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.
Adult Support Group
This group provides a unique opportunity to meet with other young adults who are living with CP. Most members live independently (or desire to learn how to do so). An outside facilitator provides new topics and guides discussions. Those who have attended speak highly of the lively discussions and feel that they go home with information they didn’t have before.
Every 3rd SATURDAY of the month at THE CPACS OFFICE 1322 N. ACADEMY, Ste. 115.
Meeting and program start at 10am Refreshments provided.
The goal is to share and problem solve common issues, make new friendships and appreciate the unique lives that we live. Call the CP office at 638-0808 for information.
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.
CPACS Recycle Program
Cerebral Palsy Association of Colorado Springs is involved in a Recycle Program and needs your help. This program helps YOUR community in three ways:
The most important is to help keep our community clean and safe by recycling items that normally might end up in our landfills and contaminating YOUR environment.
Another way it can help, is it will pay our community back therefore assisting families of Cerebral Palsy get the proper therapies, equipment, and recreation that they need to keep the muscles and mind more flexible.
The last way is that it gives YOU a warm, fuzzy feeling that you are conscience of YOUR surroundings while helping others.
How??? Just collect up all this kind of stuff you have around the house or office that you did not know how to dispose of properly.
Items needed for this Recycle Program are:
*Printer Cartridges
*Old Cell Phones
*Old scratched Cd's/ DVD's
*Non-working IPOD/ MP3 players
*Old laptops or PDA's
*Non-working Digital Camera's
*Video games/ Consoles
Ever see these items just cluttering your home or office and don’t really know what to do with them? Do you throw them away? Where do you think they end up??
Instead, bring them to our office at 1322 N. Academy Blvd. Ste 115
or call 719 638-0808. Your caring, giving, thoughtfulness is greatly appreciated!
Thank you for helping YOUR environment and community!
( Sorry, we do not take anything that is not on this list, but they can be taken to ARC or DAV to help others, too).