Thursday, September 17, 2009 S e r v i n g t h e S o u t h C o u n t r y , F e r n i e , S p a r w o o d , E l k f o r d s i n c e 1 8 9 8 $1 ( includes GST)

Parents of crash victimthank people who offered them supportBy Rebecca EdwardsFree Press Staff

Dawson Kormilo was laid to rest last Saturday at Sand Creek Cemetery,

Jaffray, in the clothes he had picked out for his first day in Grade 4.

His pallbearers were the vol-untary fire fighters who lifted a car off him then helped his nana give him CPR.

His best friends were made honorary pallbearers, dressed in their dirt biking gear.

Dawson, eight, died on Saturday, September 5, two days after he was pinned beneath a car as he cycled on the Jaffray-Baynes

Lake Road with his friends and sisters Savanah, 11, and Kaylee, 14, to a swimming hole.

In an interview at their Jaffray home this week his parents Stacey and Dwayne said this week they will remember his energy and enthusiasm.

“He brought so much spir-it to everything,” said Stacey. “We went with some friends to Callaway Park this summer and was so excited about going, he kept saying ‘These are going to be the best two days of my life.’

“Our hotel had a water slide and he came out just hooting and hollering. He was just pedal to the metal all the time.”

“He was a kid that was game for everything,” said Dwayne. “He was never sitting on the couch – he had a jump for his dirt bike that he would hit all day, again and again. We had spent a lot of time boating this summer and he loved that.”

It was the first time Stacey had let Dawson go riding to the swimming hole with his friends.

She was out walking with her sister when her daughter Kaylee

called to say Dawson had been hit by a car.

“We started to run and a man drove past – I don’t know who he was – we waved him over and begged him for a ride.

“We got round the corner and there were a bunch of cars - when I got there they were just flipping the car off Dawson. He wasn’t breathing, he had no heart beat but I was calling to him.

“The fire department arrived shortly after and my mom arrived right away. He wasn’t breathing, he didn’t have a heartbeat but she cleaned the dirt and blood out of his mouth and started giv-ing him mouth-to-mouth with Shane Sheller giving chest com-pressions and he got his pulse back.”

Dwayne was on his way to work at Line Creek Mine when Stacey called, and he began driv-ing to Cranbrook hospital, where Stacey met the air ambulance that carried Dawson from the scene and heard he had started breathing on his own.

Within an hour a specialist team from Vancouver Children’s

Hospital arrived to transfer Dawson and Stacey by special medical jet plane across the prov-ince – the journey took just 40 minutes.

The only space in the jet for Stacey was for her to lie on a stretcher and Dwayne faced an agonizing wait until the first flight out of Cranbrook the next morning.

Doctors weren’t sure Dawson would survive until his dad arrived.

By the time Dwayne got to Vancouver on Friday, CT scans showed there was no hope of Dawson recovering and doc-tors told them to get their daughters and family to fly over to say goodbye.

Dawson passed away at 12.01 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, September 5 with his parents, sisters, grandparents, aunt and uncle and godmother at his bed-side.

Stacey and Dwayne said they have been touched by the kind-ness shown by everyone towards their family, from the nurses at the hospital who cleared out an office for Dawson’s relatives to rest in, to the people who have brought food and flowers.

Stacey added: “People have

been so compassionate. We met Dawson at the airport and they let us follow him to Fernie.

“The driver from Cherished Memories, Brian, asked us if we tooted the horn through the tun-nel when Dawson was little.

“So when they brought him through for the last time he toot-ed through.”

The couple had so many people to thank they were worried about

missing anyone, so they asked for a message of thanks to be passed on to everyone who has helped them.

Of the voluntary fire fighters who helped Dawson make it to hospital,

Stacey added: “You always know they are important but you don’t realize just how important they are until you really need them.

“They have known me for years and when they pulled up and saw who it was they were so professional, they all did what they were supposed to do, they did a phenomenal job – there is nothing they could have done differently.”

• A bursary is being set up in Dawson’s memory by his family.

Donations can be made to TD Bank trust account number 6271440, branch 9083.

‘He brought so much spirit to everything’

Dawson with his parents Stacey and Dwayne and sisters Kaylee and Savanah. Submitted photo

Dawson’s school photo. He would have been going into MrsThompson’s Grade 4 class at Jaffray Elementary Junior SecondarySchool last week. Submitted photo

“You always know they are important,

but you don’t realize just how important

until you really need them.

Stacey Kormilo On volunteer fire departments

2 THE FREE PRESS Thursday, November 12, 2009 www.thefreepress.ca

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Elk Valley Addiction Services Society in cooperation with Elk Valley Prevention Steering Committee has sponsored this column.The intent of this column is to provide information and

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Kids & Substance UseSometimes a person will start and/or continue to use drugs or alcohol because they have no reason not to. For some people, there is no sport, hobby, or long-term goal that is compromised by their substance use. Often relationships will change, but kids and adults alike can usually nd new �‘friends�’ who share their habits with al-cohol or drugs. Young people involved in activities, clubs, or sports that are meaningful to them are less likely to get in trouble with substances. Kids with �‘big dreams�’ that require them to get good grades, get up early on the weekend, and be both mentally and physically healthy use substances far less than their peers who struggle with boredom or nd themselves unable to participate in something they are interested in. Information obtained from www.no2meth.ca

What a champ!By Rebecca EdwardsFree Press Staff

Asked what her son MacKenzie Sedrovic was like

as a baby, proud mom Nicole Adams does what any parent would do – pull out a box of mementoes of her nine-year-olds’ life.

Nicole, though, doesn’t reach for photos or toys.

“Would you like to see his first feet?”, she asks, and fetches the box of his favourite prosthetic legs.

Each pair cost up to $15,000 each and all are decorated with bright images that show Mac’s tastes maturing over the years.

It goes from Elmo for his first 13-month legs through a Winnie the Pooh stage (Nicole’s favourite) to his current pair which are emblazoned with the Calgary Flames emblem.

Her point in showing them off is to demonstrate how much they have bene-fited from the War Amps charity’s Champs pro-gram.

Mac, who lives with Nicole in Sparwood and is a Frank J. Mitchell Elementary School student, was born with a congenital birth defect which affected the bones in his legs.

“When he was two weeks old they gave us a choice,” remembers Nicole.

“Amputate to allow him to walk on prosthetics or keep his legs but be in a wheelchair for life. We didn’t think twice, we decided right there he was going to walk.”

Thanks to the support of War Amps Mac doesn’t just walk – he runs, bowls, swims and is hoping to play hockey and ride a bike in the future.

The charity, which extended its focus from war veterans to children in 1975, has paid for most of Mac’s prosthetics as well as covering travel costs for hospital appointments and providing support to both MacKenzie and his mom.

He gets through two or three pairs of prosthetics a year and – being nine –

quickly manages to dent them and even knock holes in the carbon fibreglass knees.

How does he wreak so much destruction? He grins and replies: “Hitting jumps on my scooter.”

On a recent vacation Mac got to swim in the ocean thanks to his pair of rigid swimming legs, which have holes to drain the water out and are decor-ated with whales.

“I was worried the other whales might come and eat me,” he says.

Snow, Mac says, can be hard to balance on, but he relishes the chance to tell the story of going down a hill on a crazy carpet and losing one leg part way down, giving the other kids a shock.

Nicole says it isn’t always easy to deal with her son’s questions about his condi-tion.

“There is the occasion-al day when he says ‘I’m tired of being like this, I want to be normal’ - how do you deal with that?

“I tell him that you are different because of your

legs but another kid is dif-ferent because they wear glasses. He has braces now so he is like other kids with them.

“We went to a War Amps seminar this summer, where I got to talk to other parents and get updates on new devices, and Mac has talks with the other kids.”

Nicole said she knows a lot of people who donate to War Amps after seeing what they have done for Mac, and she is grateful for their support.

The charity receives no government grants and its sole fundraiser is the Key Tags address label service, which is currently distrib-uting order forms in this area.

“I want to thank the War Amps for what they do and also the people in the com-munity who support them and us,” she said.

“Without them it would be a struggle.”

• For more informa-tion on the War Amps or to make a donation call toll-free 1-800-250-3030 or visit www.waramps.ca.

Mac Sedrovic shows off his swim legs. Submitted photo

Mac and his mom Nicole say they are grateful for the support provided by the War Amps charity. Photo by R. Edwards