KPF On The Rise During Busy Fall

Hello Kpeasey friends...On behalf of Brent and me, we would like to wish you all a very happy holiday season. 

The Kyle Pease Foundation has had a tremendous year due to the efforts of all of our fans, donors, sponsors and supporters. 

This past fall has been one for the ages culminating with our 7th Annual Bowling with Kpeasey event. The fun-filled fundraiser was a rolling success with most of our athletes in attendance. The event included laughter in abundance as well as selling the Kpeasey swag, the launch of Justin Knight's new book, A Knight in Shining Armor, great food and some awesome raffles and give-aways. Overall the event was a rousing success. 

One of the highlights of the event included the announcement of The Jake Vinson Family Grant. This was a special one as we awarded two recipients of the grant. Sherry Adams and her family received a grant to help facilitate the construction of a  handicapped bathroom to allow Sherry to gain more independence. Noah and Naomi Williams also received a grant to put towards a new van to get Noah to all of his activities. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. We were thrilled to once again have The Vinson family in attendance to announce and congratulate the winners. The memory of Jake will always be a part of who we are and what we stand for. 

Thank you to all who came out to Stars and Strikes to participate and volunteer for the event. 

And now a few words from Brent: Bowling with KPeasey actually started in 2009 before The Kyle Pease Foundation was actually born.  Kyle, with the help of some of his friends and aides, set up a bowling event.  That first event benefited Reaching for the Stars, an organization supporting individuals with Cerebral Palsy.  Kyle ran and organized the event on his own and helped to raise a little more than $3000 dollars.  

When the foundation was formed in 2011 we elected to continue with an inclusive event, bowling, that was the original vision of our founder.  Today we raise nearly $25,000 annually at bowling, which allows us to support our local 5K/10K races for ALL our athletes!  The joy we gain from helping disabled individuals find joy in endurance sports is a true joy and we look forward to continuing to share our mission.  Thank you all for allowing us to serve and for helping us grow year in and year out!  Together We Wheel

We did do just a bit of racing this season including a visit to NY and the New York City Marathon. Brent and I, along with with Ricardo Aranda and Matt Sour visited the Big Apple and had a blast during our redemption tour. Ricardo soaked up every famous NYC landmark that the city had to offer including Times Square, and the world renowned Katz's Deli. It was great to see Ricardo so excited even before the race. His enthusiasm was contagious. 

The race was equally amazing. It was surreal as Brent pointed out the spot along the course where our wheel exploded last year. This year, no such mishap as we blazed through the streets of the city in record time. We also were able to talk about the organization during an interview with USA Today and on our local station 11 Alive Atlanta. See more images on our facebook photo album.

The week before we were in the Nation's capitol for the Marine Corps Marathon. It is incredible to roll through the streets of DC with all those historic monuments and landmarks as a back drop. The MCM had many of our teams participating at their highest level and it was a true honor to celebrate it with the Abilities Experience. Nine KPF teams participated and had an incredible experience. What I love most about the event is the fact that it brings all of us together as a KPF family. Laughing, competing and just hanging out creates an unforgettable experience. 

The foundation would not be possible without our athletes, sponsors, supporters, board members. Once again, we thank you for making 2016 one to remember and we look forward to what 2017 has in store. Stay tuned for updated race info coming up on our website very soon.

Until then....remember that Where There's a Wheel, There's a Way!

And the Winner of the Inaugural Assisted Division of the Peachtree Road Race is...INCLUSION!

Ricardo and Matt win the Inaugural Assisted Division Peachtree Road Race.

PHOTO BY JORDAN D. HILL/JORDAN.HILL@AJC.COM

Hello K Peasey Nation...If you think the weather has been hot during the month of July, the Foundation schedule has been scalding. 

KPF started off the month on America's birthday with Atlanta's iconic race, The Peachtree Road Race, the largest 10k in the entire country with 

over 60,000 participants. That's a lot of athletes!

Peachtree even has a wheel chair division which was made up of 62 athletes this year. B

rent and I have been working very hard along with the Atlanta Track Club and The Shepherd Center to create the first assisted division in the race's long and historic history. 

The inaugural assisted division was made up of five teams with the winners being Ricardo Aranda and Matt Shechtman who finished in a blistering time of just over 38 minutes. 

In an article published by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, 

Matt thanked Ricardo for his reassurance as "Schectman’s endurance weakened over time".

“Ricardo is an amazing lead and he keeps pushing me the whole way. He talked me off the ledge and kept me going. He’s an awesome puller.”

He continued, “The Peachtree is all about inclusion,” Schectman said. “Sixty thousand different people out here with 60,000 stories.”

It was a very historic Fourth of July with fire works all through the day and a perfect day to celebrate both independence and inclusion. What a perfect pair as in many ways the two travel hand in hand. 

Two days after Peachtree, Brent and I packed our suitcases and hit the road in the KPF RV with a final destination of Muncie, IN for the Muncie 

70.3 1/2 Ironman.

It was great to see some familiar faces on the course each of which inspired us to a personal best of 33 minutes for the 1.2 mile swim. We followed that up with a g

reat bike portion of 3:56 for the 56 miles ride and followed that up with 

a very solid 1/2 marathon for a personal record of 6:28:00.  

We can't thank KPF athletes Tina and Naomi Hicks enough as they made their way to IN to support us. 

Brent is participating in his own full Ironman race this weekend in Sonoma Valley, CA at Vineman. We will be rooting him on and encourage him to spend more time on the course than in the vineyards. 

We are getting ready for a very busy schedule with the Lekotek Fun Run on August 13, a local triathlon on August 27 and then the People's Marathon aka the Marine Corp Marathon on October 30th in the Nation's capitol just a few days before the presidential election.  

Don't forget to check out our site for information about Bowling with Kpeasey, The Jake Vinson Family Grant and of course, Camp Wheel a Way!

As always, Together We Wheel!

KPF Schedule Is As Pretty as a Peach (Tree)

It seems as though I start off each blog post with the same general sentiment and that is to say, "It's a busy time of year for the Kyle Pease Foundation and our calendar is filling up by the week." That's because it's a busy time of year for the Kyle Pease Foundation and our calendar is filling up by the week.

We had a record breaking turnout for the Virginia Highlands 5k and everybody seemed to have a great time including new and veteran athletes alike. Now we turn our attention to the largest 10K in the United States;  The Peachtree Road Race which just happens to be in our back yard of good ol' Atlanta, GA.  

We so excited that the Atlanta Track Club and the Shepard Center has allowed us to compete in the race with bibs for five teams. Just a couple years ago, Brent and I were dubbed as pioneers as the first assisted team to run this race and now thanks to these two organizations we have grown five-fold.

We have a whole weekend of happenings and this is one of our biggest fund raisers of the year. Greg and Christy Smith have graciously opened their home for an evening of fun that will highlight the Peachtree Road Race and The Kyle Pease Foundation. We are so grateful and excited to share the gift of inclusion with some amazing people. Thank you to the Smiths for opening their home to our foundation. 

Join us in our friendly bet where KPF Fans can wager to support their KPF favorite team at our website. This is a fun way to support KPF while cheering for your favorite KPF team.  

The Monday following the race, Brent and Kyle will hit the road for the 70.3 mile Half Ironman in Muncie, IN on Saturday, July 9.

So as stated earlier, it is a busy few weeks.  As always don't forget to apply for the Jake Vincent Family Grant and to sign up for Camp Wheel Away.

And do not forget, Together We Wheel. 

Spreading the Message of the Kyle Pease Foundation from Coast to Coast

It's been quite a stretch for the Kyle Pease Foundation as we have done everything from speaking at SAP Financial in the City of Brotherly of Love to traveling to Montgomery, AL for another speaking engagement. We then flew to the west coast for the Bay to Breakers Race with our main man, Curtis Ward to cap off an incredible two weeks. 

Curtis and I have had a very special relationship for the longest time as we played adaptive sports together several years ago and now he shares the road with me as a member of Walking with KPeasey. It is a true honor that our paths crossed again.

Curtis shared his thoughts about our trip together following the race, "My experience in San Francisco was perhaps the best race I have competed in so far. The Bay to Breakers was an interesting event as the racers threw soft shell tacos into the crowd along with marshmallows. Though that was interesting the highlight of the race was running with my friends."

There were two fundraisers held in CA for us. One was put on by

Brent's very good friend, Jeremy Carter, who also pushed Curtis. Jeremy works in Napa in wine country. The event was a Low Country Boil where they served sausage, corn, shrimp and wine. It was a great event and a wonderful time was had by all. 

One of my very first caretakers from Emory University was Suzanne Becker. She threw a fundraiser for us at a local bar. It was great to see her and her husband, as well as, seeing my former caregiver Anna Shields. 

It was great to spread the mission and to make more people aware of what we do. 

As always it was great to hang out with my brother, Brent and to spend some quality bro-time. 

Don't forget about submitting your application for the Jake Vinson Family Grant and until next time, Together We Wheel. 

Kyle Pease Foundation: We're On The Road Again

Though Willie made it famous, Kpeasey is putting it into practice over the next couple weeks, taking the Kyle Pease Foundation on the road.

 

As I'm writing this, we are in the midst of the "Boston Sweet Tea Pahty", with our own Atlanta Hawks tossing the Celtics into Boston "Hahbah", while the Braves scalped the "Sahx" in the final game of their four game set. How good it feels to rub it in the face of our social media director "Tahd" who makes the "Bahston" area his home.

 

Now that that's out of the way, we have a busy couple weeks on both the speaking and the racing circuit that will take us from coast to coast. At the end of April, Kpeasey was all over the state of Georgia, enjoying races in Augusta and Atlanta.

Little Miss Naomi has been on a roll, racing  every weekend throughout the month of April. We are so proud of her and thrilled that fans think of the Kyle Pease Foundation whenever they see her race. She is becoming one of the many familiar faces of KPF.

Brent and I, along with Michael Ragan and Naomi, joined Greg Smith and Marin, at the Pace Academy 5K (Marin's school) last week. We were also joined by Jim Balckburn, Tina Marie Hicks, Cary Liner and Joltin' John Pulliam. Well represented team of KPF blue.

 

We are so excited and honored to be speaking next week at SAP Financial in Philadelphia. How fitting that Brent and I get to speak in the "City of Brotherly Love".

 

We will be following that up with a trip to the left coast where Zappos.com Bay to Breakers 12K on May 15th.  Curtis Ward will be joining us in San Francisco and enjoying the beautiful sites the city has to offer. We will also be speaking at two locations in "The Golden Gate City" while raising funds for KPF.

Don't forget to sign up for the Jake Vinson Family Grant. You can visit our website to apply.

Getting ready to pack the suitcase, blast some Willie and get on the road....again. Remember, Where there's a wheel there's a way.