Always Champions

TL;DR: My sister and I are skating a 5K to raise money for The Skating Club of Boston’s Always Champions campaign, which will fund a permanent memorial and scholarships honoring the members of the club community we lost on Flight 5342. You can donate here.

When the collision first happened in January, my sister Amanda and I took the train to Washington, D.C., and spent a week in Bethesda supporting recovery and identification efforts. That week felt like one long, unbroken day. I barely slept, pacing my hotel room, my mind spinning with problems I couldn’t solve.

One thought I kept returning to, far too early in hindsight, was creating a place where Christine and Spencer could be remembered—not just with sorrow, but with joy.

A few weeks later, at Christine and Spencer’s memorial, I spoke about how meaningful it would be to empower others to follow a path like Spencer’s:

“I’m struck by just how many strokes of luck it took to set him on his journey to happiness. He was lucky—through stumbling upon an outdoor skating show right down the street—to even learn that competitive skating was an option.

And once his potential became clear, he had two parents crazy enough to let him leave traditional high school and throw our family finances into chaos so he could chase his dream.

I wonder how many people have the same ability and potential as Spencer but never see the doors he walked through—or take a peek but lack the resources to step inside.

My hope is that we can find these people and empower them to reach their potential. We may never get our one-of-a-kind Spencer back. But we can honor him by helping a hundred others like him carry the torch that was taken from his hands too soon.”

At the time, I thought fulfilling that vision would rest mostly on my shoulders. I’ve since learned that I’m not alone on this journey.

The Always Champions Campaign

The Skating Club of Boston has launched Always Champions, a fundraising effort that will:

• Rename the West Rink as the Always Champions Training Rink and add a tribute wall with photos and remembrances of the six incredible people we lost, including Christine and Spencer.
• Create an outdoor reflection area with benches, plaques, plantings, and bronzed skates of the four skaters and coaches.
• Establish three new awards for the club’s annual dinner, including the Spencer Lane Award for Excellence.
• Build a substantial seed fund to create two permanent skating scholarships in the names of Jinna Han and Spencer, which Jinna’s father, Joon, and I will help define and administer.

One part of the campaign is the Frozen 5K, a skating challenge happening tomorrow, August 21, at the club. Amanda, Spencer’s coach Anne Goldberg-Baldwin, and I will skate under the team name “Quilts & Quads.”

If you’d like to support our fundraising efforts, you can make a contribution here.

The Always Champions campaign is deeply personal to me. The Skating Club of Boston was a second home for Spencer. He was surrounded by his people—his peers, his coaches, his mentors. Christine built strong friendships there, too, whether she was bonding with other skaters and parents, sharing creative projects, volunteering at the holiday market, or pulling management into impromptu conversations—or a quick game of Magic: The Gathering.

I’m also grateful that Christine and Spencer are being honored alongside Jinna, Jin, Genia, and Vadim. In the early months after the collision, I could talk endlessly about Christine and Spencer without breaking down, as if protected by some kind of protective wall in my mind. But the moment I mentioned Jinna, Jin, Genia, or Vadim, the floodgates would open.

The West Rink—soon to be the Always Champions Training Rink—holds countless memories: Spencer’s first lesson with Vadim, milestones big and small, showcase nights where skaters supported each other through triumphs and setbacks, and his last two competitive events at Eastern Sectionals.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the generosity of family, friends, the figure skating community, and complete strangers over the past six months. I haven’t yet thanked everyone as I should, and it feels uncomfortable to ask for more. But if you have the desire and means, your support for the Always Champions campaign would mean so much.

Donate to Always Champions