20 Days, 20 Pictures, 20 Stories: DAY 5

Debbie Kuhn called me early in 2010. She had heard about a triathlon camp for individuals with disabilities in Atlanta and she wanted to find out if this was something her son, Michael, could possibly attend. Michael, now in his early 30′s, was serving our country in the Navy about six years ago. He and a buddy were on shore-leave when an oncoming drunk driver swerved into their lane. Michael and his Navy buddy quickly jerked their car to the right to avoid the collision and they rolled into a ditch on the side of the road. Michael sustained severe trauma to his head and has since been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Kuhn’s lives were forever changed that night not to mention that our Navy lost a hugely talented computer techie too soon in his service to our nation. Debbie and Tom Kuhn, Michael’s parents, are their son’s full time caregivers now in Ocala, FL.

As Debbie was talking to me that one morning, I kept thinking I had heard her story before. It bugged me for a day or two before I finally realized that I had met the Kuhns about 2 years earlier at a sports camp for disabilities down in Tampa. At that camp, sponsored by the US Paralympic Committee, I had sat next to Debbie one of the days of camp for lunch. I am fortunate to meet a lot of interesting people every day for the past four years so it’s not necessarily odd that I would not have immediately put Michael Kuhn’s inquiry about our paratriathlon camp in full context. But two days later, I recalled vividly the question Debbie had asked me that day: “Do you think Michael could ever participate in a triathlon?”

Life has a funny way of coming full circle, doesn’t it? Now, I am not going to put a nice satin bow on this story and tell you that Michael came to the camp, he excelled at swimming, handcycling and the racing wheelchair events…..and that was the platform that launched him into a multisport lifestyle. But Michael DID excel at many areas of our camp curriculum, was loved by everyone attending, and we will continue to check in the Kuhns from time to time.

I have two really good memories from this year’s camp as it relates to Michael. First, one of my West Point classmates came down to a VIP-session at this year’s camp during the second day of training. My classmate holds a very high-level role with a financial services company that keeps him very busy. But he came down to the camp for about 30 minutes mostly to support my efforts and those efforts of other classmates of ours who were helping out at volunteers. As my classmate, “Eric”, observed training, we took special note of Michael’s progress in the swimming pool. And while we watched Michael, I watched Eric. I could see the impact was resonating and he left that morning with a very different perspective on things than when he walked in the aquatics area that morning. Eric remains a keen supporter of G2T and is an advocate for us on a very world-wide stage now.

My second memory is of Debbie Kuhn. When we talked a couple of times before the camp by phone, our biggest concern was that we had not worked with any TBI campers before. We had lots of experience with limb loss, paralysis or spinal cord injuries. We did, however, make a pretty extensive search for volunteers who had that level of experience. We were fortunate that Elizabeth Jackson, a student in northeast Georgia in a physical therapy program, was available to help. Elizabeth spends much of her clinical school work with stroke victims. Michael’s injuries are very similar to classic stroke victims. Second, swim coach, Robin Gerndt, is a longtime friend of mine who I met years ago while taking a Masters Swim program in Atlanta. Robin’s full-time job was teaching elementary school children who are autistic. Between Robin and Elizabeth, we had the perfect team of individuals to assist with Michael’s swim instruction. I already knew we had similar expertise in the handcycle and racing chair curriculum with Patrick Doak and Rafy Ibarra. My memory however is that every time I saw Debbie at the camp, her eyes were watery and she couldn’t have been happier. She told me Michael was doing more physically at our camp than he had done for the past six years back in Florida!

So with a somewhat sigh of relief, I was excited that we made camp a positive experience in the lives of a very special family and an American veteran. The focus on preparation remains paramount in our planning for future camps and events mostly due to this example of its impact.

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