June 2020 Letter from the President

JordanRunner is Born

In early 2018 my 2-year-old son was diagnosed with Cancer. It devastated us. However, after months of chemotherapy and a major spinal surgery, our oncology team declared him Cancer free. Praise God! Yet, our family was still reeling from ongoing adversity and emotional struggle related to our Cancer experience. Through this, I more fully realized the difficulty in raising a child with special needs, the strain it puts on a family, and the importance of community.

One day, near my threshold of stress and anxiety, I started running. And a few days later I ran again. Running made me feel a little better, more “free”.  Soon I was running three times a week. After about a month I ran my first 5k event. At that point I was hooked and I wanted to really test myself. So, I signed up for a half marathon scheduled about a year later. I decided to run for St Jude, which was an official charity partner of the race.

Early in my training and participation with the St Jude team, I discovered a passion for charity “racing” so strong that it gave me a second wind. I knew it was something I would do the rest of my life, and I started brainstorming pros and cons of starting a new charity athlete team.

Legs Misérables is Born

After a year of researching, planning, and networking, this new charity athlete team is finally ready to meet at the starting line. We’re calling it Legs Misérables, or “Legs Mis” for short. The name pays homage to Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Les Misérables. The story centers on Jean Valjean, who despite his immense sufferings becomes a beacon of hope to others. I think this is how our kids with special needs are: they are the strong ones, they just keep going, and they inspire us all. And this is also how we can be as charity athletes, physically persevering towards the finish line, and inspiring others along the way.

The overall mission of Legs Misérables is to improve awareness, organize fundraisers, and build community for kids and young adults with life-altering conditions or experiences, such as cancer, autism, and spina bifida, while inspiring everyone to be physically active. To carry messages of hope.

This will be done primarily through our website, athlete blogs, and social media, but also through live events such as charity “parties” and races.

Why Start a New Nonprofit?

There are several "unmet" needs that I have identified which justify moving forward.

1. Need for more charity fundraising. Do you really think there is enough already? The answer is no!  Perhaps at times we might feel inundated with pleas for donations, but that does not mean there is enough charity. There is a need for support in many different communities, and that requires resources.
2. Need for a charity running team. These already exist for many specific charities, like the St Jude Heroes team. However, unless every athlete out their is on a charity team, I believe this is an unmet need. Or maybe it's better to call it an unmet "potential". In any case, we have some creative ideas that will be new to his concept.
3. Need for a 5k at Anderson Bonner Park in Dallas. Yes, this is incredibly specific. Soon we will provide more information on why this is important and why we are pursuing it. For now, I just want to say that this will be the keystone event for us, and will make a big impact on the organizations we support.

An incorporated entity (501c3 nonprofit) will allow us to pursue our mission in ways that we couldn’t otherwise. Some examples include the following:

• Accept sponsorships, grants, gifts-in-kind, etc. and provide tax benefits to donors
• Promote and fundraise for smaller charities that do not already participate in endurance events, or are not equipped to manage complex fundraisers
• Lower operating expenses (no sales tax, in-kind donations, non-profit discounts, etc.)
• Host our own events with limited personal liability

What is the plan?

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to plan the future, at least through early 2021. This is especially true for us as our foundation is built on participating in large, crowded endurance events, like 5Ks and marathons. Many of these are being canceled through the end of 2020 already.

However, below I have outlined our big goals which I think are reasonable to achieve. These will generally guide our activity through this year, but we will update as needed.

2020 – Establish Legs Misérables as 501c3, develop website and social media presence, recruit athlete participants and organizational volunteers, secure corporate sponsorships

2021 – First season (participate in 3-5 run/ride/tri events, culminating in Dallas Marathon or St Jude Memphis Marathon)

2022 – Second season (participate in 6-10 run/ride/tri events), first Legs Mis “Challenge for Hope” 5k event (our annual, keystone event)

Cheers,

Jordan Noret

Founder, Legs Misérables