Welcome to SCORE

Daily Bruin, June 1999
Head Above Ice (cont'd)
by Pauline Vu

"The money will allow me to hire therapists to work with me above and beyond," Gjos said, "and we're hoping to raise enough money so that SCORE will be able to do the same for other people."

SCORE is on the right track. Already, the Anderson School, where Gjos still attends class twice a week and where he will graduate from in a month, has had drives which have raised nearly $100,000. Around 65 percent of the Anderson School has participated to raise about $40,000, one anonymous donor gave $25,000 and Roger Enrico, the chairman of Pepsi Co., donated $10,000.

The hockey team is also doing its part by selling T-shirts on Bruin Walk to raise money for SCORE. Currently the T-shirts sell for $15 apiece, though Vogel says the price might lower so that the shirts could sell out by the end of the year. The shirts were bought from Eyecatcher Screen Prints at no profit to Eyecatcher.

Gjos is extremely grateful for all those who have aided him.

"Thank you to all those people who have been supportive, both in terms of financial and non-financial support. Both have meant a lot to me - it's made this battle easier."

He especially is thankful for the support from those closest to him.

"It's not easy on my family. It hasn't been real easy on my friends. It's tough on my girlfriend," Gjos said, but added, "They've been very encouraging and very supportive of my belief that I can beat the odds.

The saddest irony of his accident is the fact that this happened to someone who worshiped the game since he first donned skates at the age of five.

Even his home page on the internet conveys this love. Included among his "hobbies" links is a link to In the Crease, a professional hockey journal, and a link to a page on Ken Dryden, a former all-star goalie for the Montreal Canadiens. After all, Gjos wrote with the Dryden link, "What's a web page without homage to a childhood hero?"

The home page also opens with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

Though he included the quote because it "struck a chord with (him)," Gjos' actions also epitomize the quiet strength revealed in it. Despite the obstacle of paraplegia, he has proven that he is determined to make the best of things, to heal and to move on.

And also to make things stay the same.

"Short-term, things may have been disrupted a bit, but in the longer term, my plans haven't really changed that much," Gjos said.

With a background in finance and entrepreneurial studies, he plans to go into business and hopefully work for a start-up.

"There isn't a whole lot that I can't do now; it may be more difficult, it may take me longer, but I don't think that there's too many things out there that I want to do that aren't within my reach."

Young says that this view is the way Gjos has always seen things.

"He's not going to take this lying down," he said.

Or, as the last quote on his web site says, "A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

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