'She earned it': Penn Township native secures bronze at World Special Olympics

Penn Township resident Kaitlin Grove came to the base of the World Special Olympics ski course with arms raised and a smile across her face.

Grove, 28, received a bronze medal in the giant slalom event, taking her place on the podium in Turin, Italy. She was the only Western Pa. alpine ski athlete — and one of just four statewide — to compete in the two-week-long winter games in March.

An employee for Aramark food services, Grove prepares meals for students at Penn-Trafford High School five days a week. But on Sundays throughout the winter, she hits the slopes at Hidden Valley Resort in Somerset County alongside two dozen Special Olympic athletes.

Coach Kristie Reid launched the ski program in the mid 1990s. Her 41 years of volunteer work with the Special Olympics is inspired by her younger sister, who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome at birth. She died in 2009 at age 50.

“The self-esteem levels go so high,” said Reid, of South Park. “In a world that sometimes excludes (people with disabilities), even these days, or they know that they’re different, this is something they can do.

“In my sister’s face, I saw it, and then I saw it everywhere else.”

Reid has coached Grove since she started skiing more than 15 years ago, guiding her through training on the slopes and strength, mobility and balance exercises to support her skiing performance.

After earning three gold medals at the state winter games at Seven Springs, Grove was selected for the national competition in Park, City, Utah. She trained on Colorado’s Copper Mountain before competing in the World Special Olympics, where 100 countries were represented.

Tom and Chris Grove, Kaitlin Grove’s parents, traveled to Italy to watch their daughter compete.

“It was great to watch,” Tom Grove said. “You got to figure, you have a disabled child. Twenty-eight years ago when she was born, it was just beyond any belief or expectation that we’d be going to a foreign country to participate in skiing.”

A lifelong skier, Chris Grove is a volunteer coach for Reid’s ski program. Kaitlin Grove has also participated in Special Olympics swimming, basketball, track and field, bocce and bowling.

Grove graduated about seven years ago from St. Vincent’s Bearcat B.E.S.T. program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Special Olympics has been a community lifeline for her ever since, Tom Grove said.

“Once you turn 21, when you’re done with school, from the perspective of special needs children, sometimes there’s not much out there if you don’t stay active in all this stuff,” he said.

“I just would encourage anybody that has a child (with special needs) to give it a shot.”

Reid is proud of how far Grove has come in her skiing ability since they first met.

“Italy was very hectic. We did miss meals. We tended to miss lunch a lot of days when we were on the hill,” she said. “We had to hike to get to the mountain, uphill from our hotel.

“I’m so proud of her. She hung in there and did everything and more that we asked her. She was a great teammate for everybody else.”