Fall is upon us… the kids are back in school, Notre Dame Football is stressing me out every weekend, cozy sweaters are coming out of storage, and I’m back on the road stubbornly attempting to once again drag this swimmer’s body over 26.2 miles of pavement.
My efforts continue to be motivated by a deep-rooted desire to help underprivileged children. As many of you know, when our daughter fell ill a few years back, we found ourselves navigating challenges I wish no other parent or child would ever have to experience. I became inspired to get involved in ways that might help other families navigate such trials as successfully as possible. To that end, I joined the board of directors of United Neighborhood Houses (UNH), sponsors of the Early Childhood Mental Health Collaborative, amongst many other amazing community enhancing programs. This program helps 15,000 children who have experienced serious challenges in their young lives. In addition, as a lead member of the Campaign for Children, UNH fights for quality early childhood education programs, fair pay for the educators who make lasting impressions on their students, and effective implementation of programs like 3K For All.
In a personal effort to help the cause, I signed up to run the Chicago Marathon (on October 7th). This race is significant to me in many ways; not least of which, I tried to run it 25 years ago, and injury got in the way. So much so, that I gave up running for decades. And I should mention that my mom was training for the same race that year… and she rocked it! So I’m heading back to my old stomping grounds to give it another go, to support UNH… and to make my mom proud!
I kindly ask for your support for both of these worthy causes (UNH… and making my mom proud...) and your well wishes that I survive another 26.2 miles!
TC
PS – as a brief postscript, I am happy to report that our daughter is now 100%; she is my inspiration, and her full recovery is the best gift we could ever hope for! TCF
