Garry Camozzi -- a home of his own, soon?
By Rossland Telegraph
Garry Camozzi is a well-known figure around Rossland. He’s well-known for being a brilliant ski racer in his earlier years, for hiking up the snowy slopes of Red before-hours to poach groomed runs without getting caught (usually), for making his home under a tarp in the bush for over 20 years, for being a vegetarian, for reserving his toe-nail cutting to certain phases of the moon, for doing stone-masonry at his own philosophical pace, and for smelling very smoky.
Stories about Garry include the one about him bursting out of the bush and zooming down a race-course in the middle of a ski competition; and the one about how, during one of his early-morning ski-run poaching exercises, he missed a turn and got hung up in the safety netting that was set up for a ski race. Once released from the netting, he put his skis back on and skied off. “What are you doing!” the ski hill staff yelled at him. “Finishing my run,” he replied, vanishing into the distance.
Garry now suffers from poor eye-sight and is getting on in years. Camping under a tarp in the bush is not such a good idea any more (if it ever was).
A few years ago, he was assisted by the “Getting to Home” program, after his feet developed frostbite. He snowshoed out from his camp, and reluctantly got himself to the hospital. That’s where the Getting to Home people found him, and provided temporary help.
Now, his community wants to get Garry into a little home of his own.
Ryan Kelly has started a “GoFundMe” page toward this goal. Here’s the blurb on the page:
“This is a community initiative to help get Garry indoors for this winter and set him up with a tiny home all his own here in Rossland. He’s approaching 70, has poor eyesight and just needs a space with heat and running water. Through this GoFundMe we will set up a link to the local credit union for direct donations. I’ll ask that funds need at least 2 signatures for withdrawals and have details open to provide transparency. Ensuring everything go to assisting Garry now and with future bills. (Power, water, possible lot fees). Please feel free to share.”
Here’s a link to the GoFundMe page for Garry:
