Take a Tour
The CR Johnson Healing Center opened in Truckee, Calif., a year ago, in August 2011. Since then, it's become a working therapy center for severely injured skiers, snowboarders and other action sports athletes. The center's founders hope to open additional healing centers like this one in other parts of the country -- including potentially Vermont, Utah, Colorado, and elsewhere -- over the next several years.
The space is run by the non-profit High Fives Foundation, which seeks to raise awareness and funds for athletes with life-altering injuries like spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries. Trained technicians are on staff to offer massage, pilates, acupuncture, yoga, physical therapy, and personal training, all of which is designed to aid in the recovery and encourage positive thinking.
The center's namesake, of course, is CR Johnson, the freeskiing pioneer who overcame a traumatic brain injury and was then killed in February 2010 in a fall at Squaw Valley.
"CR and I spent numerous hours in physical therapy together and we'd always talked about recovery," says Roy Tuscany, the co-founder and president of the High Fives Foundation. "His concept of recovery was a small space where you could feel comfortable, amongst friends. This space is what CR's dream was for a recovery center."
