A select group of Roaring Fork Valley runners were among the more than 60,000 marathon participants making their way through the five boroughs of New York City on Nov. 1.
The Chris Klug Foundation (CKF) has long celebrated sports and active lifestyles. Since 2011, the organ, eye and tissue donation awareness group has coordinated for donors to participate in endurance races, starting with the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. The next autumn, fundraisers ran the New York City Marathon for organ donation awareness. The “Miles for a Mission” opportunities have grown from there.
Chris Klug Foundation Executive Director Jessi Rochel, who grew up in Carbondale, shared more about the initiative and this year’s race with The Sopris Sun. “CKF has been utilizing endurance sport participation as a fundraising and awareness-raising mechanism for over 15 years,” Rochel said. “While both [Leadville 100 MTB and New York City Marathon] draw large national attention, Leadville gives us a hometown race, and NYC gives us a giant platform with which to share our lifesaving message.”
Rochel said she thinks the Leadville 100 MTB was the perfect first fundraising race for CKF. With its proximity to the Roaring Fork Valley, challenging nature and coveted race spots, Rochel described it as an excellent race to raise awareness and to highlight what donation and transplant can make possible. She added that Chris Klug celebrated 11 years post-transplant shortly before the 2011 Leadville 100 MTB, and he was the first organ recipient to compete there. As for the New York City Marathon, Rochel said one of the most iconic running races in the United States with a robust charity program was the perfect second race for CKF to add.
“This year we had 16 runners complete the New York City Marathon,” Rochel said. “They were from seven different states, and included one husband-wife duo, two brothers and two best friends.”
She described the group as “some of the best connections to the cause we have ever had.” CKF runners included two liver recipients, a living donor, donor family members, a transplant surgeon, a transplant coordinator and a doctor pursuing donation research, among others. “CKF was especially honored to welcome Brittney Cunningham to the team this year,” Rochel said. “Brittney is the older sister of Billy Flood, the heroic young donor who saved Chris Klug’s life 26 years ago.”
Rochel herself is a fundraising race participant. “I love this method of race entry both personally and professionally. It gives individuals an alternate way to achieve entry into a race, while also giving more meaning behind the miles,” she said. She described the cause as a motivator which frames the effort and gives it deeper meaning. “Endurance racing is difficult, costly and time-consuming, but when you’re doing it for something bigger than yourself, it makes all of those things manageable,” she said. “It puts your time, energy and challenges into perspective when you get to remind yourself how lucky you are to be able to compete in a marathon or 100-mile race.”
Rochel noted that competing to fundraise also resonates with other potential donors. “When you have multiple people with compelling stories reaching out on your nonprofit’s behalf to their networks and communities, they help collectively draw in hundreds or thousands of new connections,” she said. “We always count every single interaction as a profound win because just one person saying yes to organ, eye and tissue donation can result in multiple lives being healed and saved.”
The New York Marathon was just one of many races that CKF fundraisers competed in this year. Rochel said that Team CKF Run and Bike Team members also raced in the Tokyo Marathon, Cape Town Marathon, Sydney Marathon, Berlin Marathon and the Unbound Gravel bike races. Twenty-
two bikers rode in the Leadville 100 MTB this summer on behalf of CKF. “Our Cape Town runners were the daughter of a heart transplant recipient and a living kidney donor, and both repeat runners for CKF,” Rochel said, “and they were able to run right by the hospital where the first-ever heart transplant in the world was completed in 1967.”
Rochel noted that CKF’s final and largest fundraiser of the year is less than a month away. Summit for Life is a nighttime uphill race on Aspen Mountain on Saturday, Dec. 5,
and includes options for hiking up the hill or taking the gondola. Registration is open; Rochel pointed out that the next price increase is on Nov. 15.
“We like to remind people to open up the conversation regarding donation and transplantation,” Rochel said. “Registering is the first step, but sharing your decision with your family is the vital second step.” She said there are also so many ways to get involved outside of registering as a donor. “You can sign up to donate whole blood, platelets or plasma. If you are between the ages of 18 and 35, you can sign up for the bone marrow and blood stem registry (90% of the time it works just like a blood donation!).”
You can learn more about the Chris Klug Foundation at chrisklugfoundation.org