Overcoming Adversity Through Volunteering

[Music]

what would you do

if your leg was amputated tough question

for dick trump

the answer was easy start running

he began running by himself always a

high achiever

he decided to run the new york city

marathon becoming the first known

amputee to achieve such defeat

he completed all 26.2 miles in 7 hours

and 24 minutes

as he was running it occurred to him

that if running meant this much to him

it might have the same effect on other

handicapped people

but this raised a difficult question how

could he find other handicapped athletes

to solve this he put an advertisement in

the newspaper

saying to meet tuesday night in central

park

he wasn’t even sure if anyone would even

show up

to his great surprise people started to

show up but what he didn’t anticipate

was that the people who showed up

weren’t just amputees

there were blind runners cancer

survivors and wheelchair athletes

seeing his club grow such a wide range

of handicapped athletes

dick started to recruit able-bodied

volunteers

over the course of a couple years this

will turn to achilles international

where disabled people around with

volunteers

last year while new york city i had the

privilege to be one of these achilles

volunteers

acting as a guide to a blind athlete

named akan

i guided him around central park with a

tether as we ran through miles

while on the surface it would appear to

others that i was helping a con

i can assure you that it was the other

way around i had the time my life that

night

and it showed me how disabled people

learn to cope with their disabilities

and do amazing things my second role

model that i’d like to talk about

was inspired by dick trump terry fox was

a standout canadian high school athlete

he reached an important crossroads the

night before he had his leg amputated

due to aggressive cancer called

osteosarcoma

while he should have met the lowest

point of his life he was excited and

inspired by an article about dick trum

it was at this moment that he decided to

run what he called the marathon of hope

to support cancer research following his

surgery

he rehabbed in preparation for this

monumental run with a 14 month training

period

the marathon of hope was no ordinary

marathon

in a tremendous athletic accomplishment

he ran 26 miles each day

for 143 days straight

he embarked on this run because he

learned that the cutting edge treatments

that he received

were brought about because of scientific

advances

he wanted to help future patients get

the same care that he did

by fundraising for cancer research since

terry started his run

over 750 million canadian dollars have

been raised for cancer research

the survivor rate for osteosarcoma has

now increased to 80 percent

terry fox became a hero of mine because

of how he responded to life-altering

misfortune

how you respond to challenges like

getting your leg amputated defines your

character

while i can’t imagine someone telling me

that they were going to amputate my leg

an even more insurmountable challenge

would be getting diagnosed with als

this is exactly what happened to st

john’s prep graduate pete frates

at the age of 27. most doctors agreed

that the one of the worst diagnoses one

can receive

is als als also known as lou gehrig’s

disease

is a neurodegenerative disease that

causes progressive loss of motor neurons

patients die as a result of paralysis

and the inability to speak

breathe and eat the knight pete brady’s

learned that he was diagnosed with als

he told his family that i now know why

i’m here

and he expressed his determination to

fight this disease

while he recognized that his efforts

would not help him he was determined to

raise awareness and funding for this

terrible disease

he told his parents that he wanted the

world’s familiar philanthropists

like bill gates to hear about this

illness to galvanize efforts to support

research that would lead to better

treatments

for future patients with this disease

pete fraze was the determined man two

years after his diagnosis

he launched the ice bucket challenge a

fundraising effort like nothing the

world had ever seen before

people filmed themselves dumping buckets

of ice cold water on their heads

donating money to the als foundation and

then challenging their friends to do the

same

leveraging the power of social media the

challenge quickly grew viral

and amassed over 2.4 million

participants including bill gates

that raised a grand total of 250 million

dollars

for als research in just one year

the fourth story i’m going to talk about

has to do with coven 19

which has been a challenge for all of us

the mount carry food bank

in acton massachusetts has a long

tradition of success

serving over 34 000 different meals to

date

each week a team of dedicated volunteers

prepare a sit-down meal

in a church cafeteria for about 150

people

when cobin 19 hit they realize that they

can no longer host 150 people in the

cafeteria

due to coven concerns their founder mike

tobia

had every excuse in the world including

the fact that he was battling metastatic

pancreatic cancer

to pause their operations however in the

same way that peter frates

terry fox and dick trauma at adversity

mike tobia decided to face these

challenges head-on

and continue his mission to serve the

hungry to do this

they adapted to the coven 19 crisis and

changed their model by starting to serve

outdoor drive-by meals

at the same location once a week

this has been such a big success that

the number of meals that they were able

to feed

has gone up to 200 per week

mount carrie food bank is a very good

example of people having compassion for

others and being very dedicated and

resilient to the times

they’re able to raise funds and obtain

food and help out the less fortunate

the founder of the organization did this

all through a battle with cancer

what’s amazing to me is that they is

that the one theme that unites mike

tobia

pete frady’s terry fox and dick trom

is that they all had enormous challenges

ranging from cancer

to leg amputation to als

despite these challenges each of them

were able to make an extraordinary

contribution

to help other people while each of us

has to find an area that we are

passionate about

i hope that all of us can find

inspiration from these four

extraordinary individuals

to find a way of serving others to quote

pete frates

being part of something bigger than

yourself is one of the best things that

you can do

thank you