As I reflect on the last year and the most meaningful moments that I remember, the common thread amongst all of them is community. This is a word that can be so overused and mean so many different things, and also be so vague that it really doesn’t mean much of anything. I’ll try to explain why this word rose to the top for me this year. 

Here are snapshots of my four favorite KBF moments over the last year:

  • February 2024, Park City, Utah – sitting at the top of Park City Ski Area during our KBF Community Ski Day with 20 other monoskiers about to start a ski day with all of us bombing around together. 

  • July 2024, Los Angeles, CA – sneaking into the main ballroom at Rollettes Experience, a camp that KBF supported that teaches dance to women in wheelchairs, and watching 200+ women learning and practicing a dance (all seated in their chairs) to Kelly Clarkson’s “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and feeling the joy radiating from all of them.

  • July 2024, Moab, UT – floating down the Colorado River with the 6 young women with SCI who were at our camp for newly injured women, all learning about sports and what is possible, but actually gaining so much more than they, or I, could ever have imagined. Read my blog about this whole week here. 

  • October 2024, Mill Valley, CA – looking behind me after cranking up the first long and grueling climb during the Kelly Brush Ride: Bay Area mountain bike ride and seeing a huge group of riders all together still and kicking off the 23-mile beautiful ride where we would (almost) all stay together the whole time. 

Why is community so important? What is it about these experiences that make them so much more powerful because of the community that’s together in them? Community shows you that you’re not alone. Evolutionarily we are hardwired to value being part of a community. Way back in the day if you were left out or ditched by your community, you were eaten by the saber-tooth tiger that was lurking nearby. This is part of the reason that when we are left out as kids it hurts so much. We all desire to be in a community because of this very real evolutionary feeling that is life or death. 

When you have a spinal cord injury, there are many ways that you all of a sudden start to feel left out. You are sidelined from a lot of the activities that you used to do (at least initially until you learn how to join new sports and activities – enter KBF!); you sometimes are not able to continue to do your job as you used to, or at the very least, you are forced to take time off from your job as you learn how to live your new life in a wheelchair; your ability to travel and adventure has all of a sudden shifted and become much harder and more complicated; you are also literally left out of places that are not wheelchair accessible and you can no longer go; and finally, you find yourself in a group who has historically been marginalized from all aspects of society and we are just now trying to breakdown those barriers. 

My outlook on life is generally positive and rosy so I don’t often think in these negative terms, but it is worth pointing out to understand why overcoming this is so vitally important for the disabled community. 

When we bring a group of people together to support the SCI community, whether it is people coming out to ride and fundraise for our cause, or others with SCI who come to recreate together, we are showing one another that we have each other’s backs. We are telling everyone there, and the world generally, that the KBF supports them and that they will not be left out of the group to be eaten by the saber-tooth tiger. With this message comes a swelling of joy and camaraderie that further uplifts the group. And when we do all of these things when we are outside, feeling the warmth of the sun, releasing all of those endorphins with the exercise we are doing, it creates a positive energy that is palpable. It’s this energy that I felt so strongly in my four favorite moments from this year (and so many others). It’s changing the paradigm of what it means to have a spinal cord injury and creating a community that supports each other. It’s this feeling that I chase. It’s like a drug that I’ve tasted, and I just want to recreate it over and over all over the country. This is what is so meaningful to me and what excites me most about the KBF right now. 

As I look back on 2024 I know it’s the community that we’ve created in so many different spaces that has made such a difference in so many lives and is shifting the narrative with every event and interaction we have. As I look forward to 2025 I’m so excited to find more of these moments, to make them happen, to revel in them when they do, and to share the joy and energy I get out of them with the world.