King Challenge/DKAT

Supporting David Krempels Brain Injury Center since 2011 – “At the 2023 event we raised nearly $100,000 – pushing us close to $1.4 Million raised since 2011!” https://kingchallenge.org/

This past Thursday night I was able to attend a reception thanking the King Family. While the event itself was fantastic, taking place at Phillips Exeter Academy with great food and drink, the family and cycling ride bringing us all there are truly remarkable!

I was blessed to meet Dr. Edward King (Ted) shortly after joining KBIC. I remember our first conversation in which upon hearing where I went to high school, Ted immediately started talking about how good my HS’s wrestling program was. I thought it was cool that he knew about Timberlane’s stellar reputation for wrestling until, with his quick wit and relatively flat affect, Doc added “Wrestling may be one of the only sports where being so short is a plus!”

To say that was the start of what has been a great friendship is only scratching the surface. As a proud father of two professional cyclists, it was only a matter of time before I learned about the fascinating exploits of Robbie and Teddy (or little Ted). Over the years at the David Krempels Brain Injury Center we all felt a part of Teddy’s cycling teams as we got updates from Doc about his experiences traveling the world: As David Krempels commented Thursday, “We celebrated each triumph and grimaced as we heard of crashes.”

After many conversations with Ted about our former athletic exploits in which I hesitate to make any promises that neither Ted or myself may have exaggerated a bit, Ted’s passion for sailing came up. Not long after that conversation I found myself on a 3-man sailboat in Long Island Sound racing in a regatta. With Ted and the amazing Robie Pierce One Design Regatta community’s encouragement I had found a new competitive athletic endeavor to engage in post-TBI.

Teddy shared some powerful words with the attendees the other night that I wanted to mention. If my memory was better I’d directly quote them here, but a synopsis will have to suffice. Teddy spoke of how he would give anything to go back and be able to have his father not have had his stroke that made him eligible for KBIC membership, but beautifully recounted how it meant the genesis of the King Challenge. As I listened to Teddy and reflected the many difficulties, challenges, relationships, and amazing experiences that my own brain injury have spawned, I couldn’t help but feel immense gratitude!

Whether it’s “Every cloud has a silver lining,” or Shakespeare’s words about nothing being either good or bad, but thinking that makes it so; or the villager who replies, “is that so?” to any distressing news, to withhold judgement and have faith that good can come from almost situation was my takeaway from the evening. It was great to see the whole King family there,
including Ted’s eldest son Robbie as well which reminds me of an amusing observation Doc made one time:

Robbie (now Dr. King as well) had joined us at a regatta one year which led to Doc’s comment that, “You know Jim, you’re on a sailboat with two Doctors, but you may have spent the most time in college out of any of us!” Touché Doc!