Challenged athletes

Tonight I'm stuck on a question- "How do you define a 'challenged athlete'?" It sounds pretty simple but, as always, the devil is in the details. It came up today as my running club, the Bay Area Runners (BAR), struggles to decide which charity is most deserving of the proceeds from the 2011 Joe Cain Classic 5K (JCC), held every year on Joe Cain Day in downtown Mobile. BAR evolved from my old running club, the Bay Boozers, back around the turn of the century, with the mission of hosting the JCC and donating the proceeds to benefit a challenged athlete(s). Over the years, over $90,000 (well over $100K if you take into account donations from the Bay Boozers before BAR was formed) in proceeds from JCC have been donated to individuals or organizations supporting challenged athletes, from Chuck Anderson (our old buddy whose arm was bitten off by a shark while triathlon training in Gulf Shores) to the Mobile Patriots (a wheelchair basketball team), the Special Olympics, The Association for Retarded Citizens and, most recently, the Augusta Evans Challenged Athletes. As I review the donation list from the last ten years, I'm proud to say I've been a part of BAR, despite my rather pathetic level of participation as time and distance have constrained me over the years, but this year I aim to remedy that.

Speaking of which, I'm on the sponsorship committee this year, and would love some participation from the blogoshere. If you or your company are able to assist us in supporting challenged athletes with donations of supplies or good old cash, please don't hesitate to let me know. I am notoriously poor at solicitation (I know- why am I on the sponsorship committee?), so help a brotha out if you can. And to all you athletes or would be athletes, consider coming out on Joe Cain Day for the run. It's a 5K run (3.1 miles) through some of the ugliest parts of Mobile, Alabama, but it boasts the ABSOLUTE BEST post race party in the Port City area, and has grown from its meager beginnings in 1991 (yes, I was there) to become Mobile's largest 5K with over 500 participants.

So, "Who is Joe Cain?", you might ask. Well, it's time for a history lesson. Mardi Gras, the celebration of the beginning of Lent in the Catholic Church, was always met with much jubilation, a time for raucous behavior and excess before making the sacrifices of Lent (in deference to Jesus' forty days of suffering in the wilderness). The tradition had lost much of its lustre until after The War of Northern Aggression (aka Civil War), when Mobile was, like most Southern cities, subject to military occupation and all the trials and tribulations thereunto pertaining. In protest of the strictures placed on Mobile's citizens by the occupying forces, our hero, Joseph Stillwell Cain decorated a wagon, dressed as a Chickasaw Indian (never defeated in war), Chief Slacabamorinico, and paraded through the streets in celebration of Mardi Gras, taunting the unwelcome invaders and raising the spirits of a despondent citizenry. Mardi Gras has been celebrated in Mobile ever since (and has even spread to New Orleans, if you can imagine that) with parades and costumed riders throwing gifts to, again, raise the spirits of a despondent citizenry. So every year in Mobile, the Sunday before Mardi Gras is designated Joe Cain Day in honor of Old Chief Slac. Having read all that, you're probably better off just clicking on the link to Wiki at Joe's name above.

So, the BAR is struggling with which charity, of the many worthy organizations out there, to donate the proceeds of JCC 2011. I can't really provide much input; it's like going to the pound to pick out a puppy- I want to take them all home and can't. But I can offer this much- as long as the decision is made from our hearts, in a spirit of compassion and giving, whatever decision we make is the right one. As I review the list of donations to prepare my pitch for sponsorship, I can't begin to express how grateful I am to be a part of such a great group of "challenged" athletes.