About Jack...

Please Support my friend Roger Kennedy

Thank you ALL for your financial and spiritual support that allowed me to accomplish my fundraising ride from San Francisco to San Diego for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. What great fun it was to travel down our scenic coastline with 94 other riders. I spent many miles thinking about the athletes whom we are going to be able to outfit with many different types of running prosthetics, hand cycles, and other equipment that will change their lives forever. The ride and the culminating triathalon raised over $2,600,000.00 - the most that the CAF has ever raised!

640 miles seemed rather out of reach for me (with my interrupted training schedule due to my Heart Incident) but I had very little problem's dealing with the mileage. Our longest day was a 114 mile leg from Big Sur to Shell Beach, followed next by 104 miles from Shell Beach to Santa Barbara. The next day to Malibu was 90 miles and from there to Dana Point ONLY 57, a piece of cake. We wore a new jersey everyday (different colors) with the day’s mileage and starting and stopping points highligted.

We had five Challenged Athletes accompanying us on the entire journey. Two traveled with hand cycles; the other three were missing a leg but were supported by state of the art prosthetics. Many Challenged Riders joined us along the route and rode different segments.

From Dana Point to La Jolla, I rode with Major David Rozelle who lost his foot in Iraq, was fitted with a prosthetic and then went back to Iraq to finish commanding his troops. His book, “Back in Action” is well worth reading. My fundraising dollars (which each of you helped me to raise to the tune of over $10,000) were earmarked for Operation Rebound which provides post-rehabilitation support for these soldiers returning from Iraqi and Afghanistan with missing limbs. It was appropriate that here we were together, having never met before but riding hard and talking about his adventures. David brought eight other soldiers to participate in the triathlon on Sunday and I have posted a few pictures on my web site. www.jacksfundraising.com.

My next task is to gather up all this information, pictures and DVD and hand them over to Congresswoman Lois Capps. She is interested in the Challenged Athletes Foundation model and how she could present this program to Congress to garner support for rehabilitative programs for our wounded military.

This was an incredible experience for me and for those participating. I truly appreciate all of your support and want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Jack

Contact Jack:JBFund@JacksFundraising.com