"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." —Margaret Mead
In 1994, a small group of thoughtful, committed triathletes came together to raise money for an injured comrade—famed endurance athlete and amputee Jim MacLaren. Their fundraiser, the first San Diego Triathlon Challenge (SDTC), brought the organizers not only funds, but an education in the financial, social, and technical barriers that many people with physical disabilities face when trying to achieve basic fitness, much less compete in sports. Inspired by the success of the fundraiser and obvious need in the community, the group repeated the race the next year, benefitting several people with physical disabilities. Buoyed by their success, the group decided to found a nonprofit just three years later to carry on their work. That organization is now the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF).
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| Operation Rebound athlete John Blue crosses the finish line at the Ford Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Oceanside, California. Photograph courtesy of Janice Darlington. |
"None of us had foundation backgrounds—we had triathlon backgrounds," recalls Virginia Tinley, CAF executive director. "In the first couple of years, we helped just a handful of other athletes. Then the founders said, ‘This is really doing meaningful work—let's make it into a nonprofit and help as many athletes as we can.' Last year, we were able to give 765 grants to athletes in 49 states and the District of Columbia and 25 foreign countries. It was more than $1.3 million."
CAF provides not only grants, but a wide variety of resources and opportunities for people with physical disabilities who want to enjoy being active, change perceptions about disabilities, and help others like themselves. It also provides outreach and education to individuals and the community, post-rehabilitation support and mentoring, and special programs for veterans and first responders. These efforts are administered and funded through four separate CAF programs: Catch a Rising Star, Access for Athletes, Operation Rebound, and Reach High.
Catch a Rising Star
For many people who have a physical disability, any interest in competing takes a distant second place to the need for basic information and resources. CAF's Catch a Rising Star program addresses that need by reaching out to people with traumatic injuries or congenital disabilities to introduce them to adaptive fitness and provide them with mentoring relationships, workshops, and a sense of community.
One of the program's primary offerings are sports clinics, which, CAF says, create a "fun, interactive, non-threatening environment that allows aspiring challenged athletes a chance to set and reach sports goals and interact with role-model athletes with similar physical challenges."
Coryn Reich, CP, is a member of the Downey, California, branch of Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics. She says, "For the past two years, our office has sponsored a CAF Catch a Rising Star multisport festival. At our last event, there were around 30 amputees…. These clinics are a great opportunity for amputees to try something new or try something again for the first time since their accident. One of my patients, Katie Sullivan, who's now a Paralympic sprinter, ran for the first time in her life at a CAF clinic."
CAF currently conducts Catch a Rising Star clinics in California, Chicago, Florida, New York, and Texas, with more locations slated for next year.
Applications to participate in a clinic are available at www.challengedathletes.org/programs/rising_star.htm
Access for Athletes
Once people have basic information about adaptive sports and being fit, CAF's Access for Athletes program can provide funding for equipment, training, and competition expenses to people who demonstrate that they will use, and would have trouble otherwise affording, these offerings.
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| Reach High educator/athlete Clint Mabry talks with students at Hope Elementary School, Carlsbad, California. Photograph courtesy of CAF. |
Lauren Hinton, CAF director of marketing, calls Access for Athletes an "equalizer." She says, "In many cases, insurance doesn't cover the equipment people need to just get into the game, and that's where we come in. Access for Athletes grants allow a kid to keep up with her classmates, and a parent to run after his kids or handcycle on family bike rides."
New York-based musician Nick Roumanada says that it's always been very important to him to be an active amputee, and that he's been running 10K races on a walking foot for several years. He recently received his first running foot from CAF and says, "I've been running a lot more lately, trying to get as fit as possible so that I can live up to this Flex Foot."
Access for Athletes is funded mainly via CAF fundraisers and industry sponsorships. Ossur Americas, Aliso Viejo, California, has been CAF's partner organization for 15 years. It provides the running feet and knees granted through Access for Athletes, as well as contributing funds for all of CAF's other programs. "It's a huge value for both Ossur and the foundation for us to be able to partner in providing running feet and knees for the Access for Athletes program," says Tabi King, Ossur's director of education. "As innovators in the industry, it's very satisfying to know that the work we do is enabling amputees to pursue a life of fitness and sport."
Hinton adds that by providing its products through CAF, Ossur gains invaluable market and media exposure and can provide additional services to its customers through the CAF clinics.
Access for Athletes 2010 grant applications are available at www.challengedathletes.org/programs/access_for_athletes.htm and must be postmarked by Tuesday, December 1.
Operation Rebound
Though aspiring challenged athletes from any environment can benefit from having adaptive sports equipment, injured firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and members of the military may gain even more from participating in specialized programs that address their trauma-intensive backgrounds. Nico Marcolongo, Operation Rebound program manager, says that a lot of military personnel and first responders "not only have a physical injury, but also invisible ones such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety.... Getting active in sports is part of their therapy. A lot of them are young, energetic, athletic, and all of a sudden, they've lost a leg, arm, or their eyesight, or they're paralyzed." CAF's Operation Rebound offers them grants, sports clinics, a facilitated online community forum, and the Military Medical Center Physical Training (MMCPT) program. The MMCPT program provides physical training programs for permanently injured active-duty service members who are in military medical centers for continuing treatment. The programs include coaching in biking, running, swimming, and conditioning.
Applications for Operation Rebound are downloadable at www.challengedathletes.org/programs/operation_rebound.htm
Reach High
While Operation Rebound caters to a very specialized population, CAF's Reach High program touches the broadest possible audience, changing social perceptions of people with disabilities by sending speakers to venues including schools, youth groups, community services organizations, and corporations to change misperceptions about disabilities and offer inspiration. It also offers peer mentoring, visitation, information, and referral services.
Travis Ricks, CAF administrative assistant and community outreach coordinator, says, "We're one of the few resources that give people a chance to know somebody who's gone through what they go through. We hear their story and connect them with someone who…has been through something similar. Just knowing that there is someone else who has gone through the same thing helps so many people."
Ellen Morgan has been both a CAF grant recipient and a Reach High volunteer. She says of volunteering with the program, "How could I not get involved? Have you seen the joy in the kids' eyes when they put new legs on and run for the first time? Or [seen] a returning vet find that they are not going to be left by the wayside but drawn into the thick of competition and activity? [My] recovery was not about focusing on me but on how I could help others find a way to ‘stand up' after tragedy."
For more information about Reach High, e-mail
Tinley says that each of these programs grew from evident needs that CAF volunteers and employees naturally found themselves meeting in the course of their work. Through these good works, CAF has served thousands of people with physical disabilities and touched far more indirectly by transforming perceptions and assisting families. CAF really is changing the world, one athlete at a time.
Morgan Stanfield can be reached at
