GREAT FALLS - Stephanie Kazior of Great Falls has been ice skating since she was a little girl.
"The ice, this beautiful place, is the one place that I, personally, am not thinking about the struggle at work or my family problems or the financial woes of today,” Kazior said standing on the ice at the Great Falls Ice Plex.
Kazior is the president of the Great Falls Figure Skating Club and also works full-time as a police officer in Great Falls.
That, along with the work she did to help keep the figure skating club from ceasing to exist, is what got her chosen to be one of eight people out of hundreds of candidates nationwide to be in the U.S. Figure Skating Association's latest group of Get Up Ambassadors.
"When the United States Figure Skating Association published their article naming me as one of the ambassadors, I was pretty much speechless,” Kazior said.
Describing the work to help bring the club back, Kaizor said she helped motivate some skaters to get back on the ice and took some figure skating tests, one of which she said is the equivalent of earning a college degree.
"Part of this Get Up Ambassador is the mental challenges that we overcome, the physical challenges that we overcome, and the motivation and perseverance to just get on the ice. If fear is holding you back, come talk to us. We will walk you through that pathway to get you onto the ice,” said Kazior.
She added that she would not be where she is today without the community partners who have helped her along the way, including businesses and the Great Falls Police Department.
