Inspirational Stories
Father, son go the distance for cerebral palsy in marathon
September 07, 2009 BILL REED, THE GAZETTE
Kenny Frith clutched his medal after going the distance in the American Discovery Trail marathon, as his dad GaryFrith stood behind him with a beaming smile and a sweat-drenched body.
Kenny Frith is 27, has cerebral palsy and weighs 140 pounds. His dad pushed him the entire 26.2 miles in a contraption that looked like a large jogging stroller, with Kenny Frith's big sister and cousin on either side, helping Gary Frith along.
"(Kenny) does great in it," Gary Frith said. "He says 'hi' to the people going by. He sings to me with the iPod going. And he's a real inspiration to a lot of folks."
Buoyed by cheers, the quartet braved a hot sun to finish the race in 4 hours and 11 minutes. They finished 118th of 367 marathon finishers.
"I'm just relieved," Gary Frith said at the finish line. "Kenny was so excited. I feel so good, it's not hurting anywhere right now. I'm nuts, I think."
Frith, 52, is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and a fighter pilot who retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1999. This was his fourth marathon, and his fastest time.
"It was a better time than you did by yourself. I want to know what that's about," said wife Ruth.
He said it was about proper motivation. Gary Frith decided to run the race for his son. He also did it for people like him with cerebral palsy, a group of neurological disorders that affects movement and sometimes cognition, due to abnormalities or damage in parts of the brain.
"Why did we do this?" he asked his son.
"For CP kids!" Kenny Frith said.
The Friths' race was a fundraiser for the Cerebral Palsy Association of Colorado Springs, an independent support organization founded by local parents. Gary Frith set an ambitious goal of raising $26,000 - $26 from each of 1,000 people. He's only halfway to that finish line, but if he gets there it will represent a big boost for an organization with an annual budget of about $55,000 said executive director Sara Berge.
But Kenny Frith didn't care about the numbers. He was giving high-fives, waving at onlookers, and for the last six miles of the race, he wanted to know where his medal was.
"I got a medal," he said at the finish line. And he kept his hand around the shiny disc as if he might never let go.
Gary Frith, Father of Four
Reprinted from the Gazette / CSFreshink article.
What does fatherhood mean to you?
Fatherhood is not just being a Dad. That’s the fun part. Fatherhood carries a challenging responsibility. As a father you are responsible for the safety, security and, most importantly, the character of your children.
What is the best part of being a dad?
The best part is having fun with your kids and getting to see them grow up and change right in front of your eyes. The transformation is truly amazing. I really enjoy getting to celebrate with them in their successes.
What is your proudest moment as a dad?
My son, Kenny, who has cerebral palsy, graduated from Rampart High School in 2000. His para-professionals worked with him for two years to be able to ‘walk’ across the stage to get his diploma instead of being pushed in his wheelchair. As he moved across the stage someone in his class cheered him on, yelling, “You’re the Man, Kenny!!”. Starting with his classmates, the whole arena gave him a standing ovation! My dad was there too and when I looked over at him we were both crying!
What do you and your children do for fun?
Our family loves to play games – board games, Wii, ping-pong - you name it, we’ll play it. I also love sports so I try and keep my children involved in at least one sport. I coach them a lot too - soccer, basketball and running seem to be the sports we do for fun.What is the hardest part about being a dad?
Finding time for just my wife and I to enjoy ourselves and spend time together. We’re both very dedicated to our kids.
What kind of dad do you strive to be?
I guess I would say I’m a ‘hands-on’ kind of dad. I’m always in trouble for wrestling with the kids and I enjoy teaching them anything I can – from playing basketball to flying airplanes. I want to always set a good example for them to follow.
Describe your funniest moment as a dad.
We were at the rodeo with the family and Kenny had a big coke on his tray (unfortunately without a lid). With his cerebral palsy, he is easily startled by loud noises. The clowns were doing their act and had a gun as part of their show. When the clown shot off the shotgun, it was really loud and I didn’t have time to react and get Kenny’s coke. Kenny was startled and threw the coke which soaked the guy in front of him. I was right next to Kenny and the guy turned around like he was ready to fight. I thought we were doomed but then he saw Kenny and realized what had happened. We were all able to laugh about it afterwards. (Thank God!).
What would you hope that your kids would say about you if asked what kind of a dad they have?
A dad that loves them and is always there for them. What is the most important piece of advice you’ve received about fatherhood?
Don’t be afraid to discipline your kids – you’re not there to be their ‘friend’ all of the time. Part of the dad job description includes being a parent.
What would you consider to be your most inspiring moment as a dad?
It has to be the recent ADT Marathon where I got to push Kenny, with the help of my oldest daughter Lauren, and have my younger children there to cheer us on and ‘hydrate’ us. To see Kenny’s smile as he got his medal and knowing how much he helped the Cerebral Palsy Association was truly an inspiration. He still asks if we can go running!
Father of CP Little Girl Competing in 2009 Triathlons Events
Steve is in the Air Force here at Peterson AFB. In 2006, his wife, Sarah, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl at 28.5 weeks. Eight weeks after the birth the doctors suspected she might have CP. It was confirmed by doctors at Denver Children’s Hospital. Since then, they have found that many of their friends and relatives don’t really understand CP. They seem to automatically assume that having CP means you are mentally disabled. This is not the case for their little girl. The impact of CP on her has been muscular stiffness in her lower extremities which prevent her from sitting, or walking but her cognitive skills are unaffected. She is a bright and beautiful baby girl. Given this experience, he would like to help raise awareness and educate folks who don’t really understand. He also would like to give to the CPACS community so they can help families that might need assistance in therapies or equipment. Steve’s recent desire to compete in Triathlons has presented a great opportunity to do so.
He has created a web page from: www.yourcausesports.org for people who would like to support him and his cause. Donations can be made on that webpage as well. He is sponsoring Cerebral Palsy Association of Colorado Springs and hopes to raise awareness as well as funds for the CP community.
He has been an avid cyclist and only recently became interested in running triathlons and 2009 will be his first season. His first of three races will be in Boulder starting in June 2009. He is planning to keep a training diary log over the next six months as he prepares for the races. .
Go To: http://www.active.com/donate/TFYCJune62009/gritf15 to support him through his journey.
Dick and Rick
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
View Dick and Ricks video courtesy of Sports Illustrated.
Paul Smith, a man with extraordinary talent, created Typewriter Art.
This is a man with CP! Can you imagine what he could have done with a computer?
Paul Smith, the man with extra ordinary talent was born in Philadelphia on September 21, 1921 with severe cerebral palsy. Not only had Paul beaten the odds of a life with spastic cerebral palsy, a disability that impeded his speech & mobility but also taught himself to become a master artist as well as a terrific chess player even after being devoid of a formal education as a child.
When typing, Paul used his left hand to steady his right one. Since he couldn't press two keys at the same time, he almost always locked the shift key down and made his pictures using the symbols at the top of the number keys. In other words, his pictures were based on these characters ....... @ # $ % ^ &* ( ) _ .
Across seven decades, Paul created hundreds of pictures of which he often gave the originals away. Sometimes, but not always, he kept or received a copy for his own records.
As his mastery of the typewriter grew, he developed techniques to create shadings, colors, and textures that made his work resemble pencil or charcoal drawings."
This great man passed away on June 25, 2007, but left behind a collection of his amazing artwork that will be an inspiration for many.
Kurtis the stock boy and Brenda the checkout girl
In a supermarket, Kurtis the stock boy, was busily working when a new voice came over the loud speaker asking for a carry out at register 4. Kurtis was almost finished, and wanted to get some fresh air, and decided to answer the call. As he approached the check-out stand a distant smile caught his eye, the new check-out girl was beautiful. She was an older woman (maybe 26, and he was only 22) and he fell in love.
Later that day, after his shift was over, he waited by the punch clock to find out her name. She came into the break room, smiled softly at him, took her card and punched out, then left. He looked at her card, BRENDA.
He walked out only to see her start walking up the road. Next day, he waited outside as she left the supermarket, and offered her a ride home. He looked harmless enough, and she accepted. When he dropped her off, he asked if maybe he could see her again, outside of work. She simply said it wasn't possible.
He pressed and she explained she had two children and she couldn't afford a baby-sitter, so he offered to pay for the baby-sitter. Reluctantly she accepted his offer for a date for the following Saturday. That Saturday night he arrived at her door only to have her tell him that she was unable to go with him. The baby-sitter had called and canceled. To which Kurtis simply said, "Well, let's take the kids with us."
She tried to explain that taking the children was not an option, but again not taking no for an answer, he pressed. Finally Brenda, brought him inside to meet her children. She had an older Daughter who was just as cute as a bug, Kurtis thought, then Brenda brought out her Son, in a wheelchair. He was born a paraplegic with Down Syndrome. Kurtis asked Brenda, "I still don't understand why the kids can't come with us?" Brenda was amazed. Most men would run away from a woman with two kids, especially if one had disabilities, just like her first husband and Father of her children had done. Kurtis was not ordinary, he had a different mindset.
That evening Kurtis and Brenda loaded up the kids, went to dinner and the movies. When her Son needed anything Kurtis would take care of him. When he needed to use the restroom, he picked him up out of his wheelchair, took him and brought him back. The kids loved Kurtis. At the end of the evening, Brenda knew this was the man she was going to marry and spend the rest of her life with. A year later, they were married and Kurtis adopted both of her children. Since then they have added two more kids.
So what happened to Kurtis the stock boy and Brenda the check-out girl? Well, Mr. & Mrs. Kurt Warner now live in Arizona, where he is currently employed as the Quarterback of the National Football League Arizona Cardinals and has his Cardinals in the hunt for a possible appearance in the Super Bowl. Is this a surprise ending or could you have guessed that he was not an ordinary person.
It should be noted that he also quarterbacked the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. He has also been the NLF's Most Valuable Player twice and the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player.