The Brzyckis lived in Rifle from 1972-79. This letter is about David, who went to elementary school in Rifle.
On June 1, David and his father, Lenny, were hunting in Southwestern Montana. His father, who was a short distance away from David, heard a rifle shot and found David being mauled by a bear. He was able to shoot the bear from 25 yards away. David walked on his own to the ATV, before collapsing on his father’s shoulder. Lenny drove the ATV 12 miles out of the woods to his truck, then drove 25 miles before getting cell service and calling 911. David is in Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle, Wash.
David lost an eye and injuries to his head and face were extensive, both hands and wrists as well as an arm were broken. The surgeons determined that David’s hand and wrist were crushed by the jaw of the bear. David fought hard, covering his head with his hands so the bear couldn’t get to his head. He lost a lot of tissue and blood where the bear bit his arm and underwent 13 hours in the operating room under anesthesia.
On June 3, David began communicating with gestures, relating as much of the story as he could. On June 4, the doctors said the bear that attacked David might have had rabies. They took David back into surgery to treat him for rabies.
David will be in the hospital 4-6 weeks, with procedures every 1-2 weeks. He is a tri-athlete and had been training for his first Ironman in November. That’s probably what saved his life.
If you remember David and the family, I know they would enjoy and appreciate hearing from you. You can call me at 625-4028 for an address.
Thank you for your recent coverage of the collaborative efforts of Rifle Growing Community and Growing Food Forward in building gardens for hunger relief and educating children (and adults) in the Rifle community in all phases of gardening and preparing healthy foods.
We at Growing Food Forward have been helping groups in Rifle, Parachute and New Castle build raised bed gardens through the purchases of trucking, soils, composts and more and supplying organic heirloom non-GMO seeds and starters for those gardens (planted by Yampah Mountain High School students in their greenhouse and cared for/housed since by Osage Gardens). We’ve also conducted 10 free seed distributions to area gardeners in Western Garfield County who are donating a portion of their harvests to LIFT-UP.
The other town’s gardens are done but Rifle’s are far behind. Volunteer turnout in Rifle has been disheartening. Rifle Growing Community Coordinator Andrea Matthews has been doing a fabulous job organizing and has put in hard physical labor, despite being over 8 months pregnant. We’ve had the best volunteers show up and do GREAT work, but unfortunately, there are few. Seventy percent of the students in Rifle schools are on free or reduced school lunches – the worst percentage in the region. We need to get gardens built and food in the ground ASAP, and it could be done already if we’d enjoy the kinds of volunteer turnouts we’ve experienced in building 60 gardens throughout the county.
The Children’s Learning Gardens being built in front of Mancinelli’s Pizza will be used to teach first graders-middle schoolers in the Access Roaring Fork Boost Camps, with the produce going to needy children in the program. Please consider volunteering at Mancinelli’s from 9 a.m. to Noon Saturday, June 28, (pizza provided) so we can complete the project by July Fourth.