Stubbs Family Keeps Tradition Going

WINDHAM - It was his “baby” and she is one of his babies so it is perfectly sensible that Charity (Stubbs) Guzofski has embraced the Bob Stubbs Warriors in Motion Winter Sports Weekend as her “baby” too. 

The late Bob Stubbs is Charity’s father and the man who didn’t rest until a home was found for wounded and recovering military veterans.

Tradition was kept intact as the latest coming-together unfolded January 30 thru February 2, hosted by the Adaptive Sports Foundation (ADF) and Windham Mountain Club.

“My dad was a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Charity said, helping welcome the Warriors and their family members to the annual Friday luncheon at the local ski center.

Two decades ago, Walter Reed Hospital reached out to the Adaptive Sports Foundation, wanting to give veterans a place to set a spell with kindred spirits and transition to an often very-changed existence.

Bob Stubbs, who was the ADF chairman of the board for several years, made it his personal and financial business to make it happen.

He had seen what the ADF programs had done for his own son, Grant, on a private level, gratefully giving back in the realest of ways.

“My dad had deep respect for all veterans and was always very involved,” Charity said, noting Mr. Stubbs was an Army veteran, as well.

Taking the family lineage to heart, Charity will be part of the ADF board of trustees, keeping the spirit of her father present.

At the outset, there was no certainty the Wounded Warriors program would take hold for those it was intending to serve, in return for their service.

Recalling those early days, Mr. Stubb’s wife Rosie says, “when they were first approached about coming to the mountains, the veterans in the hospital said, ‘we’re all bandages and blood.

“What can you possibly do for us? But they came and many years later, they came back to honor Bob. It was very powerful,” Rosie says.

Bob Stubbs passed inn 2020 and now, every year, a special Challenge Coin bearing his image is presented to participating veterans.

The focus is on those who have served and sacrificed. “All of the men and women who come here and the volunteers from the Foundation are amazing,” Rosie says.

John Iannelli, the ADF executive director, was everywhere on-hand for the four-day event, emphasizing,”the veterans who come here don’t come to drawn attention to themselves.

“They want to just blend in and that’s what I enjoy most about what Bob Stubbs started. We’re able to help these veterans normalize, maybe discovering something they hadn’t thought they could do.

“Then maybe that can be applied to their everyday lives. We know it’s not easy for them to leave their homes and come here, many of them never having been near skis or a skateboard.

“But we encourage them and make it possible for them to do the hard things, to assist with the transition from military life to civilian life.

“They also get to share their common experience which is unknown to most of us. In all honesty, we are in awe of them,” Iannelli says. 

Warriors in Motion programs are goal-oriented and empower the warrior to take charge of their own fitness and wellness, their website states.

Challenge Coin, created in honor of the late Bob Stubbs, presented to each wounded veteran participant for again answering the call.

Family members for the Bob Stubbs Warriors in Motion Winter Sports Weekend at Windham Mountain Club (left to right) Mr. Stubb’s wife Rosie Stubbs, their son Grant, their daughter and son-in-law Charity and Lee Guzofski and grandsons Harrison and Leighton Guzofski.