First Descents programs are weeklong rock climbing, kayaking, surfing, and mountaineering camps that bring young adults together to teach them to transcend their cancer diagnosis. FD encourages young adults and their support networks to take back everything the trauma of cancer stole from them- confidence, passions, happiness, energy, determination, empowerment, or anything else. An FD camp is such a powerful vehicle for change because First Descents is about feeling alive- being limitless, humble, passionate, adventurous and HAPPY. The thrill of First Descents is the extraordinary and assertive way people incorporate those values into their lives after their initial FD experience. Please visit www.FirstDescents.org to learn more!

I interned for First Descents for 8 months (January to August 2011), volunteered at 2 FD rock-climbing camps in Estes Park, CO in May 2011, and participated in the first FD climb of Mt. Hood in June 2011. Throughout my time with First Descents, I met hundreds of people- FD staff, participants and supporters- to whom I look up and by whom I feel extraordinarily inspired. I am running this marathon for them- people who constantly embrace challenge and the opportunity to be alive.

I ask for your help and generosity in raising $5,000 for First Descents in honor of my participation in the 2012 Boston Marathon. That sum will sponsor five First Descents experiences. Every donation- from $500 to $5- will make a difference, just as every step I run will make a difference.

I’ve been an athlete my whole life, but First Descents and Team FD are all about taking it to the next level. The experience of training for and running my first marathon is an EPIC challenge filled with a substantial combination of exhilaration and pain, but I’m doing it in honor of those who accept and embrace the challenge of living through cancer with strength, courage and optimism. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from First Descents, it is to be POWERFUL; be a force for extreme positive change in your own life and others’. We should all fight for happiness and successes that will make our experience of living meaningful day in and day out.

CHALLENGE ON!