Triathlon Update/Operation Rebound

OK all of you know that I've signed up to do Ironman Kansas 70.3 and what my goals are. Well I've added another goal for the race. I'm going to be racing on behalf of the Challenged Athletes Foundation Operation Rebound. My goal is to raise a $1000 for Operation Rebound.

Here's some background:

Since the beginning of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, more than 27,000 U.S. military personnel have been wounded, any suffering traumatic, permanent injuries. In 2004, the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), an organization with 15 years of experience supporting the athletic endeavors of physically challenged athletes, launched Operation Rebound. This program, which has touched hundreds of wounded veterans provides the training, specialized equipment and mentoring permanently injured military personnel need to get back into sports whether their goal is to simply finish a local 5K or make it to the Paralympic games.


But the money I’m raising – and the funds I'm asking you to donate – will support those athletes, who can’t always get to the starting line: swimmers missing limbs, paraplegics who use handcycles to bike and runners who race using artificial limbs. Just like me, these challenged athletes want to participate in athletics and feel the rush of competition, but they face a major obstacle. They don’t lack fitness, desire or skill. It is only a lack of funding that stands in the way of their dreams.

High-tech running prosthetics are very expensive. Learning to swim when you lack a limb (or limbs) requires special coaching. And handcycles can cost upwards of $2,500. But with our help, challenged athletes can bridge the financial gap and overcome funding obstacles blocking their path to athletic achievement. That is why I am challenging myself to make a difference in their lives. Please partner with me by making a donation through my web site link below. Join me in making dreams come true for challenged athletes. Give the gift of sports and help get challenged athletes off the sidelines – and into the game.


Basically Operation Rebound is one of the organizations that I would have to turn to if something were to happen while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and I wanted to regain the lifestyle that I currently enjoy. Operation Rebound helps those who haven't been as fortunate as I have and didn't make it back from their deployments with all of their God issued equipment. The men and women they help are those who don't want to sit around and feel sorry for themselves, they are the ones that tell the doctors, "I could run two miles before I came into the military, and I'm going to be able to run two miles when I get out of the military!"


By clicking on the below link you can go to my fundraising site. Thank you for your support.

http://orkansas09.kintera.org/james