from www.aspendailynews.com - February12, 2006

One hero didn't ski

By David Frey

Aspen Daily News Correspondent

GLENWOOD SPRINGS -- There were a lot of different heroes at the 24 Hours of Sunlight endurance race last weekend. World record setters. Personal record setters. But one of the heroes wasn't skiing at all.
Tony Casanova was a 21-year ski patroller at Sunlight Mountain Resort before multiple sclerosis barred him from doing it, ended his dentistry career and made every day a fight for the use of a body that used to run long-distance races.

Last weekend, Casanova was back at the resort, watching racers push their bodies to extremes in a fund-raiser for the Heuga Center, an Edwards non-profit for MS victims.

" I would have run them all down," Casanova said.

But these days, MS has slurred his speech and made it difficult for him even to climb up the steps to address the racers before the starting gun.

" This is the best event I have ever been involved with and I have been involved with a lot of events," he said, warning them with a laugh that they were in for "a bitch of a course."

Casanova knows the ski area well. "I bet I've hiked it on snowshoes 300 times," he said. A ski run, Casanova Glade, is named for him.

But on a long-distance race about eight years ago, he found himself stumbling over and over again into the ditch. After a series of visits to doctors, he was diagnosed with MS.

Now, every day is painful.

" The people who have MS do a marathon every day," said Susie Kincade, the Heuga Center's marketing director who was part of a team in the weekend endurance race, Heuga's CAN DO Crew. "Think about that when they're up there. You think 'I can't do this.' Our attitude is can-do. You gotta do it or you don't have a life."

Aspen mountaineer Mike Marolt organized the weekend endurance race to benefit the Heuga Center and help MS victims.

That includes Casanova, who figured he could never afford the center. After the event, he'll receive a scholarship for its Can-Do program to help victims cope with the debilitating disorder.

The Heuga Center was founded by former Olympian ski racer Jimmy Heuga, himself a victim of MS.

" Jimmy's philosophy and our philosophy basically is, you maintain your health until they find a cure," Kincade said.

So far, there's no remedy in sight, but Casanova isn't giving up.

" I'll tell you, and I've told others, I'm going to be the first cure," he said.

dfrey@aspendailynews.com