LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Skating family rallies to help victim of fi re Barb Reichert, U.S. Figure Skating’s director of communications, re-
turned to headquarters on Tuesday, July 10, after spending the previous two weeks “on vacation” in Michigan. It wasn’t much of a vacation, though, for Barb and her family as they,
like the rest of the country, watched the mountainside near the Garden of the Gods burn each night on the national evening news. When the fl ames of the Waldo Canyon fi re exploded eastward to-
ward the city on June 26, Barb’s beautiful home and those of her Moun- tain Shadows neighbors became statistics in the most destructive fi re in state history. Two people died, 346 homes were lost, 32,000 people were evacuated and 18,247 acres were scorched. While her home wasn’t destroyed, it was among 41 homes that sustained signifi cant damage. She is working with the insurance company in an eff ort to begin repairs to the home. Many of her neighbors weren’t so lucky; their houses burned to the ground. “Our house is baked. It’s like going into a
kiln,” said Barb, who joined U.S. Figure Skat- ing in June 2011. “It has this surreal, caramel color to all the surfaces and fl ooring.” Calling it their “dream home,” Barb said
three rooms caught fi re, but the fi refi ghters and response personnel kicked in the doors to save the house. As she glances around her neighborhood from what’s left of her el- evated burned deck, all she sees are charred rubble and refrigerators standing in burnt- out foundations. In the face of this tragedy, however, Barb
knows everything will be fi ne. In addition to all of the support that her family has re- ceived, the skating community has predict- ably come through to help in any way it can. “The fi rst skater to ask if I was OK was
Maia Shibutani,” Barb said of the U.S. silver medalist ice dancer, who used to train in Colorado Springs before moving to Canton, Mich. With 32,000 people being evacuated, Barb began to worry about where her family would live. She emailed Rachael Flatt’s mother, Jody, who lived in Colorado Springs for a decade while Rachael competed, asking if she had any leads on places to stay near headquarters, on the southwest side of Colorado Springs. “I asked Jody if she knew anyone in that area, and all of a sudden my phone, email accounts and
Facebook started to blow up. I had every Realtor who works this area contacting me. I had families off ering us short-term places to stay. Many of the skating people were sending texts and emails. They were so generous, asking what they could do to help.” Barb and her family also lost all of her clothes and belongings to smoke and heat damage.
When she showed up for work, Barb asked Kelly Vogtner, senior director of athlete development at U.S. Figure Skating, if she had a few skating T-shirts. “The next thing you know, Kelly’s sizing me up, loading up boxes for me and my family and
then reminding me that I’m going to need a coat for the winter,” Barb said. “Everyone in the offi ce continues to off er help and some have even brought in clothes for my neighbors.” While she continues to put on a smile at work, Barb admits that she’s cried twice in the last
couple weeks. “The fi rst time was when I saw all of the handmade ‘Thank You Firefi ghters’ and ‘Firefi ghters Are
Our Heroes’ signs lining the roads in our neighborhood,” she said. “Those really choked me up.” Barb also shed a few tears on her way into work one recent morning. She had left her cellphone
at her damaged home and drove up early in the morning to retrieve it before heading into work. “I took my regular route to work, passing through Garden of the Gods,” she said. “I began to sob because the Garden of the Gods is still OK. It’s still glorious, it’s breathtaking. Just a mile away is my burnt-out neighborhood that looks like the face of the moon. The contrast of it was so stark and at some level reminds you we are still OK.”
NOTE: More photos of the devastation at Barb’s home and neighborhood can be seen at
skatingmagazineblog.com.
4 AUG./SEPT. 2012
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