Bruce Skiing |
Bruce Holmberg was recently presented the National Ski Patrol’s most
prestigious award, the National Appointment. This award, presented to Bruce
by Bill Sachs, the National Chairman, is given for exceptional leadership and
commitment to the National Ski Patrol and to the skiing and snowboarding
public.
Bruce joined the National Ski Patrol at Ski Liberty, PA, 10 years ago -- he
was, at age 52, by far the oldest candidate patroller anyone on the patrol
can remember. The next oldest candidate in his class was 26 – half Bruce’s
age. No, ski patrol candidate year was not like plebe year used to be, but
it was a year of rigorous outdoor emergency care (read first aid to
injured/ill skiers and snowboarders), ski and toboggan training and several
tough tests. Two years later, Bruce became the assistant patrol director of
the 100 person volunteer Ski Liberty patrol and then two years after that was
elected, then reelected to four consecutive one year terms as the Patrol
Director. During this time, the patrol was named the Eastern Division’s
Patrol of the Year and was a runner up for national Patrol of the Year. His
tenure came at a time when liability issues at ski areas put significantly
increased demands on patrollers to prevent accidents and then treat
errorlessly any injuries that did occur. This placed huge demands on
volunteers and required stepped up training and highly honed operating
procedures to handle everything from medevacs, heart attacks, head injuries
down to the everyday (it seemed) blown knee or dislocated shoulder.
Bruce is also an outdoor emergency care instructor, ski and toboggan
instructor, and senior trainer-evaluator. Although he stepped down last
year as patrol director, he still patrols regularly at Ski Liberty and
travels to other ski areas throughout the region to instruct and evaluate
other patrollers.
If anyone has info to add to this section, suggest you forward an E-mail message to Sam Weiss. Don't forget to send pictures, too.