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Mike Welch (The Story)

Links:
www.mikewelch.org
Mike Welch Super Fan Club - Facebook

A Little About Mike

Mike Welch is an extreme athlete who achieved
crazy things including unicycling down Mt. Fuji
and across Alaska. He has toured the US and
Japan playing trombone with the show Blast.

The Accident

In July 2008 Mike Welch was in Japan to perform with the show Blast II MIX as the trombone and tuba swing. The first night in Matsumoto he was riding a bike down a steep road on a mountain and fell off of the bike. He shattered his T5 and fractured his T6, paralyzing him below the waist. He had a great surgeon perform an 8 hour surgery a few days after the accident to stabilize his back.

The Recovery

Mike's parents were able to fly to Japan and stay at his bedside, along with a wonderful translator, Nao, for 2 weeks. Mike then flew home and started rehab at the Rehab Institute of Chicago. There he began the process of learning how to get around in a wheelchair and be mobile without using his legs.

The Future

While we all hope for a full recovery, only time will tell if that will naturally happen. Perhaps stem cell therapy could help. A clinic in India offers this treatment and Mike is exploring this opportunity. But we will need your help to get there!!!! DONATE TO MIKE WELCH

California Wild Fires 2008
Driving through the flames

November 15, 2008 @ approx 1:30pm- While driving East on the 91 Freeway on our way to a Riverside Philharmonic concert, traffic was moving smoothly. We were to pass just South of the Yorba Linda/Corona fires. Several lanes on the 91 West were closed, but there had been no reports of problems on the East-bound side of the freeway. Traffic suddenly stopped and then slowly progressed through thick black smoke. At this point, we could see spot fires on the South side of the freeway- the fire had already crossed the freeway ahead of us. As we drove through, the strong wind was pushing the flames into our lanes, and you can actually see embers sparking up the windshield of the car. I believe this fire became the Anaheim Hills Apartment fire which you can see at the end of the video. And yes, one of the passengers was on his cell phone the whole time...

The music in the background is from Shostakovich's Symphony #10 (Mvt 2). I chose this music for several reasons, but mostly because we were actually on our way to perform this piece at the Riverside Philharmonic concert that evening. We found it interesting that the music we were about to perform matched the intensity of the fires we witnessed.

The piece was written after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, and the 2nd Mvt is said to be Shostakovich's "musical portrait of Stalin". Shostakovich, who had been severely repressed by the Communist Party, wrote "In this composition, I wanted to portray human emotions and passions". The 2nd Movement has been described by musicologist Robert Dearling as, "a study in concentrated fury rarely equalled in music". I thought this fury was well demonstrated in the Southern California fires.

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CNN Headline News Blog Post

Amy Sanchez has just been invited to be a guest blogger on the CNN News To Me Blog. Check out what she had to say on her experience driving through the California Wild Fires.

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