You Never Know

You Never Know

        Race volunteers are a special group of people. Ironman volunteers are truly “Iron” – especially in the wind, cold and rain like we had last week in Coeur d’Alene.

Cindy and I with Katie

In Coeur d’Alene there were 3,100 volunteers on the course. That is more than one volunteer for every competitor. Why do they do it? There are many different stories and backgrounds. For most, you never know. Regardless of the reasons, we appreciate their efforts.

What do volunteers teach us? We previously discussed volunteers in Have a Happy Heart. The importance of one human being helping another is a timeless lesson. Although most of the volunteers are quite anonymous to us as individuals, they are paradoxically each very special to us. Volunteers affect not only the competitors, but the families too.

At each event it seems our family strikes up a special relationship with at least one volunteer. In Coeur d’Alene, we met a volunteer in the pre-race and post-race event named Katie. Katie took a special interest in us, and we took a special interest in her. Interestingly, many times you never know the stories behind all of the people we pass at an Ironman event, or in life. With Katie, it was not until after our relationship of mutual affection was fully established that we learned that she and her husband, Paul, had suffered a devastating tragedy earlier this spring. Katie was particularly moved by our Safe Sober Prom Night program during the Everyday Hero (Video) presentation.

The reciprocal relationship with Katie is just an example that you really never know when we are going to have an impact on another person, so we just have to keep doing the good that we are doing. Like the volunteers on the course on race day we have to keep going because the next person may be the one who needs us the most. At the same time, we too must pass along the good deeds and good work to others, because you never know when someone else really needs us.

Many thanks to Katie and all of the other volunteers last week – we really needed every one of you! You may never know how much we needed you and appreciate you, and we hope that in some way we helped you too.

Keep going, because “You Never Know,”

David

*** Ironman Everyday Hero article and T.V. excerpt Video are now up***