AG Athlete Authors

Feb 19

bp11

BRIAN PIENTA
AG CONTRIBUTOR

Brian is a two-year cancer survivor. He was always an athlete, playing hockey and lacrosse. After being diagnosed with a liposarcoma (fatty-tissue cancer) in his left thigh, Brian had a foot-long section of his thigh removed and 35 rounds of radiation. He began his recovery by training for the LiveStrong Challenge in Philadelphia in 2007. One year after beating cancer, he rode the 100-mile Challenge while fundraising for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Brian ran his first marathon in October 2008 while fundraising for Imerman Angels, a cancer charity in Chicago. He will continue to fundraise and be an active body in the cancer fight.

MELANIE LIDMAN
AG CONTRIBUTOR

Former adventures have found Melanie Lidman stranded at a wine vineyard in Portugal, singing about the Holy Trinity in the shanty towns of Peru, and sleeping in caves in the foothills of Jerusalem. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a triple degree in Spanish, journalism, and ultimate frisbee, and dreams of living out of a backpack for the next ten years. A native of Massachusetts, Melanie focuses on print and online journalism and has worked for the past year at Outside Magazine. Additionally, she has freelanced for the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Jerusalem Post, Street Sense, Hadassah Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and other local publications. For more information, please see Melanie’s website atwww.willtravelforfood.org.

BRAD LUDDEN
AG FOUNDER

Brad Ludden has been kayaking since the age of 9. He grew up in Kalispell, MT spending his weekends on the river with his family. At the age of 13 he started traveling internationally and competing. By 16 he was a recognized and sponsored kayak athlete. Now, 28, he has kayaked in over 40 countries, been featured in multiple films and was named one of the top 10 adventure athletes in the world by Outside Magazine. He is also the founder of First Descents, an organization that provides free outdoor adventure therapy for young adults with cancer by teaching them how to kayak.

Brad is sponsored by Nike, Dagger, Smith, Kokatat, AT Paddles and Training Day

MIKE FRIEDBERG
AG AUTHOR

2 Comments

kate (george) on April 10th, 2009

Hey brad, I am loving your new blog/website. Seeing you post about athletes giving back is very inspring and I know I wouldn’t hear about any of these people otherwise. Keep posting through twitter because that is usually how I find your posts. Hope the FD ball is great this weekend! (wish i could’ve made it) -george
KrisBelucci on June 2nd, 2009

da best. Keep it going! Thank you