Damien Walters is Amazing!

Damien Walters has to be the best athlete you have never heard of, if not the best athlete ever. Check out the video:

Walters gives by coaching. Coaching is an easy and fun way to give back as an athlete. You don’t have to be one of the best in the world to help a kid on his way to becoming the best. There are ample opportunities to give back through coaching in any sport. If the recession has blessed you with some down time, look into coaching opportunities in your community.

Thanks for reading!

mike

The Wassner Twins and Team FIGHT

This is a great example of a way to use athletics to give back. There are many organizations that now have their own “teams”. The most popular/well known team is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s “Team in Training“.

The Ulman Cancer Fund was started by a good friend of mine and 3 time cancer survivor, Doug Ulman. Doug is also the President of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The UCF’s mission is to enhance lives by supporting, educating and connecting young adults, and their loved ones, affected by cancer. One of the ways people can support their mission is by joining TEAM FIGHT. By doing so, you are committing to race for the Ulman Cancer Fund and proudly wear their uniform.

Two such athletes include the incredible Wassner twins. These young triathletes have made a mark in the sporting world by placing in some of the country’s more prestigious events. On top of all this, Laurel is a YA Survivor of Hodgkins Lymphoma. The twins will be competing for Team FIGHT at the Columbia Triathlon, Iron Girl Columbia and Eagleman Triathlon. Please watch them, cheer them on or better yet, JOIN THEM!

I would love to end this with a quote from Laurel on their website that provides a perspective on life and sport that we could all learn from. “Each time I get to a starting line, I realize that I am different. I am stronger and tougher for what I have gone through, and I am extremely lucky. If you have seen me race, and as you can see in the photos, I always have a smile on my face and raise my arms in victory at the finish line–even if I don’t come in first. Every finish is a victory to me!”

Change of Plans…

Hi everybody!

I only introduced myself last week, and introduced my plan to train for the Chicago Marathon while fundraising.  A brief update on my training… I am running about 15-20 miles per week, with my longest run at 5.5 miles.  So far building a base has not been too bad, with a little bit of numbness in the left quad where the cancer was removed.  That was easily solved by a day of rest.

My brother has been challenging me to run a triathlon for months, and my one of my good friends has been training with me lately.  I have never swam across a pool, let alone .9 miles in open water.

This morning we decided that my brother, my roommate, and I will do our first triathlon.  We will be training for the Olympic distance Chicago Triathlon on August 31.  We have set a goal of raising $15,000 for Imerman Angels.  They are the same charity I will be running the marathon for, and they are growing rapidly.  Everyday, they are connecting several new cancer fighters to survivors who have been through their exact same experience.

Please let me know if you have any tips for training for something like this, they would be EXTREMELY welcome.

LiveSTRONG,

Brian

US Triathletes for a cause

I just came across this article. The first thing you will notice is that it WAS a time sensitive article and IS old. Yup, that’s how I do things. Everyone talks about things when they first hit the public. It’s way harder to wait 10 months.

Regardless of when it was written, the concept is timeless as are the causes. The article focuses on 4 Olympic Triathletes Hunter Kemper, Matt Reed, Sarah Haskins and Jarrod Shoemaker. It focuses less on their journey to Beijing and more on the causes they will be supporting and why.

I love that it talks about WHY they support those causes and HOW you can give back to them. The causes are each very unique and worth checking out.

Please check out the article and more importantly the causes by clicking HERE

It’s not just another day off work.

Memorial Day is not just another day off work. Especially now. We are a country at war and men and women are making huge sacrifices to fight it. Regardless of how you feel about war, our soldiers deserve our respect, gratitude, and support.

The Wounded Warrior Project is an organization that is dedicated to helping wounded soldiers get their lives back. One of their programs involves skiing and snowboarding. I got a chance to see them in action in Colorado this winter and it is truly a great thing.

Sports have the ability to change lives. I would not be the same person I am today if I had not been fortunate enough to have had my World Cup ski career. The Wounded Warrior Project uses sports therapy to give back what the soldiers lost in their injuries. I cannot think of a better way to help our wounded warriors than this.

Please take some time to think about all the amazing sacrifices our soldiers have made throughout history.

Thanks for reading!

mike

Tyler Bradt’s world record waterfall

A good friend of mine and long time kayaker Tyler Bradt recently SHATTERED his previous waterfall record by dropping 186 feet over Palouse Falls and staying in his kayak. Although it may not seem like it, it was a calculated drop and he made it as safe as a waterfall of that height could be. To see the video click HERE

Tyler is more than just a meat hucking bro bra. His recent video collaboration, Africa Revolutions, was made in an attempt to raise money and awareness for the Suncatchers Project Here is the trailer to that video.

His next giving adventure is kayaking in Iceland. The goal is to kayak 20 first descents to raise money so that young adults with cancer can learn to kayak for free at a program called FIRST DESCENTS. Check out their fundraising efforts and make a donation HERE.

Ethan Zohn’s Grassroots Soccer

Ethan Zohn is arguably one of the more giving athlete/celebrities out there. Ethan is best known for winning the popular reality show “Survivor”. Beyond that he is the co-founder of Grassroots Soccer which is an international awareness organization that uses Africa’s most powerful role models, pro soccer players, to educate youth about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. Most recently Zohn launched Grassroot Soccer UNITED, a US based awareness campaign, by dribbling a soccer ball 550 miles from Boston MA to Washington DC. He lends his celebrity to Autism Speaks, the Colon Cancer Alliance and is a national spokesman for American Scores.

Ethan is now facing a new challenge. He was recently diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkins Disease, a form of cancer. He will join thousands of other young adults living with cancer. 70,000 will be diagnosed in the US alone this year. I am sure that he will survive well in the face of his cancer and judging by his philanthropic streak, he will find a way to help others through his own battle.

Please visit his website www.grassrootsoccer.org to learn more

Chad Ochocinco Johnson Feeds the Children.

Chad Johnson is out of his mind! He legally changed his last name to Ochocinco (he wears #85) after the NFL did spanish jerseys to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. He is a huge personality and is using his celibrity to raise money for feedthechildren.org.

In addition to racing the horse, he plans on sparing with Floyd Mayweather, Playing basketball against either kobe Bryant or Lebron James. According to the video he also wants to race Nascar all in the name of charity.

I like the idea of doing crazy stunts for charity. I gives Ochocinco a chance to get good PR and showcase his personality, but it also creates a lot of awareness and interest in charity. What do you guys think? Leave me a comment and let me know.

mike

Homeless World Cup

Let me start by saying THANK YOU to everyone who sends ideas along for posts.  A good friend of mine suggested AG cover this cause and I couldn’t be happier to do so. 

The organization is called the “Homeless World Cup”.  It was founded by two journalists, one from Scotland and one from Austria in 2001 with the goal of ending homelessness around the world.  Here is what they have to say about their organization:

There are one billion homeless people living in our world today.

The Homeless World Cup exists to end this, so we all have a home, a basic human need.

The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. It has triggered and supports grass roots football projects in over 60 nations working with over 25,000 homeless and excluded people throughout the year.

There is a documentary  called “Kicking It” which chronicles teams playing in the cup.

Also, check out this recent article in the NY Times- http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/48-nations-in-2009-homeless-world-cup/

Their website is www.homelessworldcup.org

a little something to take the edge off a monday…

I think this one is safe for work. My company went out of business in November and, as Brad can tell you, I ran my office program pretty fast and loose… There is no nudity and what these girls do is unbelievably athletic. In fact these girls are so talented I think we should take pole dancing out of dingy strip clubs and straight into the Olympics!

Now I don’t know that every dollar that ends up in these ladies thongs goes to a worthy charitable cause, but I thought it was worth three and a half minutes of your busy Monday!