Kris’s Fundraising Page:
Challenged Athletes Foundation
This post will be pinned until the SD Triathlon in October, or until the goal is reached, so please look further down in the blog for newer posts. Edit: the goal was reached on August 13!
I’m taking a break from regular blogging to help promote the Challenged Athletes Foundation San Diego Triathlon Challenge. I’m doing this to help out my daughter, Kris, who is a genuinely kind and good person, intent on helping others. Part of her role at Aspen Medical Products (which develops spinal orthotics) is to organize her company’s sponsorship of the SD triathlon. This is her third year of coordinating the event and Aspen’s two-decade mark of sponsoring the triathlon.
Kris told me she sets up teams, creates fundraising events to raise money, coordinates hotel rooms for those participating, and coordinates a company dinner at a local restaurant before the big event to pump everyone up. Her company typically has close to 80 people who volunteer, fundraise, participate in the triathlon, or do the 5k walk. Her company has a trainer on site Monday–Thursday from 4:30-5:30, and he helps those who want to participate and get in shape. Many people also group up after work to do interval training and either bike or run, depending on what event they are in.
Her company hosts a lunch each year where a challenged athlete comes to speak, and that–according to Krist–is when it all really hits home. Challenged Athletes Foundation gives people their lives back: from little kids born with no legs, who then learn how to use a prosthetic, to military who have lost limbs in the war and had lost hope. Kris said she finds great joy in seeing those kids run with new limbs or soldiers find something to live for again. It really is a great charity.
According to CAF:
The athletes that the CAF helps come from all walks of life. Andy Bailey was already retired, when he was hit by a car and lost his right leg, Celeste Corcoran was running in the Boston Marathon, when the terrorist bomb tore her leg off, and Able Rose, age 3, was born with two legs that didn’t work. CAF provided the equipment and supported the efforts of each of these athletes, allowing them to get back in the game. Without CAF, it’s hard to know where they would be right now.
By making a donation toward Kris’s fundraising goal you will provide individuals who have physical challenges with the tools necessary to find success in sports — and in life!
The featured image is from the FLICKR CAF Commons from the 2015 Aspen Medical San Diego Triathlon Challenge album.