Tag Archives: Get Up campaign

Final “Get Up” Blog of the Year – Summary and Links to my entire “Get Up” Series

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As a long time figure skating fan and enthusiast, and now more recently as an aspiring adult competitive figure skater myself (yep – started at age 59,) I was truly enthused about US Figure Skating’s “Get Up” campaign. The main theme is that, in all aspects of our lives, we may fall, but the more times we get up and persevere, the stronger we become. And in late October, US Figure Skating distributed this exciting video highlighting the many varied accomplishments of the “Get Up” Program since its launch a year ago. Link to the 4 minute video below.

Figure Skating is a tough sport! (link to article) It may look smooth and glamorous, but those falls on that hard ice are brutal to the body and soul. But there is a lesson here that we can apply to our personal, athletic and even business lives – that when we fall, instead of just lying there feel sorry for ourselves, we need to pick ourselves up, learn from our mistake or from the challenge we were presented, and continue toward our goal.

So I was very glad to write a monthly series focused on the theme of “Getting Up.” Here are short summaries with links to each of the series.

In January, I wrote the introductory blog Introduction to the “Get Up” theme with figure skating examples, including famous skaters and regular recreational skaters.

In February and April, I featured adult skaters who have gotten up from serious illnesses and injuries. It often takes adults much longer to recover, so these stories from adult skaters are truly inspirational. Links to : Stories of Adult Figure Skaters “Getting Up” After Illness and Injury, part 1 and part 2.

In March I wrote about getting up from career and vocational falls with four short inspiration stories of how these people “got up” to move on after falls and troubles in their vocational lives.

In May, in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, my May “Get Up” Blog was “Getting Up after Considering or Attempting Suicide.” Often greatly stigmatized, people suffering with this issue can indeed get up and move on to whole and satisfying lives.

In June, I wrote In “Getting Up from from loneliness and isolation through finding community” where I share the inspiring story of adult figure skater Amanda McGowan find a community through skating.

For July / August – – In “Getting Up from a Life of Hiding and Deception,” my friend Jim shares about “Getting Up” and changing from old patterns of secrecy and deception to living a more productive, honest, rich authentic life as a proud gay man.

In September, I dealing with: “Getting Up from Nay-sayers”, about how to deal with one of the most insidious detractors keeping us from achieving our goals – those negative people who love to tell us what we are not able to do.

My October Get Up Blog – an interview with Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz who has written a wonderful series of books about all kinds of figure skaters, famous and no-so-famous, who all have “get up” stories. Mine is even included in her latest book!

I plan on now closing this series, but if people send me ideas for 2018 I will be glad to continue writing.

“Get Up” with a wonderful series of books about all kinds of figure skaters – an interview with Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz

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Joanne and her husband Greg with Olympic Champion Scott Hamilton, on ice, at his Skate to Eliminate Cancer event at the 2017 US Figure Skating Championships in Kansas City.

I continue my monthly blog series based on US Figure Skating’s popular “Get Up” campaign which shares the message that life, like the ice, is hard, and we can certainly fall on it. But the more times we get up and persevere, the stronger we become.

For October, I interview Joanne Vassallo Jamrosz, an adult figure skater and fan who has published a wonderful series of books featuring dozens of skater and coaches, famous and not-so-famous, who have each gotten up from trials and hardships to grow their love for figure skating. And I am thrilled that my story as an adult skater starting at the age of 59 is included in her newest book just out, “Skating Forward – Olympic Memories, Olympic Spirit.”

Stan: Joanne, first can you share about how you got interested in figure skating as a fan and participant?

Joanne: I began ice skating during the summer of 1988. I was 29 years old. I was home, sick in bed with the flu, during the 1988 Olympics. So I watched a lot of skating! I remembered loving skating as a child and thought, why not take lessons? Adult skating was just coming to our skating programs across the country so I joined our local club The Clinton Figure Skating Club that fall. I started learning the basics then graduated to testing some of the ice dances. As a fan, my husband Greg and I attended our first marquee event in the fall of 2009 when we went to Skate America in Lake Placid. We also attended our first Friends of Figure Skating Breakfast at that event as well. From there we went to our first Nationals in Spokane (it was also the year Skating Forward book one debuted). What can I say? We were now true skating fans and every year we put Skate America and the U.S. Championships on our travel schedule.


Stan: What then inspired you to write your first book, “Skating Forward?”

Joanne enjoys meeting her favorite skaters, like 2015 Men’s champion Jason Brown, who she met at the 2013 Detroit Skate America Friends of Figure Skating breakfast.

Joanne: I am journalism major. I loved to write, even as a little girl, I would spend hours writing stories. But the inspiration really began in 1991. I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, just when I was getting my skating legs under me. It was a long year of surgery, chemo, radiation and recovery-but what got me through was my skating. My coach at the time Jason Dilworth would come in before the morning skaters, at around 6 AM, just so I could stroke around and move on my good days. It’s why I think I did so well and recovered so well. It was being on the ice. Not long after I did a little trial judging and I wrote about the experience and sent it to Skating Magazine. It was published! That did it. I began focusing on the two things I loved most, Skating and writing. I still contribute to the magazine today.

The Skating Forward books began in 2009. I was recovering from an accident (broken hip). I wrote some features for the US Figure Skating web page, and they all coincidentally were about some amazing young skaters who faced some pretty tough circumstances in their lives but kept on skating. I thought what a GREAT idea for a book. So I reached out to coaching friends for names of some inspiring skaters to profile (and received more stories then I could possibly have room to publish). Still do to this day. I think I could write skating Forward books for the next 20 years. We have so many incredible skaters out there and their personal stories are AMAZING, and very few people know about them. So it’s my honor and joy to feature them.


Stan: Do you feature a “get up” theme through the stories you share in the books?

Joanne: All of the stories do indeed have a Get Up theme. Not everyone survived a tough illness (although I have profiled cancer survivors, Tourette’s Syndrome, Lyme Disease, Juvenile Diabetes, hearing disorders, epilepsy) and on and on. But I’ve also profiled a coach who devotes her life to autism awareness because she has a young son with autism spectrum disorder. Another adult skater began a fundraiser in honor of her two sisters who passed away at very young age, and she raises money for the hospital that helped them both. I’ve also profiled current competitive skaters who overcame injuries and came back the following year to compete, and one young skater who went through a lot of finding herself on the ice before returning this year as one of our top senior ladies.


Stan: Do you have a “get up” story of your own you would like to share.

Joanne: It’s funny but I often tell people my hip break was in a funny way my “lucky break.” Had I not been home sitting, bored to tears I probably would not have written the Skating Forward books. I believe my cancer journey planted the seed, and then in 2009 it came to be.


Joanne’s latest book just came out this Fall leading up to this next Olympic season.

Stan: What is special about your most recent book that just came out, “Skating Forward, Olympic Memories, Olympic Spirit?”

Joanne: The readers will meet three incredible Olympians. Jim Millns and Colleen O’Connor were our first U.S. Ice Dancing medalists, receiving the bronze at Innsbruck in 1976. They share their wonderful Olympic journey and what it was like to be on the 1976 team with Dorothy Hamill and Linda Fratianne, Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner and others. Our other Olympian is Jeremy Abbott and he shares that special Olympics in Sochi when he truly had a Get Up Moment. After a horrific fall in the short program he got up and finished his program creating probably one of the best Get Up moments on ice ever. Of course we have wonderful Olympic Spirit stories too. National Coach Darin Hosier is a stage 4 colon cancer survivor. Cara Zanella is a gold test adult skater living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Staci Montagna-Vail is a silver test judge and a stage 4 breast cancer survivor, and two of our current competitors, Ernie Utah Sevens and Jordan Moeller talk about getting up after serious injuries that kept them from competing for an entire year!


Stan: How can someone order this and your other books?

Joanne: Books will be available at the US Figure Skating merchandise booth in Lake Placid at the 2017 Skate America. We will also be at Adult Nationals in 2018.

Also available at (Direct links right to ordering the book)
> Amazon.com (Paperback and Kindle – direct link right to the book)
> Barnes and Noble. (direct link to the book)
> Books123


Stan: Is there anything else you would like to tell us in closing?

Joanne: I feel so blessed to be able to do what I do. To work with these incredible skaters, parents, coaches and fellow fans. My husband Greg and I have made so many skating friends over the years. We call them our Skating Family, and they are a HUGE reason why we enjoy going to the marquee events each year. It’s our Family Reunion. That I can get up each morning and write about this incredible sport is a blessing beyond belief. I am so truly grateful.

Stan: Thanks you, Joanne! I won’t be able to make it to Skate America in Lake Placid this year, but I look forward to seeing you at US Nationals in San Jose!

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My previous monthly “Get Up” blogs can be found on my skating video and blogs page.