In getting ready for the GORUCK Challenge, a great cause came along. Below is the email I sent:
You may have heard that I am going to try and complete the GORUCK Challenge in Virginia Beach on April 28th at 10PM. If I haven’t told you about the GORUCK, let me give you the elevator pitch and a link to a video:
The GORUCK Challenge is a team event and never a race. Inspired by Special Forces training and led by Green Berets, the Challenge builds teams and solves problems. It is 8 to 10 hours, covering 18 to 20 miles of running with a ruck (military slang for backpack) filled with 6 bricks. Will their be pushups, flutter kicks and buddy carries? Yes. Will the team pick up heavy logs and other objects on their way? Yes. A GORUCK is to under promise, over deliver, and always have “good livin’”.
To get a sense of what I going to be doing, you can check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk2LWZ3_7xg&feature=player_embedded
Of course, completing this not enough. The GORUCK Challenge is happening the same day as another important event. Before I tell you what the other event is, I have to give you some background.
My sister and her husband had their third son, Jude, a little over a month ago. Mom and baby boy are healthy, but there was a wrinkle. Jude was born with bilateral microopthalmia, severe underdevelopment of the eyes. Given current medical technology, Jude will never see. There is a fantastic organization in Kansas City, where they live, The Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (http://ccvi.org).
“The mission of the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired is to prepare children with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities, to reach their highest potential in the sighted world.
Our doors are open for any infant to school-age child whose visual impairment is significant enough to adversely affect his or her educational performance. Children and their parents come here to discover a truly unique, positive environment with innovative and stimulating programs customized for each student.”
CCVI is a non-profit institution and are reliant on charitable donations, and to help CCVI holds an annual Trolley Run. Donations to CCVI during the Trolley Run account for a quarter of CCVI’s operating budget.
While I can’t be in Kansas City to run during the Trolley Run, I am going to be running around Virginia Beach in the same time, so I am going to make the GORUCK Challenge a “GORUCK for Jude”. I would like to help CCVI in raising as much money as I can. If you are so inclined, please point your web browser to “http://va.judesdudes.org". You will be donating to weekly in-home and onsite therapy for Jude and others where parental limitations simply can’t adequately serve.
If you are local and in Virginia Beach over night on the 28th, be on the lookout for a gaggle of people running around with backpacks and other heavy objects. There should be photos of me at the GORUCK about a week after, you will be able to link over to them at “http://jeredb.com". You can watch a Kansas City local news video about the run, featuring my sister and her family: “http://www.kshb.com//dpp/entertainment/events/Trolley-Run-aims-to-help-chidlren-with-visual-impairment". If you want to learn more about how Jude is doing, you can head over to “http://judesdudes.org".
I sent this to a handful of people. I had a modest goal, $250, was all that I wanted to raise. I was expecting to have to make up the difference myself, which was going to be the easiest check to stroke.
Boy was I wrong. Some how this went a little viral, friends of friends saw it and jumped on board. I can’t begin to tell you how humbled I am that I have such great friends and they have great friends. All in all, my supporters raised $820. Let me put that in concrete terms, we raised enough money for one month’s tuition for a kindergarten student and then some. Supporters, this is for you, we were the second highest fundraiser for Judes Dudes, good job team! And Judes Dudes was the largest fund raising super team for the Trolley Run. All-in-all, the super team raised a whopping $12,500!
Reports from the Trolley Run relayed that it rained cats and dogs in Kansas City, but the race went on.
The Judes Dudes finishing strong
Let me tell you a secret: When the GORUCK Challenge sucked and it did, knowing that my nephew had such awesome supporters and they were rooting for me to finish, those are the things that got me through.
