The president of the Satu Mare Caiac SMile Association, Ionut Stancovici, aims to bring at least 1,000 people with disabilities to the slopes this winter. Although he comes from a county at the end of the country where there is not even a ski slope and therefore no such tradition, Ionut Stancovici has every chance to do this because he has already started to set up a national system through which more slopes accept his challenge. His energy and determination made the news go as far as France or the USA, managing to achieve things in Romania that were not possible in other countries.
Ionut Stancovici's 'craziness' started several years ago, with another sport, canoeing , when he saw a video of legless US soldiers practicing it. Until then, he had no contact with any person with disabilities, Agerpres informs.
"I made the club for performance, I was doing canoe slalom, an Olympic sport, which is the extreme part of canoeing in mountain rivers. I wanted to promote it a lot in the country and I succeeded, I am the coach of the Romanian extreme canoe slalom team, the Romanian team is in Satu Mare, the children are from Satu Mare, we go to world, European championships, world cups, wherever we can go, and we have also taken it closer to people with disabilities. When I took two, ten of them canoeing,- I realized that they enjoy the freedom of movement enormously and I kept taking them," Ionut Stancovici told AGERPRES.
Then, he thought of taking disabled people to the slopes. And because there was no solution at hand, he consulted with an engineer and with the help of some craftsmen he got a wheelchair, removed the wheels and welded ski blades, then they went to the slope to try it. In the meantime, he realized that he had to give up the improvised chair and that in order to be accepted on the slopes he had to buy special authorized chairs with safety measures. He gathered sponsors and managed to equip several slopes in Romania with such chairs and train the staff. The reason he did not give up on the project was the joy on the faces of the persons with disabilities, but also the messages of encouragement from their relatives.
He started to take the slopes in Romania one by one and managed to make 10 slopes accessible, receiving help for free.
The news of his project went to other countries where he has contacts and he was called and asked how he managed to do this. This winter, representatives of the company that supplied the chairs will also come to Romania to study the phenomenon.
The association has developed over time, with the help of projects it won and of sponsorships. Today it has seven employees and volunteers throughout the country. According to him, officially, there would be more than 850,000 disabled people in Romania, but unofficially there would be more than 1 million.
Ionut Stancovici grew up among sheep until the age of 22, then he graduated from two faculties, Law and Accounting, and entered the banking field. In the meantime, he also graduated from the Faculty of Sports, and now he is also doing his master's in sports. He spent 11 years in the financial-banking field, after which he suddenly gave up and went to sports. He started canoeing in the most serious way, becoming the coach of the extreme canoe slalom team. Meanwhile, he also developed the activity for disabled people. In the first phase, he set up a system by which he took disabled people by canoe to Satu Mare county, then he expanded, being very well received in the country.
And that's not all. He is now preparing a sports gymnastics program for children with cancer, through which he wants to motivate them, to practice with them until they walk on their hands.
Comentează