Mike’s $20K for 20 Bostons Challenge – Time to Give Back
Mike’s
$20K for 20Bostons
Challenge
March 16, 2018
To my friends and family:
In exactly one month from today I plan to roll to the starting line of the 122nd BAA® Boston Marathon. Insomuch as I will be sharing the starting line with 49 other wheelchair racers (not to mention 30,000 runners), I will be alone in what I hope to achieve. You see, this will be my 20th time racing Boston and to put it in perspective, while a small number of able-bodied athletes have finished 20 (or more) Bostons on foot, there has never been any athlete who has finished the race both on foot and in a wheelchair and, additionally, there has never been any wheelchair athlete who has raced as many times as I have. On the familiar track from Hopkinton to Boston this spring, I’ll be rolling where no athlete has ever gone before.
Since the race has given me so much through the years, I feel it is my time to give back. In the final month leading up to the race, I have made it my mission to raise $20,000 as a way to show appreciation for the opportunities that have come my way since I first ran the 93rd Boston on foot as a college junior 29 years ago. Time flies, doesn’t it, and who are we if we don’t look back and appreciate the roads we have traveled no matter how smooth or riddled with pot holes?
I am raising funds for the New England Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (NEPVA), the first organization at my bedside while I was in spinal cord injury rehabilitation at a VA Medical Center outside of Boston in 1990 and the same organization that stayed with me first as I worked my way back into society and now as I move through life in so many wonderful ways. NEPVA ambassadors and peers let me know that there is life after spinal cord injury and they assured me that my life could be rich, fulfilling and meaningful if I believed in myself and worked hard every day. They taught me how to live with a disability, what it means to be a veteran, how to see life for what it could be and how to make it all happen athletically, personally and professionally even when things seemed bleak, dark and lonely. There is no organization that means more to me than NEPVA.
So, I’m reaching out to you not as a requirement to race but simply with tremendous appreciation and hope in my heart. Looking back, I am thankful that the Boston Marathon has been my rock through all the ups and downs of a life well lived and I am grateful that NEPVA has been with me through all the miles. And looking forward, I am hopeful that the funds we raise together will help other disabled veterans find their own starting lines.
Will you please join me by making a donation?
Any amount will be appreciated but here are some ideas –
$26.20 (one dollar for every mile I’ll cover)
$200 (one hundred dollars for every Boston – including this year which I hope to finish)
Please CLICK HERE and you will be taken directly to NEPVA website where you may follow links to donate by PayPal, credit card or check. When you donate via PayPal there is a “Add special instructions to the seller:” You can add “Mike Savicki 20 for 20” in this field if you’d like.
All my best,
Mike
New England PVA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization that represents the interests and concerns of paralyzed veterans and other individuals with disabilities throughout the New England area. The organization currently has over 1,000 members and continues to grow. Your contribution is tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Please visit www.nepva.org.
