manouli
01-06-2009, 08:14 PM
'Extreme' friends rally for Sloan family
By Tim Gallagher
SLOAN, Iowa -- From all accounts, Blake Jorgensen is adjusting to his new life better than most. When therapists ask him to do 10 stretching or lifting exercises, he does 12 or 13.
"That's the way he was in athletics," said Chad Shook, a former coach in the Westwood Community School District, where Jorgensen has wrestled, played baseball and started as the varsity quarterback for the football team this fall. "He was always doing more than was asked."
Shook is now joining his former athlete in doing more than required. The Lawton-Bronson Elementary School principal is organizing an effort to build a new home for Jorgensen's family in Sloan. Jorgensen, you may remember, was paralyzed in a crash Nov. 8 while en route to a wrestling seminar in Mapleton, Iowa. Since late November, Jorgensen has been undergoing rehabilitation at Craig Hospital in Denver, a facility dedicated to patients with spinal cord injury.
"Blake's attitude has been outstanding," his father, Don Jorgensen, told me Monday. "He works as hard as he always did in sports. He puts forth a great effort and smiles every day."
more...
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2009/01/06/news/top/a62a83d7fedb3f638625753500773074.txt
By Tim Gallagher
SLOAN, Iowa -- From all accounts, Blake Jorgensen is adjusting to his new life better than most. When therapists ask him to do 10 stretching or lifting exercises, he does 12 or 13.
"That's the way he was in athletics," said Chad Shook, a former coach in the Westwood Community School District, where Jorgensen has wrestled, played baseball and started as the varsity quarterback for the football team this fall. "He was always doing more than was asked."
Shook is now joining his former athlete in doing more than required. The Lawton-Bronson Elementary School principal is organizing an effort to build a new home for Jorgensen's family in Sloan. Jorgensen, you may remember, was paralyzed in a crash Nov. 8 while en route to a wrestling seminar in Mapleton, Iowa. Since late November, Jorgensen has been undergoing rehabilitation at Craig Hospital in Denver, a facility dedicated to patients with spinal cord injury.
"Blake's attitude has been outstanding," his father, Don Jorgensen, told me Monday. "He works as hard as he always did in sports. He puts forth a great effort and smiles every day."
more...
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2009/01/06/news/top/a62a83d7fedb3f638625753500773074.txt