It would have been easy for Mackenzie Blizzard to retreat into quiet defeat when she was diagnosed with inoperable brain tumors and a mitochondrial disease when she was six.
Instead, she dreamed big.
Inside a white house on New London’s Main Street, next to Tuckers and a Dunkin’, Blizzard sits at the desk of her own ski, bike and hike shop, Attack From The Back.
The name is fitting. At age 17, the Proctor Academy junior has already set her sights on some lofty goals — while overtaking doubt — and helping others do the same.
It didn’t begin as a storefront. It began with a simple goal: to fund another child’s education through the nonprofit Education Rocks. She started by selling sweatshirts, and it took off.
“I actually made way over $400, so I didn’t have anything to do with the rest of the money, but I wanted to donate it and keep it going, because I still had a lot of hoodies left to sell,” she explained.
Soon after, she connected with Colby-Sawyer’s ski team and her enterprise just kept growing.
Blizzard was there early on Sunday, the one day she’s actually able to work in-store because Proctor has a six-day school week.
“I get a good amount of sleep, but time management’s a big thing,” she said.
The inside looks like an outdoor enthusiast’s dream. Racks of helmets, hats, belts, bikes and accessories pack the space.
On a wall near the front desk, Mackenzie’s life ventures are displayed in photos and letters, underscoring the meaning behind it all.
Attack From The Back
At age six, she had a stroke during a swim meet. After a year of hospital visits, doctors said they detected brain tumors. The prognosis was — and remains — inconclusive.
For many families, that kind of uncertainty narrows the world. It shrinks futures into waiting rooms and worst-case scenarios.
The Blizzards chose a different approach.
“We always called it making brain tumors fun,” Renee Blizzard said. “We said, you’re not going to be the sick kid. This is going to be fun.”
She’s gone in and out of medical appointments and scary moments, but trying to enjoy the journey as much as possible was always the goal.
Blizzard yearned for sports the same as her peers did. She enjoyed skiing from a young age, but really took to it during the pandemic when her family was living near Mt. Snow in Vermont.
After many consultations with coaches and doctors, the Blizzards let her race in alpine events, which led her to Burke Mountain Academy, where Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin once attended, and eventually to Proctor Academy.
One of her Burke Mountain Academy coaches, Terry DelliQuadri, said Blizzard’s desire, motivation and enthusiasm were never lacking, especially when it came to her plans to open Attack from the Back.
“I’ve been doing this a long time in this sport, coaching this age [group] and older and she’s the only one that I’ve ever seen that has taken it this far,” DelliQuadri said. “And the generosity in that, and the work, it’s a lot of work.”
When moving to Proctor, her mother, Renee, got a job as Colby-Sawyer’s Athletics Program Manager while her father, Jack, is the Director of Campus Safety for the college. They’ve called New London their home for a while now.
Proctor offered the right balance for her to explore the arts, drama, music and keep up academically as conflicting opinions from doctors kept her away from skiing during certain periods.
On Jan. 31, Blizzard hosted a skiing event at Proctor Academy’s ski hill to present donations to the chosen organizations.
In between the boys’ slalom and girls’ slalom races, she presented three checks, the largest going to for $50,000. She also helped raise $35,000 for Colby-Sawyer, $25,000 for her own non-profit Kenzie’s Krew, all on top of her annual contribution for Education Rocks.
Tommy Biesemeyer, a former professional ski racer who heads World Cup Dreams Foundation, has met the Blizzards on multiple occasions. Her business ambitions — and the name of her company — resonated with him. Attacking from the back is what a skier does when they jump up spots in a race.
“She is coming from a disadvantage of her personal situation, and therefore, she’s plowing forward to rise to the top, similar to what we’re trying to do,” Biesemeyer said.
Moving forward
The Blizzards’ journey through it all would not have been possible without their faith, they said.
Recently, Mackenzie had to quit skiing competitively because of her health issues. She’s kept busy with band and recording in the fall, and the school musical this winter.
Her own non-profit, Kenzie’s Krew, is a faith-centered organization that gives children facing financial or physical challenges opportunities to explore the outdoors.
The idea is to create a summer camp on their farmland in southern New Jersey, where kids can have free range of the area and participate in activities on land and in the water, supplemented with faith-based activities.
“There’s just so many different things, like forgiveness as a whole was something that has come up in my life,” she said. “And it’s like such a big thing to be able to like love and forgive in such a way that it’s like love keeps no record of wrongs.”
For her parents, providing their daughter with a good quality of life through all the ups and downs would not have been possible without their belief in God, Renee said.
“What we’ve raised her in is always do good, no matter what you do, do good,” Renee Blizzard said. “And you pay it forward, because everybody has a struggle. You might not know it, you might not see it, but everybody has a struggle.”
Blizzard wants to follow in her older brother George’s footsteps and study neuroscience. She hopes to attend Liberty University for its 3+1 accelerated program for biomedical sciences, which would allow her to waive the Medical College Admissions Test and finish her doctorate after seven years.
Her own interactions with the medical world have only pushed her to understand it better and want to help others.
“I think when I go to college, my focus will shift from like this, to Kenzie’s Krew,” Mackenzie said. She will still keep Attack From the Back going, but obviously, she won’t be able to keep her regular Sunday hours in New London.
More information about Mackenzie’s journey can be found on attackfromtheback.com.