Anthony
Portera and Terry
Madl running for a purpose!!!
Hi friends! I will not be running the Badwater 135 race this year myself but I will be leaving early Sat. morning to fly to Las Vegas to meet my wonderful friend and student Terry Madl who will be running his first Badwater race.
Also on Terry's crew are:
- Sister Marybeth Lloyd
- Ed Kelly
- Joe Johnson,
- and Terry's two sons: Jason and Jeff.
To fall the runners at Badwater,
here is the link to the web cast that will be running from July 12th-15th.
Last year we started and founded the Dreamchaser Foundation:)
Myself, Jay Batchen and Sister Marybeth Lloyd are the founders. As of today we have 23 people from around the World running for the Dreamchaser Foundation!!! It is our goal by the end of 2009 to have 100.
Will you join us? This is ALL Non profit and 100% of your money is donated.
*Mission statement*
The Dreamchaser Foundation seeks to improve the lives of women and children from around the world. By empowering people to achieve their goals and dreams in athletics, the Dreamchaser Foundation raises public awareness of the hunger, exploitation, illness and suffering of children around the world. The Dreamchaser Foundation is dedicated to raising funds to help women and children in need survive and succeed, to improve the quality of their lives and dramatically change their future and the future of the next generation.
We encourage athletes in all sports to fund raise while fulfilling their own dreams.
*Vision statement*
The Dreamchaser Foundation seeks to improve the lives of women and children from around the world. Our dreams define who we are. The things we aspire to, and how we go about bringing them to life--that is what makes each of us unique, and makes our time on this planet somehow meaningful. The foundation raises public awareness of the hunger, exploitation, illness and suffering of children around the world. The Dreamchaser Foundation is dedicated to raising and distributing funds to help women and children in need survive and succeed, to improve the quality of their lives and dramatically change their future and the future of the next generation.
**This letter below is from Terry Madl who will be at the starting line of the Badwater 135 on Monday morning 6 am...Pray for us, all the runner's, crews, volunteers and race directors that we all have a safe amazing experience.
Please read:)
Dear friends,
I think it must be exactly one year ago today that we set out from
Las Vegas, taking the first steps of Lisa’s 810 (
http://www.lisas810.com/). That turned out to be a life-changing experience for me. I was blessed to be on Lisa’s crew for the first part, 306 miles on foot through Death Valley. Also on our crew was Sr. Mary Elizabeth Lloyd of the Religious Teachers
Filippini; SR. Marybeth heads up her order’s AIDS Orphans Rising initiative (
http://www.aidsorphansrising.org/). Lisa ran, and later attempted to bike the remaining 508 miles (but fell a bit short of the finish line), to bring awareness to Sr’s cause, and to help those kids. Losing a parent is one of the saddest, and oftentimes one of the most
traumatizing, events of our lives.
Losing the second parent is another thing entirely—I remember how devastated I was when my father passed after having lost my mom a few years prior, and I was a grown man at the time. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be orphaned at a young age, and then, as an adolescent, to become the head of a household of younger siblings, and then to have all of that take place in some of the most
inhospitable places on earth, where such basics as water, food or shelter are simply not available. That is Sr. Marybeth’s world, and improving the
circumstances for those kids is her mission.
So it was during my time with these two
extraordinary women last year that I got to know something of the situation with AIDS Orphans, and the good work being done by Sr Marybeth to bring some relief to them in places like Ethiopia, Eritrea, India just to name a few. This coming Monday I will be running in the
Badwater Ultra in Death Valley (http://www.badwater.com/2009web/), this time with Lisa heading up my crew, and Sr Marybeth (along with my 2 sons, Jason and Jeff, and my dear friends, Ed and Joe) also on board to help me get through to the finish line at the portals of Mt. Whitney. The natural, and typical, reaction from most people when hearing about this kind of race, is: “Why are you doing it?” And that’s a nearly impossible questions to give a
satisfactory answer to—it’s simply a personal passion that a very few people seem to have. I sure don’t know how I got it; this whole ultra bug only hit me about 4 years ago, after I had already turned 50! But that “why” question
isn’t very important anyway; let’s just say I do it because it’s important to me, and leave it at that.
But Lisa, who has also been my running coach throughout my strange ultra journey, always suggests that we run for something—to bring attention to a cause we believe strongly in. And despite the fact that these causes almost never have anything directly to do with these ultra running events, they can still be an important way to bring attention to them, and then to get some help when it is appropriate. Let’s face it, people tend to ask at least one follow-up question when they find out you’re running across the Sahara (Marathon
des Sables), or Death Valley (
Badwater), or almost any other of the ultra landscapes that we run our races through. And sometimes folks are in a position to help a little when they find out how dire the
circumstances are for these kids. Now no one should take this to mean there
aren’t many other causes out there that are just as worthwhile. And
unfortunately,
circumstances are such that many of these are charities that we have a deep and personal connection with. I’d just like to have this one take it’s proper place in your awareness. If you can give, please do (
http://www.active.com/donate/terryrunsBW). But as I mentioned earlier, it is perfectly
understandable if you can’t—if that is the case, maybe you can still remember these kids in your prayers.
Thanks for your time and your support, Terry.
Anthony Portera dreamed of running Badwater ever since I have known him, well his dream is also about to become a reality. Please go and read Anthony's blog link:) He is running for the Challenged Athletes Foundation and as of today he has raised $7,130.00. His goal is $7,500.00
He is so close, will you help?
Go Anthony go!
I wish you all the best and all the love in the world for what you are doing
Lisa
