This
will be my last update on my support raising for my 1/2 IronMan 70.3 mile competition
and I will include some details on Joy Town (the location where all the money
is going!) and a brief update on my training.
Memories from Joy Town...
Last Friday when I was back in Iowa City I was able
to speak to the University of Iowa physical therapy faculty and students about
my trip to Kenya. It was really neat because I got to share with them lots of
stories from my experience working at Kijabe hospital and at Joy Town. If at
any point you would like to see the powerpoint presentation that I shared with
them then please let me know because I’d love to either share it with you in
person or if that doesn’t work then I can send you the link to watch the live
version. If you want to see the powerpoint that I presented then please feel
free to go to this link- there are lots of pictures and videos that are pretty
priceless! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y55b2KCcE1iJoG-y5zOrRrRcf9vOxLDoZCw1sZtawFk/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=5000
I learned a lot about giving aid to 3rd
world countries while in Kenya. I want to share 2 examples that I saw firsthand
at Joy Town:
1) There is a wheelchair race course at
Joy Town and the kids love the course and have races often since most of the
kids there are wheelchair bound. If you look in the background of the picture
below you see a stadium seating area…someone generously donated it to Joy Town but
they did not have the foresight to make it handicap accessible. Since the majority of kids at Bethany Kids
are in wheelchairs then a large portion of the kids can’t use the stadium to
cheer on their peers that are racing.
2) An organization donated a pool to Joy
Town because they thought it would be helpful for the kids to have a pool to do
aquatherapy in to help them with their disabilities. Unfortunately, now there
is a pool at Joy Town but there aren’t any physiotherapists that are even
remotely trained in aquatherapy because that type of therapy doesn’t really
exist in Kenya. The kids at Joy Town do get to go occasionally swimming but the
upkeep with the pool is extremely expensive and difficult since ~1/5 of the
kids do not have bladder/bowel control due to spina bifida and other neurologic
disorders.
My point with these stories is not to discourage you to send
money to organizations in 3rd world countries. However, my point is
to encourage you to do your research and investigate before you give. I have
seen Joy Town with my own eyes and spent a long enough time there to know that
the money that you have all donated is going to be used in order to improve the
physiotherapy for the kids at Joy Town, which is a huge need.
Support raising- With all of your help I've
now been able to raise $1,381.46 for Bethany Kids at Joy Town! Thanks so much
to all of you who have helped support me! My goal through the 1/2 IronMan
campaign was to raise at least $1,000 to send to Bethany Kids in order that
more lives can be changed there. I really hope to raise more support these last
two weeks because I can't wait to see the changes that they'll be able to make
at Joy Town with all of the donations.
Training- 2 more weeks to go! It’s been a crazy last 1.5 months since I’ve written- unfortunately, I’ve had some sickness which has gotten in the way of my training and I’ve also been doing a lot of traveling back to the Midwest which has also made training difficult. However, I have gotten in a couple of ~60 mile bikes,~8 mile runs which were very difficult and long but they were good to build my confidence for race day. The most exciting part of my training has been that I was able to do a triathlon with Athletes in Tandem.
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The
individual with disabilities that I raced with was 19 years old and she had never
done any type of race before so I met with her for several times beforehand to
make sure that her caretaker and her felt comfortable with all 3 events and the
transitions between them. Her caretaker was nervous how she would respond to 3 completely
new things that she hadn’t experienced before but she was a ROCKSTAR. We had so
much fun cheering on everyone that we passed during the triathlon…she would
typically let out a holler and clap. While doing activities she frequently
finds a song that she likes and sings one line over and over again- sometimes
it’s Happy Birthday, sometimes it’s Hotel California or another oldies song. She
absolutely loved the bike ride because she enjoyed going fast and I guess every
day since then she has said “go for bike ride” on repeat because she really
wants to go again. I hope to race with her again because I built a great
relationship with her, her caregiver and her family through the process and it
was an extremely rewarding process!
I am
now tapering for race day and I would appreciate prayers for health the next 2
weeks before my race so that I can race both safe and strong and have fun!
To wrap
it all up I want to say THANKS AGAIN to all of you for supporting me but more
importantly for supporting and loving my Kenyan friends. You have no idea how
much it means to me and how much of an impact it will have on them! The next
email you will receive from me will be my last in that I will share the total
amount raised and I will let you know how the race went!
If you
are interested in supporting Bethany Kids at Joy Town the details are below:
I encourage you to
support me for every mile of my half ironman race which is 70.3 total miles-
1.2 swim, 56 bike, 13.1 run! I am asking that you choose to donate a certain
dollar amount for every mile I complete, 1 quarter would be $18.00, 2 quarters=
$35.00, 3 quarters= $53.00, 1 dollar= $70.00. However, if you want to donate
any other dollar amount that is fine as well.
If you are interested in donating then please send a check
written out to Bethany Kids with Joy Town in the memo and send it to my address
at 4408 John F Kennedy B302 Fort Collins, CO.
