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Skydiving winner observes “all of God’s beauty”

Fulfilling a childhood dream, she jumped from a plane at 12,000 feet and got a bird’s-eye view of Warrenton.

“Here comes my crazy girl,” Dana Durr said while taking photos as her daughter, Brooke Guthrie, floated toward a soccer field at the Warrenton Aquatic and Recreation Facility.

Cheers erupted as Ms. Guthrie, 38, landed smoothly with skydiving instructor Imi Bucsanyi on the turf field just after noon Thursday — her birthday and eighth wedding anniversary.

Excited by the prospect, Ms. Guthrie learned last week that she had won this year’s Warrenton Town Limits annual skydiving contest.

“When I was 14, my dad and I were watching this TV show with free falling and skydiving,” she recalled. “I always wanted to do it.”

Physicians in February 2017 told Ms. Guthrie, diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, that she probably had another nine months to a year to live.

And, live she does.

“We’ve been knocking things off my bucket list, and obviously I was happy to knock this one off,” she said.

“It made us get out and take pictures with the kids. I need more photos with them. Anything could happen any day.”

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For the last three years, the parks and recreation department has given two citizens a free jump with DC Skydiving Center the day before Warrenton Town Limits.

Each year, a skydiver from the business just south of town has touched down at Warrenton Town Limits, a free patriotic festival at the WARF.

Ms. Guthrie and parks department Assistant Director Cathy Zimmer got the chance to skydive over Warrenton.

To win, Ms. Guthrie submitted a photo with her two sons, Troy, 9, and Luke, 4, jumping in puddles at Rady Park. Her daughter, Lexy, 16, took the photo.

“Did you see me?” Ms. Guthrie asked her three kids after sticking the landing Thursday. “I waved.

“It hurt my ears a lot,” she said.

The jump, which included a free fall before Mr. Bucsanyi opened the parachute, lasted about eight minutes.

“It was amazing,” the winner said. “I don’t even need a cup of coffee now.”

Ms. Guthrie went bungee jumping as a teenager, but skydiving offered a much more panoramic view.

“It was hard to catch my breath,” she said. “You see all of God’s beauty, and it’s amazing.”

Next on her list?

Travelling to Australia and possibly swimming with sharks.

“She’s definitely brave,” said her husband, Chad. “She’ll do anything.”

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