and future decision making. The Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation is currently introducing this same program to other schools around the state.
